For Purdue - I suggest looking to see if you can find acceptance rates for the CS department in the College of Science versus acceptance rates for engineering. The latter permits a computer engineering major, and if a student starts in engineering, I think the switch to CS is not that tough (at least that is what I have heard).
If she is NMF, most colleges that award large NMF scholarships are safeties. Many of these are in the south or southwest. Some examples commonly mentioned on CC are Alabama, UKy, U Oklahoma, and ASU. Most of these are very large universities.
See http://nmfscholarships.yolasite.com/
What is her PSAT selection index? (2x verbal plus math, basically)
Lehigh offers a computer science degree in its arts and sciences college and a computer engineering degree. They are always looking to improve their male/female ratio. It’s medium sized, so not large and not small.
They also have inter discipline majors and it’s easy to switch from one major to another.
It wouldn’t be a safety because of its acceptance is low but is probably a pretty likely match.
Check out Arizona State U (Barrett Honors), as well as U Arizona for CS safeties.
She may also want to look at U British Columbia. U Minnesota-Twin Cities as mentioned above, is another good safe bet.
For some of the schools on your potential safe list, note that since you’re OOS (specifically at the UC and U Mich), your cost will be fairly high with little to no merit. Some of the privates may prove to be more cost effective.
Cost-wise, have you looked at any of the Western Undergrad Exchange schools?
WUE provides in-state tuition, plus 50 percent.
Though not as high-ranking as some on her current list, these schools would be true safeties, as they offer affordability in addition to admissibility. Here’s a link to their school search function:
http://wue.wiche.edu/search1.jsp
D16 had slightly lower stats last year and was admitted to Santa Clara University for CS. She got a small amount of merit. I know of at least one student with a 34 ACT who was rejected though.
UBC is an excellent school, but it only allows students to apply to the CS major after first year.
CS is a very hard admit, even for high scoring females.
Yup. Your daughter has the qualifications to thrive at any of these reach schools so don’t be discouraged from applying to them.
I think Purdue is a solid match for her. They love NMF so it might even dip into safety territory. Two of my son’s friends from high school were NMF and both are enjoying Purdue. I didn’t realize that UMinn-TC could be considered a safety for CS but a couple of people have mentioned it. I would definitely consider that. UMinn’s graduate math program is exceptional so she would never run out of challenging courses.
U Minnesota TC is looking to increase their OOS student population especially after they increased tuition and saw a small decrease in their OOS numbers last year.
However, it does not appear to have direct admission to CS, which must be applied to after completing prerequisites. 3.2 college GPA assures admission, but otherwise admission is competitive.
https://www.advising.cse.umn.edu/
UMTC has rolling admission so you can find out early and also offers very nice scholarship $ for high stats OOS kids (especially for national merit semi/finalists), but they also are planning to raise OOS tuition considerably over the next few years. True about no direct admit to CS, but that’s how all their engineering majors are, it seems. Admission to UMTC in general (and engineering in particular) seems to be getting more competitive there (based on reading this year’s threads) but I think your D would be competitive to get in.
UIUC CS in the college of engineering is definitely not a safety for anyone, but if your D applies there, she could list a CS major in LAS (Liberal Arts College), such as math + CS or linguistics + CS as a second choice. These still might not be safeties, but are definitely easier to get in than CS in engineering.
Look at the US News and World Reports listings for math and computer science grad programs. The top 20 or so schools will also be good for an undergrad education. Look at requirements for getting into the major et al. U Wisconsin (Madison) is another top rated school. H is from India and I know Madison does have restaurants and grocery stores to suit Indian tastes.
There is no such thing as a true safety that also has the top tier education in a field. Her list definitely needs to consider U-Washington (Seattle) but she may not get the major. Some of the upper Midwest flagship U’s excel in STEM and people do get jobs with the major west coast firms.
Your D’s stats look good enough for her to consider many U’s. She will need to consider the overall campus culture et al. You can PM me for UW (WI) info.
We’re looking at U of KY for a Full Ride (Finalist in Merit)… for comp science
UCF is a good computer science school with good connections that offer large $$$ for national merit (full ride), also a giant school
For UIUC, an applicant could select one or two majors. If s/he selects one, then s/he is either admitted to that major or rejected entirely. If s/he selects two, then if s/he is not admitted to the first choice, s/he may be admitted to the second choice or to undeclared.
@sherlock44 If she becomes the Finalist with an Essay, then you can get Full Rides.
My son is NMF, & we have Full Rides from U of KY, U of Cincinnati (just pay meals), UTD & U of Central FL.
wants Comp science
Also Huge $$ here: http://catalog.northeastern.edu/undergraduate/admission/merit-scholarships/
Remember to compare courses available, required and amount of material covered in courses. That can vary vastly among schools.
I’ll throw in a plug for RIT. My S majored in Game Design, but his CS friends are doing very well in their careers. Microsoft hires a huge number of interns and a lot of graduates from RIT.
There are a lot of young men into gaming there though.
@mamabear1234 we looked at RIT, & son applied to RPI in Troy.
but since he is NMF, he is looking more choices…
I recommend looking at schools in Boston since there are so many tech jobs out there. With your daughter’s stats I think Northeastern is no problem as a safety school and an excellent school to earn a job in tech after college.
There are a lot of good options listed here - with such good stats, finding many good matches with scholarships available may make a true safety unnecessary here. The likelihood of getting rejected from the combination of 4-5 strong match schools is very low here.
I didn’t see financials mentioned in my skim, so apply those accordingly to the above advice.
CU-Boulder, Colorado School of Mines. U Utah has some good programs for gaming, so assume they have other CS programs too.
If she gets an early acceptance to a school she likes, she’ll have more breathing room to apply to all the reaches.