Safety schools for computer engineering/science, New York and around

My current junior is struggling to identify schools that can be considered “safety”, since admission landscape changed so much in the last couple of years. Please help with some ideas for schools that will fit the following criteria and can be considered “safety schools”

  • strong computer engineering or computer science major
  • within 4-5 hrs from NY City tops.
  • 103 weighted gpa, will apply test optional most likely, average ECs
  • budget is up to 35K with merit, will not qualify for need-based anything.
    so looking for mix of some SUNYs and some privates/OOS that are known for good merit AND
    solid comp sci/engineering
  • no CUNYs as he want to be away from the city/live on campus

I am at a loss, because Stony Brook is now not even a target , but a reach for comp sci. Bing-probably more of a target, if that. Buffalo-good engineering but too far(

Not sure how good SUNY Albany and SUNY New Paltz are for this major… Would like to target at least 3-4 safeties. Not the schools that he can get in but that will be over our budget or too far. He does not care for big/small/public/private/location (as long as it is not too far)

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Manhattan College. Its programs are ABET accredited, too.

https://amspub.abet.org/aps/name-search?searchType=institution&keyword=Manhattan

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Thanks. Will look into it.

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Also Yniv. Maine, if not too far. Has tuition match scholarship.

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“Safety”, maybe not but I think a “likely”… Clarkson will stretch your maximum distance a bit but may be worth looking into.

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I was thinking Clarkson too. RPI for a match.
OP, you may need to stretch the boundaries to find affordable safeties.

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How about NJIT? S20 was offered a great merit package from them a couple of years ago. I am not sure how much merit they give to test optional students.

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I was thinking NJ schools like NJIT, Rowan or Stevens.

UConn or Delaware if he could get merit. UMass Lowell?

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Does Wentworth have what he is looking for?

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Wentworth is on his radar, but does it give enough merit to bring it to 35K budget?

NJIT also on the radar. Not sure how I feel about him living in Newark, and he does not really want to commute, though it is close enough to do so. So is Rutgers, but have not heard much about any merit from there to be within our budget, unless he commutes…

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SUNY Polytechnic in Utica is the best kept secret around.
SUNY New Paltz
Rowan University (NJ)
Christopher Newport University (VA)

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Wentworth does give merit…don’t know how much he would get.

Why is he going test optional?

Schools that are generous with merit aid:

University of New Hampshire
University of Scranton
Elizabethtown
St. Michael’s

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I definitely second Stevens. Good school with a good co-op program. Right across NYC in Hoboken, and they do give a decent amount of merit aid. But you do need to submit SAT scores if you hope to get the bigger awards. If you’re not familiar with the school, do go visit.

Rutgers has a great CS program (ranked #37 nationally) but outside your budget because they are unlikely to give merit aid, and COA is around $50k.

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Drexel?

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No idea about Comp Sci but the usual suspects include Ohio State, UMass Amherst, UVermont,

Maryland only if he has stats that could get him into an Ivy, for class of 2018 HS, friends DS got half tuition OOS but only because he was top of the class with a 33+. Another kid who had a 32 SS but was not at the top only got 2K merit from Maryland. I think Ohio State and UMass would have been in the mid 30s with the 14K or so scholarship he got but I forget exact numbers as kid was not interested

Buffalo is a one hour flight from the NY area airports. I would check that out and see if flying works for you. Once he lands in Buffalo it’s easy to get to campus.

Look at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry and see if any of those majors are of interest.

SUNY Geneseo has a 3+2 engineering major, but I don’t know how the finances work for that.

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Also Case Western gives some merit money but that was a few years ago and it may not be enough to reduce the 70K price. Case is more a target than a safety and may be higher than that depending on what happened this year

For CS, I don’t think any of those are safety schools, and this student would be OOS, so not sure these schools would come in at their price point.

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