Piggy backing on this, I know a young man who graduated with a UNCC Cybersecurity degree last year who landed a well-paying job before graduation.
@OrangeFish I think more important than focusing on the application will be spending a lot of time researching your options. If he has a GPA in that range and a relatively higher test score, I think he’ll be accepted at many schools not in the T60. The key is identifying which schools to apply to.
Does anybody here know much about VCU? Thinking of taking DD22 to walk around campus this weekend. They aren’t doing in person tours yet. I think it might tick her boxes except for the OOS tuition doesn’t tick my box. BUT a friend whose homeschooled daughter is going to Hollins this fall said VCU offered her a LOT of money, which made it come down to basically in-state tuition. Friend is super sweet and outgoing and enthusiastic, but I don’t think she submitted any test scores. She did go to Community College too (culinary program) and probably has good grades from that, but the rest is a homeschooling transcript. She applied as a freshman, btw.
Thank you @13street , @taverngirl , @Sweetgum and @EconPop – you all raise great points.
I had not thought about the possibility of an MIS major being “lesser than” CS. He took a dual enrollment Python programming class this year, which solidified how he dislikes programming (at least with a CMU autograder). He doesn’t want to drill down into algorithms from a cryptography standpoint. He prefers computer networking and how to design computer networks from an increased security perspective.
He has no cybersecurity ECs or part-time job. His EC has solely been his cello and orchestra. (That’s part of the reason he took the Python DE class.) He will be taking a network administration course next year as a senior, but that won’t help for the applications he is submitting this fall.
This is his list of colleges – he wants to be within a short driving distance from Greensboro, NC. (Lots of Virginia schools because they are in-state/likely cheaper than OOS publics.) Some of these schools move up the ranks due to their orchestra. He has these grouped so his favorites are in A, next group of still nice are B and Group C are the I would like to go there if no go with A or B.
Group A:
App State
JMU
U Mary Washington
UNC-G
Group B:
Christopher Newport
VCU
GMU
UNC-C
UNC-W
Elon
Group C:
WVU
Coastal Carolina
My D applied/was accepted to VCU Arts but I get the sense VCU Arts is a very different animal than the rest of VCU. They had just shifted merit money budgets away from the central university into the departments, with the idea that making merit award decisions closer to the departments/students was a better way to do things. This was in 2019 so who know how things are now. (???) VCU is on my S’ list. (We’re in-state.)
Looks like what he wants is the VA/NC equivalent of this. In that case, CS may not be the best match.
This is great! Thanks for posting this.
Because of the volume of applications, some public Universities have a relatively hard auto cut-off for GPA. It’s possible some students in the lower range of this thread title will not make the auto-cut for UNC-C, App State, and GMU. For these publics, it’s not the courseload that matters as much as the GPA.
@EconPop – the bigger issue for the NC schools for my S is we are out of state and there is an OOS cap on admissions for all NC publics (except for UNCSA – which they make the best use of, but that’s a sidebar 
) so whether or not he is accepted by the NC publics will be dependent upon the application pool’s stats.
As for GMU – it’s very close to home, so of course he would rather not attend. He may consider a CC-to-GMU program like ADVANCE, however.
I bet he could get in UNCC, OrangeFish.
Wanted to ask y’all, are you doing any college tours this summer? Or do you think it’s better to wait until students are back?
I’m finally getting DD22 talking a little about college now that she is finally done with junior year.
She is still interested in universities in the UK but did say the other day that she was more open to the US too.
I think we are going to take a day trip and walk around VCU this weekend before she starts a new job (Starbucks) this summer. They aren’t doing official tours yet but many (most?) of the UNC schools are.
We did a failed trip to UNC-Wilmington two summers ago (pre-Covid). Campus was dead and hot and dd22 was hungry and cranky. So UNCW got marked off the list pretty early.
We have walked around several other schools over the years but never been to VCU (or UNCC for that matter). I’d like to get some enthusiasm going for getting started on the application process so it doesn’t all pile up on her in the fall when she goes back to school and I hoped visiting some schools over the summer would be a fun way to kick start that but I don’t want to sabotage it like we did with UNCW.
Thoughts?
I’m honestly curious about summer visits as well. We did a few with D18, but she ended up not applying to any of those schools (admittedly they were of the “hey we’re in the area lets check it out” variety). I had talked to D22 about maybe doing a road trip to visit a bunch on her list and she nixed that pretty quick, so we’ve mostly decided to just squeeze visits in during the school year, probably mostly after applications, though we’ll get a few in the fall I think.**(heavy caveat to follow below) I did convince her to do some exploring on her own online this summer though.
The deal is she does one school a week from the list and she does a “deep dive” whatever that looks like for her, and crucially, takes notes. She’s in her 2nd week of this and I think it’s going ok. It seems like she spends a lot of time researching the food and the dorms. At least she’s engaged in it! 
For next week’s school, I talked her into an actual visit, so we are going to try the summer visit thing. 
We’re driving out Sunday, spending the night, touring on Monday and then driving home. It will accomplish 2 goals really, visiting a college campus, and getting out of the house! What I don’t know is if this summer visit will be a positive or negative for the school. She’s very confused right now about what she wants and with no students on campus it could really go either way. But I think it’s worth it to get her out and exploring in this way she hasn’t been able to, even if it’s just one school right now.
