<p>
</p>
<p>Many are very respectable: UMass - Amherst, Stony Brook, Rutgers, Maryland, Virginia Tech, UNC-CH, NCSU, Georgia Tech (despite the fact that some, like Rutgers, are viewed as radioactive by their in-state students). And even many less well known schools have CS departments which are quite adequate for preparing a student for a CS industry career or PhD study.</p>
<p>CardinalFang, you could also show this to the student
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1651409-our-valedictorian-had-an-act-of-35-and-didn-t-get-accepted-to-any-ivies.html#latest”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1651409-our-valedictorian-had-an-act-of-35-and-didn-t-get-accepted-to-any-ivies.html#latest</a></p>
<p>2 years ago a kid from D2’s high school was accepted to UIUC CS as OOS with just a few APs. Things might have changed since but it was not impossible.</p>
<p>^From my experience things haven’t changed that much with UIUC. I know a kid who got rejected or waitlisted from every UC he applied to (instate), but was accepted to UIUC as an OOS student. </p>
<p>UIUC offers both a CS degree from the school of engineering and a MATH/CS degree from the school of LAS. Below are some admission stats from UIUC. Average ACT for incoming freshman for CS/ENG was 32.3.
<a href=“http://cs.illinois.edu/about-us/cs-statistics”>http://cs.illinois.edu/about-us/cs-statistics</a></p>
<p>Of note for applications to the engineering school at UIUC is that it does not use the Common App and applicants must declare a specific major on the UIUC application and then a second and third choice. The application is then pooled and compared with other applications specifying the same engineering major (even ENG UNDECIDED is just pooled with other ENG UNDECIDED applicants). This is different than other engineering schools, such as Purdue and GT, that admit to the college and then later have GPA requirements from core classes to continue with a specific engineering major. At UIUC, CS/ENG and BIOENG are probaly the most competitve for admission.</p>
<h2>I know a lot of posts ask to “chance me” on an application, but I think, from an outsider’s perspective, one of the best responses is to provide the most up to date statistics on the current student enrollment.</h2>
<p>Quick links to student enrollment data
<a href=“Student Enrollment”>http://www.dmi.illinois.edu/stuenr/</a></p>
<p>Here is database front end link that can provide stats for the last ten years.
<a href=“2022-2023 Campus Profile - Campus Total”>http://www.dmi.illinois.edu/cp/</a>
(“Details by Program for Students listed for Campus Profile Item 4100 for unit 1B1-KP-KP0-434”)</p>
<p>Of the 1040 total CS undergrads at UIUC this year (2013/2014)
<ul>
<li>486/1040 are IL residents</li>
</ul>
<h2>- 115/1040 are female</h2>
<p>What is also interesting is CS-Eng enrollment by class for the last ten years.
Only 99 in freshman Fall 2013 class.</p>
<p>(Fall 2013 starts on the left)
Fresh - 099 177 173 199 124 162 139 118 134 175
Soph - 252 209 191 145 181 141 102 122 132 109
Junior - 292 255 194 201 163 114 128 153 136 159
Senior - 397 306 297 250 212 211 227 229 248 277</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>How does UIUC define “class level” for the purpose of this report?</p>
<p>I.e. is it defined by number of semesters since entry, or by number of credits completed? If by number of credits completed, it is entirely possible that the frosh numbers are lower, and sophomore, junior, and senior numbers are higher, due to the presence of entering frosh with enough AP or other credit to move them to “sophomore” class level.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>The number of apps to CS in the COE will be close to double next year compared to two years ago, if it keeps increasing at the current rate. Things have changed and are still changing. Don’t get me wrong, chances are pretty good with a 35 ACT and good grades, just no slam dunk if there is a question of rigor. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>That looks like the ACT for incoming freshman for all CS majors, including those in LAS, which are less competitive. The number will be higher this year with the mean score at 34.1 for accepted students to CS ENG. The enrolled number will be lower than that, but I doubt it will be much lower. And the male/female differential needs to be considered.</p>
<p>If interested in one of the CS+X majors in LAS, admission chances go up considerably. Maybe merit chances go up as well but not sure about that. There is not a huge curriculum difference or access-to-resources difference being outside the College of Engineering. I think eventually apps will catch up in the CS+X majors and chance of admission will be more in line with CS/ENG, but right now there is a difference.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I asked them about that. The number of new students enrolled did not change much, they simply enrolled a large number of students who brought enough credit hours with them to be, technically, sophomores and juniors.</p>
<p>Just as a side note, the DMI has mountains of data on enrolled students, but very little on actual undergrad admissions. Have sent them a few queries and they forwarded me to the admissions office each time. Data is collected by credit hour range, not by year of admission (a ‘freshman’ could have been admitted 5 years ago and a ‘junior’ could have been admitted last year), plus there is sparse data on things like # of applications, ACT scores, etc. Very interesting data, just not very relevant to analyzing admissions. </p>
