I am really confused on which school to choose. I want to major in CS and i am an international student. I have pretty good admits till date. I am considering factors like cost of attendance, good environment, safety, and return on invest.
Profile:
GPA: 4.0 UW
Rank: My school doesn’t rank
SAT: 1300
EC’s: a bunch of them
Internship: 3 all related CS
My admits:
University Of Arizona - 22k scholarship
Arizona State - 13500 scholarship
Michigan State - 18k scholarship
UT Arlington - OOS tuition Waiver + 6k scholarship
Georgia State - OOS Tuition Waiver
Penn State - still waiting for scholarship
UTD - still waiting for scholarship
Awaiting schools:
Texas A&M (submitted SAT)
UT Austin
Northwestern
Colby
Stevens
NYU
Since your budget is going to determine which schools are viable, it would be helpful to list your net cost at each school, after scholarships, rather than the scholarship amount.
Thus far, U of Arizona looks like your most affordable choice. Have you applied to the Honors College there? It’s a very good school for a very good price - definitely a good option. I think ASU will be in range too - did you apply to Barrett? (Deadline 1/15)
UTD is worth considering if the scholarship puts in in budget. UT Austin and Penn State are unlikely to be affordable. (I don’t know about intl. scholarships at TAMU.)
As for the private schools (Northwestern, Colby, Stevens, NYU), you’ll just have to wait and see whether they come through with both acceptance and enough aid.
In the meantime, I think I would focus on the two Arizona schools - if it came down to those two, which would you prefer?
To date my most affordable school is UTArlington with 6k tuition
Second is uarizona with 18k and i did apply to honors here,
Third is ASU with 18k as well
Exactly. It wasn’t clear if the schools OP has been admitted to were affordable.
@devratpatel, is $18k the total cost of attendance for you after factoring in the scholarships?
I don’t think the private schools will be affordable, except NW which meets full need - but they’re also need aware, which impacts your admission chances.
UT Arlington is more of a commuter school, with only 10% of students living in university-affiliated housing. It has an Honors College but there’s no mention of housing as part of that program, unless I’m missing something. UA Honors or Barrett Honors would give you more of a residential community experience. But, can you afford 18K tuition plus living expenses?
UTD is historically a commuter school too, but they’ve invested heavily in building their campus community, and 22% of students now live in university-affilitated housing. Their reputation for STEM generally and CS in particular has been rising fast as well. If the costs are in range, I think it would be worth considering, particularly if it’s cheaper than the AZ schools as UTA is.
Michigan State is great for STEM also; I was thinking it was more expensive than the AZ schools, but maybe it’s not that different. Would you rather freeze in East Lansing, or melt in Tempe? Tucson is more moderate, climate-wise.
So UTA comes in at the very top of your budget and the others exceed your budget?
In that case that’s the school for you as of now (hopefully, $22k isn’t going to cause financial distress - and you can document the funds for visa purposes).
Congratulations! There is a huge variation between the price tags of the colleges you mention e.g. UTA vs NYU. Your success in CS will chiefly be measured by the skill set that you are able to develop and demonstrate when you graduate. To that extent, you don’t have to worry about the college (in terms of prestige). So go with what is comfortably within your budget and gives you good value. Good luck!