That’s kind of where I am at too 1822mom. We’re going to go up to Richmond (2.5 hrs from us) just to walk around the campus of VCU to let her have a feel of the city and campus. I think it will be good and it will be good to just get out and do something different too. I hope it is not negative like the UNCW visit was. I asked D22 was she thought about visiting some others another time over the summer and she was ambivalent about it so I guess we will just see. I like the idea of getting her to do a deep dive. I will suggest that again. I think she has gotten tired of me using that phrase, though!
@1822mom and @Sweetgum – I printed out the curricula for his chosen majors at some of his favorite schools, and asked him to “stick them in a binder.” He ended up doing the drill down automatically without me asking.
If “deep dive” is over used for her, try something softer, like “exploration”. I really put no rules on it for my D, so though I call it a deep dive, it’s probably more of a cautious wade. The key for her was 2 things: I told her to just look at 1 at a time for a defined period, so no getting overwhelmed by all the info coming at her from all the other schools, and I told her to look at what mattered to her and I didn’t really care what that was, but take notes and she does not have to share those notes with me those are for her. I do ask her thoughts towards the end of the week, but mostly to get a feel for what she’s doing. Honestly so far, it’s a lot of looking at cafeteria menus 
she’s very interested in what she might eat because she is a very very picky eater. But I figure she’s engaged in it so that’s a win. 
@OrangeFish I’ve gone through and added the curricula for her major to the big spreadsheet, along with lists of all the departmental course offerings, because I am crazy and actually like doing that stuff and sometimes it is hard to find on school’s websites. Even still I think it’s too much info for her to deal with right now. I love a lot of data so I collect it in the spreadsheet, she mostly ignores it. 
So we did the day trip to Richmond and VCU and I am marking that in the success column. She said she liked Richmond (the Fan district) a lot and would definitely like to come back. She has definite interest in VCU now and would go back in the fall and do a college tour when they start running them again.
I think the trip did help with kick starting more thinking about college and the application process. On the way home she asked if she had to start on the essays this summer so her thought process is headed in the right direction. She is dreading essays though because she hates writing about herself although she’s a very good writer.
She starts her first real job (Starbucks) today so I’m sure that will take over her brain for a bit but I am glad to have notched this visit.
We did a lot of shopping and looking in vintage clothing stores and getting boba tea while in Richmond. VCU’s campus buildings are locked down pretty tight do we didn’t go in any of those but we got a feel for how the campus is integrated into the city rather than more self-contained like UNC. She really wants to be close to stuff so this was a big plus for VCU. We saw a bunch of the freshmen dorms too.
Hollins is fading a little, partly because the campus is more isolated and partly because she has a good friend who is going there and D22 wants a fresh start where she doesn’t know anyone and she doesn’t have to be the same person she was in high school. She is doing a pre-college writing camp at Hollins this summer though that I think will help put it in perspective. I have tried to tell her that it can be nice knowing someone at college and it doesn’t preclude you meeting new people but she is not really feeling it. I think Hollins seems a little safer and more chill, maybe too safe, and VCU seems more vibrant and exciting.
She also still likes UNC-Greensboro and will probably go back and do a full tour there in the fall. I don’t think it’s quite as vibrant as VCU and Richmond and is only 54 minutes from home but she feels like there is enough funky stuff nearby to keep her supplied with coffee and bubble tea.
She is still thinking about the UK too but it is not looking like we can go visit over there anytime soon.
So glad to hear bubble tea is a hit in VA! I’ve consumed it since a Taiwanese friend got me hooked in high school. More seriously, we’re based in the UK so ask away if you or your D22 have any questions about uni here (my D22 is considering crossing the pond and her evolving list includes Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill). We’re stuck with virtual tours for now, though.
Thanks for the offer of UK uni navigation. Right now she is hoping to study Creative Writing and has UEA, Aberystwyth, and Strathclyde (she has an online Scottish friend who is going there) on her list.
If you need any assistance with UNC or Duke let me know. I don’t have all the ins and outs as far as applying but I can tell you all about the area. We live in Chapel Hill.
And yeah, D22 is a bubble tea fiend. We have three shops in downtown Chapel Hill next to UNCs campus and a few more scattered around town.
Thanks for kindly offering as well. My D22 is looking to pursue a STEM major so I am not very familiar with Creative Writing programs - but happy to assist where I can. I’ve heard Chapel Hill is beautiful (and with bubble tea shops to boot!).
UNC and Duke are great schools and can be very good for STEM depending on the specific area. NC State (NSCU) is also a good STEM school with an engineering program, etc.
Any suggestions for other schools for B+ students (right now D22 has a 3.75, 28 ACT) that have a creative, artsy vibe, especially with a great creative writing program? D22 really does not like Greek life, and mostly ignores sports.
We are mostly looking around NC & VA, but I think she might be opening up to other areas of the country (as well as the UK still). Merit aid would be a huge plus in an out of state school. We are unlikely to qualify for any need based aid.
We live in Chapel Hill and in the unlikely event that she could get into UNC she does not want to go there. She wants to go away somewhere. Her grandma has a house in Boone and she’s been visiting there all her life so she feels the same way about App State and also feels like it may not have quite the creative vibe she’s looking for. She gets more of a “snowboard party bruh” vibe, whether that is accurate or not—also a lot of kids from her small high school go there and she wants to go somewhere without people from her high school. I like App State so I think it’s a shame to write it off. I will probably try to talk her into doing an official tour in the fall when students are back on campus, but I probably will not succeed at getting her to do it.
She really liked Richmond and VCU. She especially values the school being near “stuff” (bubble tea, etc).
Not sure if this works geographically or financially, but U of Iowa is known to have a pretty good creative writing program.