@PengsPhils The reasoning for the 500 mile radius is that I want the school to be within a reasonable driving distance, so that I’m not necessarily required to take a plane to travel there and back. Particularly with the instruments I’ll most likely be taking, it would be quite the hassle to take the plane.
Also, where do you guys think CMU stands in terms of chances, especially compared to UIUC or Michigan?
Thanks for all your great input!
CMU acceptance rate to CS was about 4% 3 years ago. It may have gone down since then.
The UIUC/CS admit rate seems to be 14%-22%, according to one estimate (https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-admission-statistics-for-computer-science-at-the-University-of-Illinois-Urbana-Champaign). It’s hard to know for sure if UIUC doesn’t publish admission stats by major. However, I would think the admit rates for CMU/CS, Stanford, and the Ivies (with the possible exception of Cornell) are even lower than for UIUC/CS. I’m not saying these schools are better/worse than UIUC for CS, or even that they’re necessarily harder to get in for any given applicant. The top private schools may place relatively more emphasis on “holistic” factors than UIUC does, which could help or hurt the OP here or there depending on just what he brings to the table. IOW it’s hard to assess chances precisely and confidently for some of these schools.
@tk21769 That is four years old. 14-22%. You do realize that people who get accepted and rejected to UIUC report back here. They are told in their emails the acceptance info.
^ OK, if somebody has more up-to-date, more authoritative UIUC/CS admission info, maybe they can share those details with us. Ideally, someone can point us to a public source for admission data by major. Are the admit rates now down in the single digits (as they are for most of the Ivies, overall?)
“I’d probably drop Michigan, which is great, but IMO not worth a big OOS price premium over UIUC for CS.”
Apply to Michigan. You don’t want to limit your chances. Michigan OOS aid has improved, certainly better than other B1G schools. Michigan also has an excellent marching band.
@tk21769 @gearmom
It appears the 2017 UIUC acceptance rate for Computer Science (in college of engineering) was 18.5%. See link below for detail.
I believe the single digit rates that are sometimes thrown around for UIUC are the enrollment rate (i.e. CS-Engr available seats / Total applications). The yield rate would be the difference.
I would guess the OOS acceptance rate for UMich CoE would be just under 20% as well. The big 4 (Stanford, MIT, Berkeley, CMU) appear to be the ones with single digits acceptance rates.
For CS specifically, UIUC is a reach. That’s frankly going to be the case for CS programs at a lot of schools that would otherwise be matches or even safeties since it’s often a restricted major with high demand. I think the general rule of thumb that I’ve seen these days for prospective CS majors is that what you think is a match is really a reach and what you think is a safety is really a match (and so on and so forth). You can’t really assume that the admissions standards for CS have anything to do with the rest of the university (or even the rest of the engineering program) at this point.
UIUC is in-state, so it’s a no-brainer to apply there for the OP (even if it’s a reach). Michigan has comparatively more scholarships available for engineering students compared to other majors, so it’s still worth applying there, too. Purdue also has a top program. Wisconsin is an excellent place to apply since it has one of the few top CS programs that isn’t as restricted in terms of enrollment (where the requirement for entry is to obtain a C in the intro CS class). Since Wisconsin just admits you to the College of Letters & Sciences as opposed to the CS major specifically, it’s probably the one top tier CS program where the admission requirements are more in line with the university overall (as opposed to UIUC or Purdue where getting into CS is a totally different ballgame from the rest of the university). So, I think UIUC, Michigan, Purdue and Wisconsin are all baseline targets for a Chicago area student interested in CS.
For other good CS programs close-ish to the Chicago area, Minnesota and Ohio State are solid matches and Iowa State and Michigan State might be considered safeties. (From what I’ve seen in my Chicago suburb, Iowa State has become a very popular destination for engineering majors that don’t end up at UIUC/Purdue/Michigan/Wisconsin since it’s a solid school with major sports but not quite as restrictive in the admissions process.) UIC and IIT are good safety options, too, albeit they are very different environments compared to the Big Ten schools.
If the OP is going to be full pay or close to it, then schools like Northwestern and UChicago aren’t worth it for CS. Most of the Big Ten state schools are legitimately better at CS and have more high profile tech recruiting than those privates – this isn’t the same as it would be for liberal arts majors. The OP would be better off throwing in applications for Stanford, MIT, Berkeley and/or CMU than spending time and money on Northwestern/UChicago apps if CS is truly the goal.
@mathga8 That is a good link. They have also increased the number of CS spots from 300 to 400 (both CoE and LAS) in the last few years. I would underestimate the difficulty of getting in at your own risk No guarantee they will keep increasing spots in response to demand.
Update: SAT score came back, I got a 1540! (740 ERW, 800 M)
“The big 4 (Stanford, MIT, Berkeley, CMU) appear to be the ones with single digits acceptance rates.”
I am pretty sure that Penn, and Cornell have single digit acceptance rates too. Penn, SEAS is around 7% last I heard and CS is their largest engineering major. They don’t get seem to get a high ranking from academics, but their grads get excellent jobs and they get paid as well as the very best schools. Don’t be too quick to write them off.
D chose Penn over acceptances to Berkeley, CMU, Michigan and UIUC. It has been an excellent decision for her. She was in the rare position of turning down Google SWE and several others. At that level of ability, in my opinion, the best choice is the school where the student thinks they fit in the best.