Please, help me find the right college.

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hey guys. I'm currently a Senior at a public high school out here in Nebraska. I've had my rocky history in high school, transferring mid-semester twice because of moving. I started off at my current high school in 9th grade, transferred out and took an online Independent Study for a year or so. Now I've been back at my current high school for a little over a year now, and am finally looking at applying to colleges.</p>

<p>I want to be a Computer Science major. There is no doubt about that. I would also like a college with a very solid program in this area. However, with my lack of knowledge about schools, I don't know many good colleges for my intended major, especially any in my region. Here are the only two schools I've even thought about applying to near me:</p>

<ul>
<li><p>University of Nebraska - Omaha: I've heard they have a decent CS program there, though not the best.</p></li>
<li><p>Northwest Missouri State University: CS Department literally has, not even, a wing in a building assigned to them and that is it (Professor Offices, Lecture Halls, etc). I was pretty disappointed when I visited. I will only apply here if all else fails.</p></li>
</ul>

<p>However, there are a few "reach" schools that I have been looking into. I recently took the ACT for my second time (should have studied), and got a 30. I also plan on taking it in December with the writing portion; I'll also study for it this time. I'm looking at three schools in particular: Carnegie Mellon, Johns Hopkins, and NYU.</p>

<p>I have some issues with my academic record. One of them is that I only have 3 years of HS math (Algebra 1, Geometry, College Algebra (Dual-credit). I love math, and consider myself fairly good at it. However, the issue is still at hand, and I know that many colleges really like to see 4 years of math. Also, I received a 77% (and relatively low overall grades: ~85% avg.) in a 9th grade course when taking this Independent Study program. So, as you can see, these issues all originate from bad decisions made before my Junior year.</p>

<p>To help you answer my actual questions, which will be posted below, here is a concise version of my profile (resume, stats?).</p>

<hr>

<p>GPA: 3.7 UW</p>

<p>Class Rank: 6/17 (35%? Bad)</p>

<p>ACT: 30 (E: 27, M: 29, R: 27, S: 35)</p>

<p>ACT Superscore: 31 (E: 27, M: 29, R: 32, S:35)</p>

<p>Course Rigor: 3 Dual-credit courses this year. 5 College preparatory courses.</p>

<p>Extracurricular Activities (Years participated):</p>

<ul>
<li><p>Quiz Bowl Team (11-12):</p>

<ul>
<li>Captain (12)</li>
<li>Placed 7th at the State Tournament (11)</li>
<li>Runners up at District Championship (11)</li>
<li>Conference Champions (11)</li>
</ul></li>
<li><p>Future Business Leaders of America (9 & 12):</p>

<ul>
<li>Chapter Officer (Treasurer) (12)</li>
</ul></li>
<li><p>Varsity Basketball (12)</p></li>
<li><p>Yearbook Staff (11)</p>

<ul>
<li>Editor</li>
</ul></li>
<li><p>Speech (11-12):</p>

<ul>
<li>Junior year letterman.</li>
<li>Extemporaneous speaking competitor.</li>
</ul></li>
</ul>

<p>Awards/Nominations/Achievements/Other Involvement:</p>

<ul>
<li><p>2014 Cornhusker Boys' State Graduate</p></li>
<li><p>2014-2015 NSAA Believers and Achievers (Local Winner/State Nominee)</p></li>
<li><p>Class of 2014 Graduation Attendant/Usher</p></li>
<li><p>2014 UNL Math Day Competitor (Happens next week)</p></li>
<li><p>Member of our school's Entrepreneurship program/course. We do stuff like screen shirts with custom made designs and sell other custom apparel in a small shop at home indoor sporting events.</p></li>
<li><p>A little community service (~50 hours, mainly FBLA events, chain-gang/announcing at Junior High or JV football games, and school-organized cleanup days).</p>

<ul>
<li>(Major Related) I do quite a bit of programming. I once made a modification for a game that was played by ~500-1000 people in total. I taught myself C# and parts of SQL (Or at least the ways to integrate MySQL into what I was trying to do), along with the native language for the game I was modding. I have hundreds of hours of programming experience, which I think sets me apart from other applicants, if I could get a chance to show off my work.</li>
</ul></li>
</ul>

<hr>

<p>So, with all of that being addressed, I have several questions:</p>

<p>1) Are my reach schools too far off? Or do I actually stand a decent chance of getting into these schools?</p>

<p>2) What are some safer options in regards to schools I could apply to? Schools that still have respectable CS programs, but perhaps not as prestigious as the ones I'm chasing?</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

2

<p>Why are you only applying to Nebraska - Omaha and not the main Lincoln campus? The Raikes School is an excellent program within UNL and it would likely accept someone with your stats. </p>

3

<p>My math is the main issue. The Raikes school pretty much (from what I’ve read/heard) only accepts applicants who have taken Calculus, which I have not. I’m trying to find a way to squeeze College Trig in before I graduate, but it still seems like kind of a long shot. Since I already applied to UNO, my app fee is covered for UNL, so I might as well apply there as well and see what happens.</p>

