@powercropper UT I am already accepted into the school, but the CS major is a reach. And the CS department is overloaded, so you can’t get classes and it would take 6 years to graduate. Plus very rigorous so I would have a very hard time getting even a 3.5. (math intensive)
@austinmshauri They will commit once they see the acceptance and finances, but won’t fill out CSS because it asks too much info (business wise, etc)
Schools with a 15% acceptance rate also have an 85% rejection rate…what are your safety schools? You don’t increase your chances of acceptance just by adding more selective schools to your list. You want to apply to a school that you are sure you can be admitted to, and that you can afford to attend. Once you find that safety school, then the wish list can be as big as the bank account you draw from to pay all the application fees.
Seems as if you need a school with a decent CS program that will allow you to keep a decent GPA moving forward towards law school. I have learned here on CC that it doesn’t matter which undergrad you attend before applying to med school. Is it the same for law school, or is the prestige of the school an important factor to getting admitted to law school?
Well…my son is a current senior with an ACT 35. We are also looking for merit money which is tough to find from what I have learned. We also live in TX.
With your ACT, you are not going to get merit scholarships (or necessarily an acceptance) at top 20-30 schools. Fordham has a generous scholarship for NMSF so think about all of the NMSFs who apply to Fordham…your ACT is just not that high. Also, have you researched Fordham’s CS course offerings?
Your comments about UT ruining your chances for law school are a odd, but I agree that you might not get CS.
UT Dallas has a good CS program. You would get some merit money. The Colorado School of Mines might also work for your budget.
NYU, Rice, Vandy, WUSTL- all reaches. You won’t get merit money. You really shouldn’t have waited to retake the ACT until the 11th hour, but I suppose you realize that. Many schools don’t superscore the ACT.
@powercropper Yes I am looking for that match school… You are right, I need a decent CS program that will allow me to get even 3.3+, really hard to find…
@txstella Merit aid is not as essential if I get into top 30, just loans. I have talked to people that are in UT CS right now, and all I can say is I hope I don’t get accepted to it. UT Dallas is a solid match, but I want to get far out of Texas to be honest…
OP, I am sympathetic to your plight. It must be really frustrating to receive such mixed signals from your parents. What is your career goal that requires you to take CS as an undergrad and then go on to law school or is CS just an interest area that you will not pursue professionally?
As a word of caution, please think carefully about how to handle your parents’ inconsistency. Do they have the money are just being difficult or might the funds not be available even though their income takes financial aid off the table? I ask this because my college roommate was forced to leave school in the middle of her then senior year at an ivy league college because she was too far behind on payments. Her father was a physician and likely made too much to qualify for financial aid. Regardless, he wouldn’t fill out the forms. I believe he may have some irregularities with his taxes that made that not an option and also some problems with gambling/debt that depleted his resources. You do not want to find yourself in that position. Even before she was kicked out of school, my roommate couldn’t ever consider living off campus, even though that would have been more affordable, because she knew that she couldn’t count on her dad to make rental payments on time.
Is the Top 30 school acceptance a parent priority, or is it your priority? Are you saying your parents are more likely to support you financially if you get into a Top 30 school?
I would try to dig up more info on the average gpas for the students in CS programs at the schools you are applying to. (Not sure how you come up with that data?)
There are plenty of non-prestigious CS programs out there where you are not in cutthroat competition with other students. If you aim to please your parents with your school choice, you may be hurting yourself long-term with lower chances of keeping up your GPA to level needed to get admitted to law school.
Your stats might qualify you for decent merit aid at lower tier colleges, but you will be fighting a losing battle against much higher stat kids at Top 30 schools.
you are making NO SENSE. Getting accepted into law school is predicated on a great LSAT score and a great GPA. You can major in anything. You don’t have to major in computer science. That is your Chloe.
Do you think a computer science major will be easier at the schools to which you are applying? If so,mayo are wrong about that.
Why do you want to major in something that is not an area of strength for you? That makes no sense at all.
