It was a real eye-opener for her to not see any other girls in CS. If it weren’t for the moms like me in the room, she’d be the only female. She said she’d never felt like a minority before, which I think was a good thing – she does need to get out of her bubble and prepare for the bigger world. I’m so glad we went because the idea of gender imbalance in STEM, especially engineering schools, never sank in for her until our trip. Even being in other schools’ virtual engineering sessions with all males was not the same as sitting in a room with only boys.
Like your daughter, mine is realizing it will be very different in college than high school being one of a handful of females in the room, with the same concerns your daughter mentioned. So mine is now planning to get connected right away with other females in the program, mentors, etc. She just submitted her housing application for Oregon State and prioritized the Women in Engineering wing – something she would not have done if she applied before our visit.
This has been a great time to talk more about gender imbalance at schools, work, leadership positions, etc. She has never been a SJW, and has mostly been concerned with issues of racial justice, but I think she is starting to understand more how much still needs to be done with regards to gender equity in education and beyond.
I think it’s great your daughter is already looking at these issues as it will help her as she visits and looks closer at schools in the coming year. Good luck!
Ah yes, sorry, I mistyped, not gender imbalance at the schools and in education generally, but in the STEM programs, especially engineering schools, skewing heavily male. (I didn’t even realize most colleges are more heavily female until i joined CC last year!).
My daughter is a freshman electrical engineering major. She declined the Honors Dorm for the single gender female traditional dorm with top floor for engineering majors. This has turned out to be a great choice. It has been helpful for finding like minded female friends.
Love to hear this! My D was concerned about getting too stressed being around engineering majors all the time, so at first was going to seek a more mixed dorm, not the engineering LLC. But now she thinks it would really benefit her to get support from (and help give support to) other females in the dept, and she can find other non-engineer friends through extracurriculars, etc. She will be encouraged to hear that living with the female engineering majors is helping your daughter her first year, thanks for sharing!
When I was in college, about 10% of our engineering school was female. We had quite a few of these engineers in my sorority as they did seek out other females and referred their classmates to us. They were fighters. Look at movies like Apollo 13, The Right Stuff, or even the more recent Hidden Figures. There were no women engineers at NASA in the 1970s.
Now the females in the school of engineering are closer to 50%. Not all are evenly distributed in all the engineering majors, but they are still in the building, still in the math and science (chem, physics) classes. Your daughters won’t be alone.
It takes time to make a change. My daughter’s school was only about 27% female, and not all of those were in engineering (also had business and psychology majors). I think she did have to be a little ‘firmer’ with some classmates, especially on group projects, but most men are not barbarians and treat women as equals. That can happen in any major. Many aerospace engineers at her school and we saw a classmate on a recent rocket launch in the NASA control room. Exciting things are happening for women engineers.
Well, after lots of great news last week, this week was tough with mostly rejections and waitlists. We’re bracing for the remaining schools to be rejections, but are very grateful for the many great opportunities she now has. Updates:
Admitted:
University of Rochester (no merit)
UC Santa Cruz (comp sci)
Cal Poly SLO (software eng.)
WPI ($30k/year merit)
Pitt (comp sci) (no merit, waitlisted Honors College)
Oregon State (comp sci) (WUE scholarship, Honors College)
UC Riverside (comp sci)
Cal Poly Pomona (comp sci)
San Diego State (comp sci)
San Jose State (software eng.)
Long Beach State (comp sci)
Sacramento State (comp sci)
Waitlisted:
Case Western
UCLA (comp sci)
Harvey Mudd
UC San Diego (comp sci)
UC Irvine (comp sci)
UC Davis (comp sci)
Rejected:
MIT
UChicago
Pomona
Pending:
Yale
Stanford
Brown
Barnard
Tufts
UC Berkeley (comp sci)
UC Santa Barbara (comp sci)
She’s still digesting it all, but probably will drop UC Riverside (prefers UCSC), Cal Poly Pomona (prefers SLO), and Long Beach State (prefers SJSU and SDSU), and will drop Sac State (too close to home). Then needs to dive deeper to compare her options.
We’ve visited Oregon State and San Jose State, will visit WPI and Pitt, and trying to visit UCSC, SLO, Rochester, San Diego State.
Thank you everyone for all your advice and help through this process. Although my D is disappointed in her latest results, she was much better prepared for the outcomes thanks to all we’ve learned from you. She also got in to some great schools that were not on our radar before. As the sting of her many waitlists/rejections dissipates, hopefully the message will sink in that she’s not defined by her acceptances, and that she’s already done and will continue to do amazing things. I’m very proud of her.