4

<p>Bump? Anybody else want to help me out?</p>

5

<p>You haven’t talked about budget. Your best bet for a lot of reasons is still Lincoln, but even with Lincoln you need to discuss budget. How much money have your parents said they would be able to offer you each year for four years? Have you run the net price calculator for any of these schools? We need more info, OP.</p>

6

<p>@jkeil911</p>

<p>Apologies, I was just going to ask for your input on which colleges would offer the best programs. But, you make a good point. Let me explain the situation:</p>

<p>So my father passed away when I was 6. My mother has not remarried and is currently single. She still receives $1300 dollars a month out of a social security policy my father had. However, when I turn 18, that policy will be cancelled. On top of that she makes ~$30k a year.</p>

<p>I apologize for being sort of naive in this venture. Like I explained, I’ve just recently started looking for colleges to attend, and our (new) guidance counselor is sort of, for lack of kinder words, absentee (keep in mind my senior class is 17 kids, very small).</p>

7

<p>No problem, but you’ll have to act promptly. go to the financial aid page of each school in which you’re interested and go to the net price calculator. Get mom to help you fill out the calculator. It will produce an Expected Family Contribution which is based on your income. Each school’s EFC will differ, usually. This will tell you fairly accurately whether you can afford to go to that school. I’m not familiar with many midwest schools that you could apply to, so I’m not sure what to suggest. I’ll do some snooping around while you get mom’s help.</p>

8

<p>Omaha is the largest CS program in the state, graduating several dozen students each year. Relatively speaking, Creighton also has a sizable program. My concern is that there aren’t many CS jobs in Nebraska and they don’t pay anywhere near what they pay in other parts of the country. Just so you know. It’s why you don’t have a lot of options in NEB. My recommendation is that you go to school outside of NEB even tho that will be hard for you and your mom probably. Also, I don’t think you have any reasonable chance at CMU or Hopkins, and even if you could get into NYU you wouldn’t be able to afford it. There’s also the problem of your knowing enough math to be ready for CS’s expectations; CS is heavily math and theory oriented, so you’ll need to address that. CMU and Hopkins are not the places to try that; some of the people that go to those schools would eat you alive.</p>

<p>I looked at schools around NEB but found very few states with a healthy CS community. So I looked at nearby states. I ruled out almost all public schools because they aren’t generous to OOS students or OOS students with your stats (e.g., UCBoulder would be 40K to you). At Alabama, however, if you got a 32 you could have auto full tuition and maybe some grant aid, too. However, there are better deals out there. I looked for highly thought of private colleges that were in or adjacent NEB, but came across few (see below). One notable exception: I ran a net price calculator at Colorado College and found an EFC of 5600 without loans! There CS department and curriculum would need to be investigated closely, just as some of the smaller depts. below will need close examination.</p>

<p>So then I turned to the thirty or so schools that say they meet 100% of need (they each define need differently) and looked for the ones at which you have a chance at admission. I looked for size of faculty as an indication of whether or not you can take the department seriously. Barnard has all of Columbia’s faculty! Bryn Mawr has 7 faculty but you can increase that number by taking courses at Haverford, Swarthmore, and Penn! Carleton has an 8 member CS faculty. Grinnell has only 5 faculty. Macalester has 21 CS faculty. Mount Holyoke has 9 faculty. Oberlin only 6. Occidental only 6. Smith has 8. St. Olafs has 6. University of Richmond has 8. USouthern California, UVA, and Vanderbilt have too many to name. Vassar has 8. I would stay away from schools with less than 8 faculty because they probably won’t offer the breadth of courses you might want.</p>

<p>At all the above schools, you’re a match IF you didn’t intend to major in CS (where the expectations are a little higher and where the demand for spaces is higher than that) and you had completed at least pre-calc/trig by the time you graduated, preferably some calculus. That will make many of these schools reaches, but the schools that offer to meet 100% need are the really good schools? Do you understand? In general, to improve your chances of admission to one of these schools I would suggest some applications to the women’s schools, esp Smith and Bryn Mawr, and to Macalester, USC, UVA, and URichmond. Plus Colorado College.</p>

<p>Keep in mind you may change majors, so you want an all-around good school like these here. Keep in mind that you can get a good education ANYWHERE if YOU work really hard and grab all the opportunities you can in college. College is all about what YOU do, not where you go. And get the permission of whatever school you go to to take some pre-calc or calc over the summer.</p>

9

<p>As a male, you should not apply to women’s colleges.</p>

<p>Part of selecting colleges is figuring out costs and how to pay for it. Getting in somewhere doesn’t help if you can’t pay it. </p>

<p>1) no those reaches are way too far. Your math is deficient. Don’t know about the rest of your program. Cmu cs is crazy competitive with strong strong applicants you coding would not stand out there, only 170 slots per year for cs.</p>