Take NYU off your list. It’s unlikely you will get any merit aid there. And you won’t get need based aid without the Profile being submitted. The school costs $70,000 a year…and you want 1/2 in merit aid? My opinion…not going to happen.
Vandy, Emory and WashU don’t give much in merit aid…and what they do give is to extremely high stats candidates. I doubt you will see merit aid that will bring your costs down to $35k a year.
Maybe…maybe you will get sufficient aid at Case. Maybe.
I think you need to rethink your path to law school. The other consideration is the cost of law school. You would be VERY wise to graduate undergrad school with no debt…no debt. Law school is very expensive, and most schools don’t offer much aid, if any. In addition, there are tons of newly minted lawyers out there who cannot find employment or can’t find employment with high salaries.
As noted by others…you can get accepted to ANY law school from UT. The name of your undergrad school will have NO bearing on your law school applications.
ETA…are you saying your parents will cosign HUGE undergrad loans for you if you get accepted to a tippy top,school? This would mean you could,have over $100,000 in loans just for undergrad…then add in law school…and your loan debt will be staggering.
You need to think this through. It sounds like your parents have a good financial head on their shoulders. Maybe they are discouraging some of these applications because they don’t want to see you…or,them…in staggering debt.
I’m putting this in a separate post…becaus I think it’s important.
If you don’t think you have a chance of being accepted at UT in their CS program AND you don’t think you could get a 3.3 GPA there…you need to pick a different major.
@thumper1 I love CS, I need to pick another school, not another major…
Cappex…do you understand that the requirements for CS are not going to.mvary that much from school to school? Do you understand that maintaining a 3.3’GPA will be as challenging elsewhere as at UT?
It’s not going to be easier to get higher grades at WashU or NYU, or any of the other schools you named. It’s just not going to be easier. Why do you think that?
@thumper1 gradeinflation.com , General education requirements to pad the GPA, Less math intensive, etc.
I think you are overestimating your a little to get a higher GPA at a different school in this challenging major.
It’s a challenging major regardless of the school. Places like WashU are well known for grade deflation…meaning it will be HARDER for you to get a higher GPA there.
Are you seriously looking for a school with grade inflation? Is that how you are picking your colleges?
But let’s get back to your point. You aren’t going to be able to get your costs be,ow $35,000 a year at most of,the schools you listed upstream on this thread.
A less math intensive CS program is not much of a CS program. CS is hard everywhere. But then I’m a little baffled why someone who is passionate about CS wants to go to law school.
@thumper1 No, I’m not picking schools solely based on grade inflation, I am just avoiding ones that would kill my GPA regardless of the intensive major… Not sure if the solution is a less math intensive CS program, a grade inflated school, or a school where I am well above average.
@mathmom I like computer science, programmed several things, yet at the same time I enjoy the law and would make a good lawyer.
After reading this I submitted applications to O of Houston, U of Kentucky, and U of Arkansas.
University of Central Florida is affordable and offers scholarships. A friend of my daughter’s is graduating in May with a degree in CS and has been offered a job with Google.
If you have a passion for CS, then how will you feel when you have to set aside that passion for THREE years while you’re very busy with law school?
Are you concerned that you’ll be left-behind during that time?
If you intend to go to law school, you could major in CS anywhere and it would not matter because you would not even use your degree (unless you went into technology law later in your career–but again, the strength of the undergrad program would matter less than the fact that you had the degree). I am an attorney and have interviewed numerous law students, and having a tech degree from anywhere would make a person stand out a bit. I think it would be unusal to see anyone who goes through the rigors of a CS program ending up in law school (although I have no hard data to back that up). It’s a totally different skill set. If you’re intending to major in CS just because you do like it and want to have fun with your degree before you settle down in law school, I totally get that (did that myself, in fact, with an esoteric major). But you could do that anywhere…
I think that a CS major actually fits in well with law. If the CS degree is math intensive, it fits in well with analytical and logic skills. My H has a Ph.D. in CS and I think would have made an excellent attorney. So I think the skill sets are not so far apart. But he also has excellent verbal/writing skills.
What about an IS degree? Is that less math based?
Good luck!