<p>His school offers 19 APs but we don’t know how many other top students take. It may be only a tiny handful that take both the humanity/social science AND the STEM ones. In our school there’s a lot of pressure to take them all, both my boys had to stand their ground about not doing AP English. (And while they didn’t get in everywhere they both had very selective choices.) A few years ago MIT said that the average number of APs their incoming freshmen took was 5. (My kid with 9+ and stellar stats still didn’t get in.)</p>
<p>^Yes, the issue isn’t the number of Ap’s. With 4, the student is okay - not super competitive, but within range. The problem is EC’s and that’s not something that can be fixed easily that late in the game.</p>
<p>True, though since it turns out he has done programming, he may actually be doing more than he’s let on - just not school clubs or a related job. This summer is obviously his last chance to address that. One of the things that made the cut in my son’s list of ECs was the fact that he’d been lead programmer for a mod of Civ 4 that got a top award at Gamer Magazine. Who knew that half the time we thought he was just playing video games he was actually doing something semi-productive? Ditto with all the hours he spent learning Linux which is critical to his current job.</p>
<p>^Very useful to CardinalFang - s/he should figure out what the young man has done wrt programming and have him up that over the summer then play it up in admissions. </p>
<p>Remember just because his school offers 19 AP’s doesn’t mean he could have taken all of them. At our high school you need to get a certain grade in prereq classes in order to take the AP class. For example you need at least a 95 in 9th and 10th grade English in order to take AP English Lang. He may have taken all the AP’s that he qualified for.</p>
<p>My older S did a lot of self-directed programming and teaching himself programming languages. Those things are relevant in an essay about pursuing one’s passions. It’s not just about the transcript, esp. if one can back up the interest with substance. Will also suggest that USACO’s free training syllabus has some great materials for good programming skill development. One does not have to compete to use them (though they would encourage a student to do so).</p>
<p>Returning the thread to update:</p>
<p>The family came out this summer to California. They wanted to visit Stanford, Berkeley and Caltech. I suggested, hey what about checking out Santa Clara University too, while you’re here?</p>
<p>Success! The whole family liked Santa Clara. For his EA schools, the kid applied to MIT and Santa Clara. He was rejected at MIT, but accepted to Santa Clara. So now he can do his regular decision apps, secure in the idea that he has a solid acceptance in his pocket that he’d be happy to attend.</p>
<p>Did his SCU admission come with enough scholarship to make it affordable? Early in the thread, you mentioned that the family was “making all the classic mistakes we see on CC” and that it looks like “a ridiculous amount of borrowing waiting to happen”.</p>
<p>I haven’t heard about money yet; AFAIK the money info comes later. But at least he’s got an acceptance that he likes.</p>
<p>My DD is a Santa Clara grad. I can’t say enough good things about the school. I hope this student gets one of their higher level merit awards so he can attend. The sxhool is a great size…and they Jesuits have an excellent handle on higher education. </p>
<p>If your nephew has any questions, please PM me. I can ask my daughter. She worked in undergrad admissions and was a student ambassador. Her degree is in engineering (with a double major in biology).</p>
<p>Thanks, thumper1. My nephew has some reaches on his list, but he could very well end up at Santa Clara. I’d love to have him so close to me, since he’d be far from home. </p>
<p>@"Cardinal Fang" I live in Northern Virginia and my son is also going to major in CS. It’s best for your nephew to make sure that he goes somewhere with many options in case he doesn’t like programming. My son discovered coding on his own years ago and loves it, does it for fun. Our observation: Many kids drop out of AP CS in high school and even more in college. I switched out of CS myself. It highly correlates with really enjoying math or not. If your nephew loves math, does it for fun in his free time, then he will probably like CS. Outside of a few dozen schools, there is a shortage of CS students and many options. You are right about CMU. We were just there visiting and they expect 7,000 applicants for a freshmen CS class of 140. It is the top program, tied with MIT in most rankings, and sends more graduates to google then Stanford and Berkeley combined. UVA is good for CS, U of MD is good, Virginia Tech is good. Word of caution on UVA: they are very focused on applicants transcript rigor and weigh each students AP participation vs what is offered at their high school. I’ve met with admissions at UVA and the dept chair of the CS Dept. Also look at University of Oklahoma if nephew is National Merit Finalist because they offer full rides to all finalists, provide special housing and classes, etc, all to entice top 1% kids away from the coasts to the heartland. </p>
<p>Did he apply to UCSD and UCLA?</p>