<p>I am very interested in pursuing computer science/programming, but many high ranking schools in these areas have a large amount of undergrads.</p>
<p>What are the best schools for computer science with total enrollment under 12,000?</p>
<p>Right now I am looking at:</p>
<p>The University of Tulsa
Missouri Institute of Science and Technology
Maybe Georgia Tech</p>
<p>ACT 29 but 31 superscored
GPA - 3.8</p>
<p>Stanford, CMU, and MIT are all under 12,000 students, but are likely extreme reaches for you (though they are reaches for everyone).</p>
<p>Exactly, I was looking for something within my reach.</p>
<p>CMU looks like a match depending on your ACT Math score.
What’s the problem with big universities ? Big universities are the best for for CS.</p>
<p>University of Washington- Seattle
University of Massachusetts- Amherst
University of Illinois- Urbana Champaign
University of Maryland- College Park</p>
<p>Do you have cost constraints? Many public schools are expensive for out-of-state students. Affordability is important in determining reach/match/safety, especially safety.</p>
<p>
<p>Santa Clara is right in the middle of Silicon Valley and has a good CS program.</p>
<p>It doesn’t really matter where you go for a CS degree. Unless there’s a special CS track you’re interested in, undergraduate CS degrees are fairly standardized.</p>
<p>Actually, the introductory CS courses are not very standardized across schools. Upper division CS courses tend to have more commonality, although selection of elective courses tends to vary, and smaller departments may be missing some of what many consider important core CS courses.</p>
<p>San Jose State, which is also in Silicon Valley, has mostly small classes, despite its large size. However, the first two introductory CS courses are exceptions at 120 students each. Other CS courses appear to be 30 students each. [url=<a href=“http://info.sjsu.edu/web-dbgen/soc-fall-courses/d14965.html]Info.sjsu.edu[/url”>http://info.sjsu.edu/web-dbgen/soc-fall-courses/d14965.html]Info.sjsu.edu[/url</a>]</p>
<p>I disagree, ucbalumnus. Most introductory CS classes teach the basics - how to put together a program, iterations, variables, simple data structures, functions, methods, procedures, recursion, syntax… The languages taught in the introductory classes may differ, but the underlying ideas are the same.</p>
<p>I don’t know how large the class sizes are, but USF (University of San Francisco) could be a safety. </p>
<p>Look into Trinity University, University of Miami, Case Western, RPI (slightly more than 12,000 students), and Brandeis (maybe).</p>
<p>Rose Hulman, Case Western</p>
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</p>
<p>While the underlying ideas are the same, the organization of topics differs significantly enough that the California community colleges, which typically try to design their courses for transferability to UCs and CSUs, often have difficulty providing good matches for CS courses at the various UCs and CSUs, as shown on [url=<a href=“http://www.assist.org%5DWelcome”>http://www.assist.org]Welcome</a> to ASSIST<a href=“e.g.%20try%20to%20find%20the%20lower%20division%20CS%20courses%20for%20transfer%20to%20%20Berkeley”>/url</a>.</p>
<p>WPI - less than 4,000 undergrads.</p>
<p>It seems like everyone here has a different idea of the best CS schools. I do have some cost restraints, mainly nothing more than $45,000 a year before aid.</p>
<p>I assume CMU is carnegie mellon. I don’t think I would get in</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Your actual cost constraint should be based on the net price after grant/scholarship (not loan) aid.</p>
<p>What costs less:</p>
<ul>
<li>School A with $60,000 list price and $40,000 in grants and scholarships.</li>
<li>School B with $45,000 list price and no grants and scholarships.</li>
</ul>
<p>There is very little to distinguish undergraduate CS programs. That’s why it’s hard to say which ones are the best.</p>
<p>Take a look at the Kiplinger’s tables to see who is generous with both need based aid and non-need based aid (merit).
[Kiplinger’s</a> Best Values in Private Colleges-Kiplinger](<a href=“http://www.kiplinger.com/tool/college/T014-S001-kiplinger-s-best-values-in-private-colleges/index.php]Kiplinger’s”>http://www.kiplinger.com/tool/college/T014-S001-kiplinger-s-best-values-in-private-colleges/index.php)
Have you run net price calculators on schools you are looking at ?</p>
<p>Holy Cross less than 3000 students offers computer science major.</p>
<p>I visited Carnegie Mellon, and even though I was not interested in the CS program there, was still very impressed with the facilities (I believe it is called the Bill Gates Building). The campus is also nicely laid out and there is definitely less than 12,000 undergrads. They are also commonly ranked first in computer science.</p>
<p>Do I have any chance of getting in though?</p>