Need a reality check: NC resident, 4.0 uw >4.6 w gpa going for CS [36 ACT]

[ucbalumnus]

@thumper1

You need to check the policies at each college to determine how they deal with external scholarships. At some colleges, these external scholarships reduce your financial need and therefore your need based aid is reduced. Some colleges do allow stacking of outside scholarships with their awards. This is very college specific so be sure to check.

What appears to be common is limited stacking, where outside scholarships can first replace student loan and student work expectation, but then reduce college grants before reducing expected parent contribution. But, as noted above, this is very college specific, and many college do not describe their methods on their web sites.

[thumper1]

@kaimen

Stanford (top choice, REA)
Princeton
Carnegie Mellon
Harvard
Dartmouth (maybe)
UC Berkeley CS
UCLA CS
UPenn

I already mentioned that UCLA and Berkeley will not be affordable unless your family can pay $72,000 plus per year for you to attend.

The reach schools are reaches. You are a strong student and you certainly can apply. But of the over 90% of students who are not accepted at these schools…most are high achieving, just like you. So…apply and see. That’s the best I can give you because guessing chances in schools with acceptance rates this low is a fools game. It just can’t be done. But…you are a strong student…so apply and see.

[Momofthree24]

As far as your reaches, you have a shot. You have great grades and test score so you are a competitive applicant in that regard. Hopefully, there is something in your profile that makes you stand out-killer essays, a great recommendation, impactful extracurriculars, etc.

Curious why you aren’t looking at MIT, Caltech or Cornell for CS. But you already are pretty reach heavy.

Good luck to you!

[tsbna44]

@kaimen

Whether I get any external scholarships is also a factor. At this point, there’s just too much uncertainty to really consider finances.

Most money by far will come from schools. Getting external money is very difficult, very time consuming, and it’s absolutely the right time to consider finances.

That said, you’ve run NPCs. But don’t dismiss the financial angle. Most national scholarships are impossible to get. Most local are small. And many people fill out NPCs incorrectly.

So if you have affordable safeties - then ok - go for the dream. But make sure you have protection just in case.

[AustenNut]

@kaimen

Net price for most T10 schools comes out to anywhere from $5k - $27k depending on how everything shakes out. Whether I get any external scholarships is also a factor. At this point, there’s just too much uncertainty to really consider finances. I just figure that I’ll consider cost based on the packages that I get offered. Is that a bad idea?

Yes, this is a bad idea. The time to consider finances is now, while you’re developing your application list and strategy. This is what should happen:

1. Your family needs to determine how much it is willing and able to pay per year for your college expenses.
2. Your family runs the Net Price Calculator (NPC) for each school you’re interested in, which you’ve done.
3. If the Expected Family Contribution (EFC) is less than your family’s budget, then keep the school on the list. If it’s more than your family’s budget, then think of these next steps.
   a) Does the school offer merit aid? If yes, what is the max award you could receive? If this brings the school within budget, keep it. If not, move on to…
   b) Consider all external scholarships that you plan to apply for, realizing that the big $ scholarships are extremely, extremely difficult and unlikely to get and that many small local ones (which are your best bet) may only be for one year. Add up those funds. If those funds would be sufficient to bring the school within budget, then the school can stay on the list. If not, the school needs to be totally removed from the list.

To illustrate, we’ll use a few examples. For argument’s sake, we’ll say your family’s budget is $20k. You’re interested in Duke, UCLA, and Princeton. Your EFC at Princeton comes back as $11k, Duke’s as $26k, and UCLA’s at $72k. So, Princeton would be affordable so it stays, but Duke & UCLA are both out of budget. Both offer merit aid. UCLA maxes out around $3k, bringing the potential cost to around $69k. Duke offers some full rides. If you get a full ride from Duke, that would be well within your budget, so Duke can stay on your list. UCLA at $69k would still be too much. Then you think about how much you could get from outside scholarships. You are attempting to go for $15k in scholarships. If you successfully got all of them, that would bring UCLA to $54k. $54k is still over your budget, so it would need to be eliminated.

You only want to apply to schools that could end up being affordable. If there’s no way for the school to be affordable, then it’s a wasted slot and application. Your time and energy are valuable, and you don’t want to waste them.

[ucscuuw]

UPenn and Dartmouth are meh for CS. You should consider better CS programs at a Purdue and UIUC. They will both be reaches but more feasible than the others you have on the list. You also need solid targets.

[eyemgh]

Based on what?

According to College Scorecard, the average starting salaries for grads of Dartmouth, Penn, Illinois and Purdue are 157K, 146K, 143K and 116K respectively.

You can argue that they aren’t worth the price, but you certainly can’t argue that they aren’t solid programs.

[aquapt]

If you’re getting that much aid at full-need-met schools, I cannot see how applying to UC’s makes any sense. It involves some real effort to re-work your essays into the UC “PIQ” format… and for what? To pay nearly triple the in-state cost of Chapel Hill for a different public flagship? When your private reaches are projecting costs the same as UNC or less?

If you want more reaches, better to put the effort into additional reaches that are projected to be affordable. You like cold weather, and Cornell is arguably the best engineering/CS school in the Ivy League, so why not apply there? Maybe Northwestern? Hopkins? Rice? Slightly less reachy but still full-need-met alternatives include Northeastern (check out their combined majors i.e. CS+Econ, CS+Business), Tufts, URochester… and if you want a California school, USC, which has a great CS+Business program.

And LAC’s like, as already mentioned, Carleton, St. Olaf… maybe Hamilton? Wesleyan? Pomona? Maybe smaller STEM schools like WPI and RPI?

Did you take the PSAT last year? Given the 36 ACT… are you going to be a National Merit Semifinalist?

[ucscuuw]

Based on reputation in the industry, rankings, research - take your pick. As an example, UIUC is #5 while UPenn is #15. Btw, have you looked at the course offerings? They pale in comparison to UIUC and Purdue. Can you name one big technology or company that came out of Penn CS?

I’m sure the programs are good but they are not as good as the other schools on his reach list and shouldn’t be bucketed in the same category.

[eyemgh]

They are MUCH smaller programs. I’m not claiming they are even as good, but they aren’t MEH or they would be pulling in those salaries.

[ucbalumnus]

@eyemgh

I’m not claiming they are even as good, but they aren’t MEH or they would be pulling in those salaries.

Preferential recruiting by Wall Street does raise new graduate pay levels at Ivy League schools. For a CS major who wants to work in financial computing, that may be the preferred kind of (well paid) job. But a CS major who wants to work somewhere other than traditional Ivy League employers like Wall Street should be careful about Wall Street boosted new graduate pay levels.

[eyemgh]

According to LinkedIn, Penn’s top 5 CS employers are Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Meta and Apple. Dartmouth’s are Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and Apple. Both are in order.

Their salaries may be inflated by Wall Street employers that didn’t make either top 5, but those 5 companies pay their tech employees VERY well.

Both programs are small compared to giants like Illinois and Cal. I don’t see how anyone can look at the top 5 employers and average salaries and say that constitutes “meh.”