Looking to expand my selection.

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hello.</p>

<p>I want to go to a fairly good school and study computer science, and hopefully do research there in the areas of robotics and artificial intelligence.</p>

<p>So far I have Carnegie Mellon, Caltech, and Rice as reach schools, and University of Texas and Texas Tech as safety schools. I am also looking at Southern Methodist University, but I haven't gotten much information about it.</p>

<p>I desire to expand my options. Are there any other schools you know of that have a strong CS department? Particularly schools that have a lively research scene?</p>

<p>Here are my stats:
White Male from North Texas
UW GPA: 3.89
W GPA: 5.12
Rank: 37/507 (as of 2nd semester junior year)</p>

<p>SATs:2100/2400
CR: 740
M: 650
W: 710</p>

<p>SATII:
Physics: 780
US History: 800
Taking Math I and II in october
retaking SATI in november</p>

<p>ACT: 33/36
E: 34
M: 33
S: 33
Essay: 10/12</p>

<p>AP tests:
World History: 5
US History: 5
English III: 5
Compsci A: 4
Compsci AB: 4
Micro Economics: 5</p>

<p>(AP scholar with Distinction)</p>

<p>Taking Psychology, Calculus AB, Physics C, Euro History, Statistics, English IV, Government, Political Science and Biology this year.</p>

<p>ECs:
Band (Drumline)
Math Science Club (3rd place State for Biology)
White's Chapel UMC (usher 10 years)
Habitat For Humanity
German Club President
Robotics Club Founder and President
Ecology Club
Texas Young Democrats
NHS</p>

<p>Acheivements:
National Merit Semifinalist
NASA Aerospace Scholar, Red Team Leader (1 of 300 students selected by NASA)
NASA Employee (NASA Center of Aerospace Information, 14.07 an hour!)
AAA Award (only one handed out per year at my school)
SchoolJams Texas finalist (for a garage band)
Future Leader (ITSEC competition for coding a "simulation")
Wrote a novel (an awful unpublished one)</p>

2

<p>Do you have preferences as to geographic location, size of school, urban vs rural, etc?</p>

<p>Also...you're taking 9 APs? Forgive me, but that just sounds awfully intense, even for a CC-er.</p>

3

<p>You have a good list. Other schools to consider are: Stanford, Cornell, Northwestern, Harvey Mudd.</p>

<p>Difficult to find small safety schools that are doing research. UT is your best bet. Bucknell and Lehigh have decent computer science as do the tech schools like Case Western, Rose Hulman, RPI.</p>

4

<p>Geographic location doesn't matter much to me, though I can more easily pay for schools in Texas. Size also doesn't matter that much, though I'm turned off by the massive size of UT. </p>

<p>My biggest concern is course selection and availability of research. </p>

<p>I am indeed taking 9 AP classes this year. It's taking a toll on me, for sure (I'm getting mostly 87-93 range in all of them, which is a bit low), but when I got to senior year, there was nothing left to take that wasn't AP, a regular blowoff, or senior release.</p>

5

<p>Take only the SAT Math II, don't bother with Math I. You'll probably get an 800 on it, and that's what top colleges want to see.
With your SAT retake, which should bring your math component way up, you'll be in good shape. You might as well add MIT to your list, and I'd expect you to get merit money from Case. Should be in at Rice.</p>

6

<p>I am confused.</p>

<p>You say you want to study computer science, yet your Math SAT I is your lowest of the three components, and your CompSciA and AB scores are also lowest. At 4's, they're certainly nothing to be ashamed of, but all your other scores were 5's.</p>

<p>So, I'm surprised that that's what you want to focus on, since you seem to be outstanding in other areas.</p>

<p>Also, I hate to rain on your parade: Your overall "package" is great, but I don't think that the likes of MIT, Mudd and Stanford are likely.</p>

<p>I think it's critical to get your Math SAT I score well into the 700's.</p>

7

<p>Look at Johns Hopkins and Washington U, St. Louis</p>

8

<p>That SAT M:650 has to have been a fluke. The OP got a 780 in Physics and a 33 ACT math.</p>

9

<p>I don't know much about this, but I know Worcester Polytech has a new Robotics Engineering major and here is what a google turned up on your other interests:</p>

<p><a href="http://web.cs.wpi.edu/Research/airg/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://web.cs.wpi.edu/Research/airg/&lt;/a>
<a href="http://admissions.wpi.edu/Academics/cs.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://admissions.wpi.edu/Academics/cs.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Definitely look at Rensselaer also.</p>

<p>P.S. I think you're smart to be looking for more match/safety schools. I don't think you need any more reach schools.</p>

10

<p>Thanks, I'll look into WPI and Rensselar.</p>

<p>The reason I want to do compsci is that I like the challenge. I think its fun. Humanities on the other hand...it seems like child's play to me, not like I'm studying something real, or doing something challenging, just reading stories about people, real or imagined, and making inferences about them, which was something I always found very easy.</p>

<p>The SAT math score was indeed a fluke, it was more due to nerves than anything. I sat down to take the test, and I suddenly froze up. I don't know what happened, I just kind of sat there for about 15 minutes, hands shaking, reading the first question over and over again. Then I wasn't able to remember anything, was making simple addition errors, and wasn't able to finish the first section.</p>

<p>But after the break I shook it out of myself and went on to do well on the rest of the test.</p>

<p>No I do not expect to make it into MIT or stanford. Carnegie Mellon is my dream school, and I do consider it a definite reach, not a match. MIT, stanford, and caltech are pretty much out of the question. Rice is even more stringent in selection than CMU, so I don't think I'll be getting in there either.</p>

11

<p>Have you tried U of Illinois - Urbana/Champaign? I'm not a CS person myself, but all my CS friends in high school were drooling to get in there....they're doing hot stuff in research right now. Their College of Engineering (which includes CS) is pretty tough to get into though.</p>

12

<p>Look at Santa Clara as a possible match or safety.</p>

13

<p>Since you seem to have a variety of interests, and are good at liberal arts/humanities subjects, you might want to consider a university that has both a decent engineering program and a good liberal arts component. One is Vanderbilt Univ. The overall rank of the engineering undergrad. program is 42 on USNWR, but it does offer computer science and robotics. There is active research going on in a couple of different areas of computer science and robotics, and undergraduates are welcome in the labs. They are more generous with AP credit than many other engineering schools, and their curriculum encourages students to obtain a broad education. (They consider that a selling point, in fact, and many of their strongest engineering students are at VU because of that approach. My son was accepted at CMU-SCS and CMU-CIT, as well as several others mentioned above, but chose VU because he wanted the broader education.)</p>

<p>Last year the EECS department brought in more external research funds than any other dept at VU.</p>

<p>Total undergraduate enrollment is about 6100. Compact, lovely campus, near downtown Nashville but you wouldn't know it. Lots of music on campus and in town. Some engineering students are in the marching band, if that remains an interest of yours.</p>

<p>Take a look at the VUSE web site for links to descriptions of the type of research that is going on, see if any of it is of interest to you.</p>

<p>Good luck.</p>

14

<p>BTW, Vanderbilt, Wash U and Lehigh all share the same rank on USNWR for overall undergrad engr program, but I don't know the relative strength of cs and robotics among the three.</p>