<p>2) decent/good cs programs are not rare. Paying is harder. Look at the pinned threads in the finl aid forum, for automatic aid. You qualify for some. Right now put in an application to univ of Alabama, you only need 30 SAT and 3.5 gpa for cs for engineering or CS. No essay, takes 5min and you get an answer quick. Full tuition and 2,500 annual award. Many oos kids take advantage. Residual costs are 10k, so you have the 2,500 plus student loan 5,500, plus work study and a bit from MOm. Should cover you.</p>

<p>Also seriously consider meets needs schools on the lower level of selectivity, even if an LAC. Nebraska is likely underrepresented, look farther from home. Also you can get a tuition break through MSPE for instance UW Eau Clair would be 23k per year, so Google that list.</p>

10

<p>CMU, JHU, etc, are not possible for you.
Apply to colleges as “undecided”, not as a CS major. That will help you. You can declare as a CS major at the end of freshman or sophomore year, and in the meanwhile take the classes you want.
Also, few students from Nebraska and rural schools apply to top colleges on either coast, and if your mom didn’t graduate from a 4-year college, you’ll have three boosts (first gen, rural, geographical diversity). They’d be reaches, but check out Skidmore, URichmond, even perhaps Vassar and Hamilton (they give big boosts to your three).
I’d look into Illinois Wesleyan, St Olaf (their CS program is becoming really strong, I know a kid there who’s working on a big project with Stanford), Dickinson (good science!), Pitzer (apply as undecided, then use the Claremonts resources for CS, including occasional classes at HarveyMudd - a TOP engineering school),
UAlabama: definitely, but apply soon and there apply to CS. You’d get a full tuition scholarship, Honors College, Honors Dorms, a $2,500 stipend to help you pay for the dorms or books, and a great CS program.</p>

11

<p>what did I miss about gender, OP? @MYOS1634 makes some good points about applying undecided and both she and @brownparent are correct about geographical diversity being a bump for you, esp. in the coast schools. </p>

<p>@BrownParent is incorrect about UAlabama this year. The ACT score for the full tuition scholarship, the Presidential, has been raised to 32.</p>

<p><a href=“http://scholarships.ua.edu/types/out-of-state.html”>http://scholarships.ua.edu/types/out-of-state.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

12

<p>^but there’s an exception for applicants to the College of Engineering, which CS belongs to at that school :slight_smile: so with 29 or 30 applicants get the presidential - that’s why I said OP should apply as undecided overall BUT apply to CS to UAlabama specifically.</p>

13

<p>where does it say that, @MYOS1634‌?</p>

<p>I’m pulling this from the Alabama School of Engineering scholarship website:</p>

<p>–Students who have a 32-36 ACT or 1400-1600 SAT (critical reading and mathematics scores only) and at least a 3.5 cumulative GPA will receive the value of tuition for four years.–</p>

<p>The engineering students who win the Presidential will in addition receive 2500/yr for four years.</p>

14

<p>“Students who have a 30-31 ACT or 1330-1390 SAT (math and verbal scores only) and at least a 3.5 cumulative GPA will receive a tuition supplement to bring their University-level scholarship offer up to the value of tuition. In addition, they will receive $2,500 per year for four years.”
= full tuition for 30 ACT or 1330 SAT as well as for the “regular” presidentials.
<a href=“Scholarships – College of Engineering | The University of Alabama”>http://eng.ua.edu/undergraduate/scholarships/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

15

<p>thank you, MYOS. much obliged. it wasn’t that I couldn’t find the link; it was that I couldn’t read the writing. :-B </p>

16

<p>Wow, didn’t expect so many replies. I didn’t realize CMU and JH were such reaches for me, thanks for the reality check, haha.</p>

<p>I know my math is an issue for getting into CS programs. I am really good with math, and learn it quickly. But, like I said, I’ve just started College Algebra (and I didn’t actually take Geometry, I tested out of it). Hopefully I will be able to get through college Trig before graduation, not for admissions, but just to be ready to step straight into Calc.</p>

<p>Thank you for all of your suggestions and information, like I said, I’m getting a pretty late start on all of this. I’ll be sure to sure to look into the University of Alabama.</p>

<p>Also, should I try to include my programming experience in my apps, along with examples? If so, how should I go about doing that?</p>

17

<p>The colleges discussed here don’t care too much what major you want to go into. They probably don’t care about your specific programming courses. If you have taken classes outside your high school (say at community college or online), be sure to list those. (You can use the additional information section for schools that take the Common App to list things like online courses where there is no place for them on the application). </p>

<p>As others have said, your reaches (CMU, JHU) are very high reaches for your stats. And NYU has terrible financial aid… unless your parents are willing to pay a LOT, it isn’t a good choice.</p>

18

<p>are you a guy, OP?</p>

19

<p>I am a guy.</p>

20

<p>You could list your programming experience as EC. Not sure how much that will help your admission. </p>