A family member, a freshman, is taking honors courses, and should do reasonably well, but won’t end up with the highest GPA. Nor do I expect his test scores will be exceptional. However,I expect that he will take quite a few tech and computer courses and will continue to teach himself more computer languages. His school district is developing more courses so that kids can either have practical experience to take to college or be qualified enough to get tech jobs right out of high school or with two additional years of community college.
Are any colleges/universities looking beyond just GPAs and test scores for students who have considerable programming and technical project experience?
If you post what state your student is from and what you can afford, then folks may have suggestions for you.
Computer Science in general is a very competitive major. I can point to several universities outside the top 50 who have ivy-like acceptance rates for direct admits into the CS departments. Your student’s best chance might be at smaller and local technical colleges or at a state directional.
Yes @nypapa - I believe the stats are that over 30% of prospective engineers change their major. Engineering and CS are not easy majors. Many students come into the programs unprepared and realize it’s not for them. IMO, schools know those attrition rates are trying to do a better job in the application screening.
OP - CS is much more than just coding. Even if a student does CS through a school of science vs engineering, there are still multiple advanced math courses required, calc based stats, etc…
The reality is that at this point, many students have the whole package - proficiency in multiple coding language and the high grades and test scores. That said there are programs out there for every student. When the time comes and this student has three years worth of GPA and test scores, people here will be ready to give more specific advice.
One of the big problems with CS is that there aren’t enough professors. Not many CS students go on to get a PhD and not many stay in academia because they can make so much more money in the private sector.
But even within “STEM” there are degrees that are more employable than others and for which supply/demand is attractive. Biology is a STEM degree but the supply greatly outstrips the demand, so Bio grads without an advanced degree are not well paid or in great demand. Even within the generally in-demand engineering field there are specialties that are more sought after and compensated than others. STEM is a very broad label.
Is this a Colorado student? None of our schools except Mines require high stats, so CU or CSU are obvious choices. If he truly does have low stats then Fort Lewis has a new MIS program and a new Computer Engineering program.
Yes, a Colorado student. And there are a variety of in-state options.
I was just curious whether the new courses and programs school district are developing to feed more students into technical careers will be recognized as skill sets colleges want.
Students who are equipped to succeed in startups and tech companies may have different strengths than those who have high GPAs and test scores. It’s like the difference between academic skills and applied skills.
Perhaps another way to put this. If a high school student has significant real world technology-based work experience (e.g. coding projects, engineering projects, science research projects), which colleges are most receptive to that more than GPAs or test scores? I’m not talking about the highly selective schools, because I know they get applicants who have done it all.
But are there other schools that place a value on student-initiated real world skills?
The issue with interest and strength in computing and engineering is that these majors tend to be oversubscribed at colleges which are as selective as the better known state flagships, because they have enough strong-enough students who can handle those majors and are interested in them, but are not wealthy enough to expand their departments to teach all interested students. So they have to “ration” space in those programs with higher admission standards for them, so that an applicant who is relatively weaker overall but strong in computing and engineering would not be competitive.
Less selective colleges are less affected by this issue, because they have fewer strong students who can handle engineering or CS majors. Such colleges are also more likely to have mostly or completely stats-based admissions procedures, so that overall stats would be the main way to determine reach/match/safety.
I suspect those things will count as very strong ECs, but no more valuable than non-stem ECs. Along with high stats, they may score some points at Cal-tech and CMU, but not without high stats.
^ Sort of. For most of those schools, you can get away without submitting test scores but only if the rest of your application is stellar. IOW, if your grades, ECs, etc are fantastic then they’ll admit you without supporting test scores since you’ve proven your qualifications in other areas. If this kid also has low grades then admissions to most test optional colleges will be a challenge.
Not sure if I’m misunderstanding but this sounds more like a vocational training kind of thing - that the kids are being taught languages etc to be able to start working soon, which is not necessarily the same skill set a college is looking for in a high performing degree student? In that case I’d tend to agree it’d be more viewed as a positive EC than a substitute / compensation for lower grades.
I was about to say the same as SJ2727. Courses offering “practical experience to take to college or be qualified enough to get tech jobs right out of high school or with two additional years of community college” are generally not the sort of rigorous classes higher end colleges emphasize. They’re more vocational than academic. You’ll need to take a hard look at these courses, as they show up, see what descriptions and what sorts of kids are signing up.
Talk to your family member and see what directions he thinks he wants and then see how he develops next year and after. If he wants to be a computer tech or similar, that’s one thing. If this is about engineering or CS, those courses won’t do any trick. Lots of kids who have strong core academics are also learning programming languages, on their own or through summer programs, some rather competitive.
Start with the state colleges and look at their recommended hs courses. As you look at more competitive colleges, you’ll see more emphasis on cores and rigor. He has yet to take any AP, so you can’t know how he’ll do with that rigor.
The courses are a mix of engineering, computing, and aerospace courses. There are courses that come with certification and also courses that can be used as part of a two year or four year college plan. It’s a very industry focused program and it is attracting kids who won’t be going to college, kids who will graduate with a two year college degree, and kids who will go into four year schools.
The kids in the program currently are carrying out projects for local, national, and international organizations. For those projects, it’s kind of like a science fair vibe.
So I am curious which schools are particularly interested in these students.
It sounds like a great program, but it does still sound a lot like what we call “technical universities” where I come from - more vocational programs that can be turned into “proper” bachelors degrees but can also stand alone. I do think this is a gap in the existing market and its great that these programs are springing up. With respect to the question of which 4-year colleges would be interested in graduates of it - would at least some of those not have been involved in the discussions setting it up and named somewhere?
I think the state schools which will accept transfers from local community colleges are already in the loop with these programs.
I was just curious whether there are other schools eager for these types of students.
Look at how major universities are moving into online education. There was the story of the high school student who has received a concurrent Harvard degree via online courses.
I’m looking for innovative programs around the country that I might not know about. But we’ll likely continue to focus on Colorado schools because of the cost.