Hi! I am in the middle of the college selection process right now and am greatly puzzled by the question in my head: Which college should I accept my offer to? I got accepted to the following 4 universities for computer science: San Jose State (undeclared), Cal Poly Pomona, Penn State Harrisburg, and the University of Pittsburgh. I just wanted to know in your opinion which college is the best to go to in the terms of a great college experience (partying, fun, and all that stuff), alumni networks, and a good place to study under my computer science major. Thanks for all the help!! 
Net price at each?
Price isn’t much of a concern to me. I just want to know in your opinions which would be the best to attend. I live in the state of California.
Easy choice - Pittsburgh.
Go to Cal Poly. Good school, for instate price.
SJSU has the best location for CS. But check how hard declaring the major is.
Just wondering, but what do you guys think about Penn State Harrisburg? Is it a good college because its part of the famed “Penn State” Alumini Network or is it just ghetto/junk compared to the other colleges? (Sorry no offense intended)
It’s one of the “good” branches, where most students manage to complete their gen ed and major prereqs to swtich to main campus. The area is not too great (Harrisburg isn’t great at all, but the college isn’t in Harrisburg itself) but you can be in Philadelphia, Baltimore, or DC in under 3 hours if you have a car (there’s a train to Philly too, fast and not very expensive).
Whether Penn State Harrisburg or UPitt are better would depend on how strong your background is: UPitt CS will be more competitive right away, Penn State Harrisburg will be easier at first.
However Pitt is better for parties, definitely.
If you weren’t admitted to the major at SJSU, you need to know how likely it is you"ll get in later. The threashold is very high and even with that barrier most crash and burn.
The compromise choice between all of these is CPP - a bit of everything you want.
When you say costs aren’t a concern, are you saying your parents have 40kX4 in a college fund for you?
What math class are you enrolled in right now?
I am enrolled in AP Calculus AB and AP Computer Science A right now. I also am enrolled in Digital Electronics (DE). And about the money, I have a 15,000 dollar scholarship I can use for any college I wish. And for the rest, my parents and I can work together in covering it. I have an A in my AP Calc class and a B in my ap comp sci class. I should be able to get atleast a 3 on my ap comp sci test and a 5 on my ap calc test. In my Junior year, I took AP Chemistry, Precalc honors, and physics honors. Thanks for the help @MYOS1634
Few people would consider Pomona the seat of a great college experience the OP mentioned. The campus itself is nice, however it isn’t in a very nice area and is primarily a commuter campus.
This seems like a poor plan, IMHO. If your parents are willing to chip in so you graduate with little or no debt, that’s one thing. Taking on a lot of debt, which is what “work together” implies to me, is a poor idea when you have lower-cost instate options. The odds of graduating with a CS degree are probably similar to those of entering engineers, which is around 1 in 2 or less. I’d say the lower end if you just think you’re going to get a 3 on the AP CS test. If your heart was really in CS you’d be studying it as much as you could and writing your own projects “just for fun” on the side; certainly in college you’ll have many fellow CS students doing just that. Best case you graduate with good grades in CS and a lot of internships under your belt, ending up with great job offers. In such a case the debt burden wouldn’t really matter. But you need to be willing to consider the case where you find out CS really isn’t your thing, if you go OOS you’re at a school running $25K or more a year in costs after that $15K scholarship you have, in a degree that may not pay all that much when you finish.
Pomona, by process of elimination, is your best choice. It’s instate, costs are lower. They admitted you to CS, so if you get off to a rocky start you are still a CS major. Have a rocky start at SJSU and that will keep you out of the CS major.
From comments around these forums, the Penn State branches mostly function like the community colleges do in California – students take the first two years’ worth of courses at the branch campus, then transfer to the main Penn State University Park to complete their bachelor’s degrees. However, the Penn State branches cost a lot more (even in-state) than California community colleges. But some of the branches, including Harrisburg, do have significant numbers of bachelor’s degree programs (Harrisburg does have a computer science bachelor’s degree program), so these branches might be seen as a cross between a community college and a CSU when compared to what you see in California.
http://www.cs.sjsu.edu/Programs/bs_in_cs/faq/faq.html#CHANGE_MAJOR describes the procedure to change major to CS at SJSU. It would be best to contact the department to see what GPA thresholds there are.
to add specifics to that dropout stat I mentioned there is a study based on data from the govt-run National Center for Education Statistics. The study used a starting class from a few years back in order to give time to see the outcome