Purdue vs UIUC for Computer Science

College Search & Selection
1

Hi, I’m an international student. My stats are:

SAT: 1470 (790 M, 680 RW)
GPA/Percentages:
9th Grade: 9.8/10
10th: 10/10
11th: 84%
12th: 82.4%
ECs: Were alright, nothing very special or related to CS
Letters of rec: My CS teacher gave me a GREAT one.
Essays: Worked super super hard on them!

I’ve applied to 9 colleges. My top choices are Purdue, UIUC, GATech, and UMich. So I’ve been accepted to 3 colleges (Purdue, A&M, Maryland)

I was recently waitlisted by UIUC and I’m not sure if I should accept the waitlist offer or not, as I don’t know which college is better for CS. Out of my research, Purdue appealed to me more, but I know that UIUC is ranked higher for CS. And now that I have been waitlisted by UIUC, I’m pretty sure that Tech and UMich will reject me.

I guess my questions are:

  1. Is UIUC better than Purdue for CS? Does it really matter if that is the case, since I prefer Purdue from research? And does ranking prevail over personal preference in my stream?
  2. Is it worth accepting the waitlist offer? Currently my parents aren't willing to accept it because I could potentially lose the enrolment deposit. Also because I'm an international student, I need to get my visa ASAP.

I’m pretty confused and need some sort of second opinion on everything. Thank you!

2

It seems unlikely that you could get direct admission to CS at UIUC off of the waitlist, but you may want to ask directly if that is possible. If not, then it may not be worth bothering, since getting into the CS major later after enrolling at UIUC as an undeclared student is extremely competitive.

For all of your admissions, if you are not directly admitted to the CS major, check how difficult it will be to get into the CS major after enrolling.

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/19854939/#Comment_19854939

3

@ucbalumnus alright what i understood from your post is that even if i get off the waitlist, it isn’t guarenteed that i will directly get into CS. that makes things even more complicated…

4

Bump.

5

Is there any harm in accepting the waitlist spot? If not, accept the spot just to hedge your bets. Purdue, A&M, and Maryland are already great choices. Sit back, relax, and just wait and see - knowing that you have already gotten into awesome schools for Computer Science.