Thank you! This is going to be tough as there’s no clear standout imo.
And ah yes, the waitlists! I was hoping since so many schools overenrolled last year and there are so many more applications (but not necessarily more applicants) this year, there might be more movement. Even so, I looked at some of the CDS numbers and even in their best years, the waitlists have such a small percentage getting in. Of course, I’ll still secretly hope, just not telling D.
Haha, yes, it was too many. I really tried to get her to cut the crazy reaches, but she wanted to try. I wish I’d pushed harder as I didn’t realize so many of them will release decisions around the same time. That’s going to hurt.
Fortunately the UC’s and CSU’s are each a single application (and no CSU essays). And I’m actually glad she applied to several of each since she applied to CS to most and we really didn’t know if she’d get in anywhere other than Sac State. On top of all the waitlists, she was just rejected by both Cal and UCSB. It’s been really hard getting so many rejections and waitlists, so we are clinging to the acceptances she did get.
Thank you, you’ve been so kind and helpful!
We’d really rather not spend $80k, but we’re prepared to, so have not ruled out Rochester although it is much easier to cut it when other good OOS schools are so much closer in cost to our state schools. I did read some negative feedback about the school on another thread that did give me pause as I’d only heard good things about the school before. So D is looking into those issues on top of deciding if she really wants to spend the next 4 years across the country versus the options she has that are closer to home and allow her to save the money for grad school, etc.
Our WPI and Pitt visits are back to back and will be really interesting to compare. I suspect Pitt will be a better fit for her, but we’ll see.
We weren’t able to get a UC Santa Cruz tour until the end of April. Hopefully we can find a weekend to drive down and check it out on our own before then.
Rochester and SLO admitted student days don’t work with her schedule either, so I’m still trying to fit in visits. The ease of making travel arrangements to California schools versus Rochester will be a good preview of what life will be like the next 4 years.
We’re very grateful to have such great options to consider. Thanks for helping us on this journey!
Well, I’d forgotten my D applied last-minute to Wesleyan after a family member suggested it. She was just admitted so we have another school to consider! I did read a little about it earlier and it seemed like a great fit on so many levels, although I admit I don’t know much about the school. Other than it would be full-pay.
Her head is spinning and she is so grateful to have been admitted to some great schools, especially after so many UC rejections and waitlists. She knew they were coming, but they still hurt.
Case Western has also been harder to deal with. We tried to move on after the EA deferral, then waitlist. But they keep sending emails to her (and us) about staying on the waitlist (I liked that email actually), and encouraging us to learn more about school’s opportunities, etc.
She still really likes the school but we won’t visit if she’s not admitted and I have to say I don’t feel a lot of love for them. Even if they’re not playing games, the emotional ups/downs of their approach is very painful. So as a parent I’m wondering if how admissions is run is indicative of how they treat their students? Are kids really happy there and feel treated well?
Finally – I have a question re Rochester. I’ve seen on other threads kids are encouraged to appeal a low or no merit award and suggest mentioning other scholarships the kid has received from “peer” schools. My D would like to email Rochester because she really felt connected to that school, but we have no idea how to do this.
Which, if any schools should she mention she was admitted to? We don’t want to list schools that are not “peers” if it might insult them. OTOH, I thought she should mention some schools she is seriously considering.
These are her admitted schools she’s still considering:
Wesleyan University (no merit) University of Rochester (no merit) UC Santa Cruz (comp sci) Cal Poly SLO (software eng.)
WPI ($30k/year merit)
Pitt (comp sci) (no merit, waitlisted Honors College)
Oregon State (comp sci) (WUE scholarship, Honors College) San Diego State (comp sci) San Jose State (software eng.)
CS is such an employable degree from any decent school and all of the schools on your list qualify. No schools on your list jump out as being much better than the other. They’re all good for CS. I would think the Cali schools would be a top choice just because of all the internship/job opportunities aside from being very good for CS.
I would look for best fit at this point within financial limits. IMHO I wouldn’t pay much more than your in-state options. Oregon could be interesting if she likes the campus. Honors programs can be a bonus with nice perks although not all Honors programs are equal.
I was hoping since so many schools overenrolled last year and there are so many more applications (but not necessarily more applicants) this year, there might be more movement. Even so, I looked at some of the CDS numbers and even in their best years, the waitlists have such a small percentage getting in. Of course, I’ll still secretly hope, just not telling D. 
