<p>My son just found out tonight that He just found out tonight that he was rejected by Harvey Mudd. He's disappointed, of course, but ready to continue applying. </p>
<p>I think we are all a bit stumped and wondering if there is another "perfect" school out there that we may be missing. He's applied to Cal Poly SLO, UC Davis and UCLA, though he really prefers a smaller campus. One thing that appealed to him about HM was the access to Liberal Arts classes (philosophy, art). We live in CA. Are there other schools he should consider? He's interested in computer science and engineering.</p>
<p>... SAT 2260, Math II - 800, Unweighted GPA 4.0... AP Calc AB - 5, AP Physics B - 5 , AP Lang - 5, National Merit, Eagle Scout, Varsity Debate Captain, Robotics Co-Captain. </p>
<p>He's been accepted by U Minn and Colorado School of Mines (my alma mater and a great school IMHO).</p>
<p>What does your son mean by small? <1,000 or <10,000? Embry Riddle-Prescott is a decent, small option, but I don’t know about its CS, and I know it doesn’t have LA classes. ASU has an enticing honors program that salivates over National Merit ([Barrett</a>, The Honors College at Arizona State University](<a href=“http://barretthonors.asu.edu/]Barrett”>http://barretthonors.asu.edu/)), but its Tempe parent campus is a hair under 60,000 people (honors population is more like 4,000). Carnegie Mellon and Cornell are both decently sized, but on the East Coast. Worth a shot. (I couldn’t find ERAU’s admission deadline, and ASU’s is February 2014).</p>
<p>Another problem with ASU is that the competition for Barrett gets harder later on in the year. My friends (who are now college freshmen) said they had trouble getting on even in September. With your son’s stats, this may not matter.</p>
<p>Thank you for responding! I wish I could edit the post, because we knew all along it was a long shot.</p>
<p>Yes, we need FA… we have two other sons in college. When my husband ran numbers for HM, we would probably be paying $20K. Small is not the breaking issue, but < 10,000 would be preferred. He does like Cal Poly SLO, which is almost twice that size.</p>
<p>Thanks for the heads up about ASU (Barrett). He has been considering that college. Do you know anything about their CS/Engineering?</p>
<p>Or Santa Clara? Honestly, I think of Santa Clara as I do Saint Mary’s College, so it’s never been on the radar.</p>
<p>He definitely wants LA classes, but heavily male is probably not an issue…</p>
<p>Both CS and Engineering are supposed to be very good at ASU. I didn’t get to look at the CS program (and hear the hype), but the engineering school gets a large amount of cash yearly for undergrad research, and in general is considered to be one of the upper-tier schools. Plus, ASU offers a decent Masters in Five program that could interest your son.</p>
<p>NAU (up in Flagstaff) is another engineering heavy school, and they’ve been given the Public Ivy title in that department. Enrollment is a hair over 20K undergrads.</p>
<p>I can’t understand why your son was rejected on an ED application with those stats. I would have thought that they would at least defer him. </p>
<p>The closest thing I can think of is Rice University. Medium sized university with great science and engineering and access to great liberal arts. Otherwise, he needs to head east.</p>
<p>It’s getting late, he needs to get the scores, transcripts and recs in ASAP. </p>
<p>Probably any of the other smaller [Association</a> of Independent Technological Universities: AITU](<a href=“http://theaitu.org%5DAssociation”>http://theaitu.org) schools would be a reasonable fit but they typically have limited Liberal Arts courses. He would likely get significant financial aid from a number of them.</p>
<p>I would agree with classicrocker…OP…looking at his academic record and without knowing his EC strengths/essays/recommendations…I would consider applying to Stanford and Caltech since you are from California and he is interested in CS/engineering…</p>
<p>…even though he was rejected from HM (which is rather odd)…Stanford and Caltech may look for slightly different things in a candidate than HM…</p>
<p>…I wouldn’t automatically assume he will be rejected by Stanford or Caltech just because he got rejected from HM…</p>
<p>Santa Clara? Honestly, I think of Santa Clara as I do Saint Mary’s College, so it’s never been on the radar.</p>
<p>lol…Santa Clara is nothing lke St. Mary’s College. SCU is a highly-ranked school with very good and very respected engineering. Plus its location is especially helpful in regards to internships and future employment opps</p>
<p>Note that the New Mexico and South Dakota Mines schools are less expensive than the Colorado one, so if he is in at the Colorado one but finds it to be too expensive, he may want to look at the other two.</p>
<p>Are Minnesota and Colorado Mines affordable based on actual scholarships and financial aid, or net price calculator if actual scholarships and financial aid have not been determined yet?</p>
<p>You all are so kind - thank you! I am grateful that he wasn’t deferred by HM. It’s so much better to make a clean break now while he still has some options than to be strung along. I trust that the Lord has a better plan for him.</p>
<p>He has started his application to Stanford and we did send SAT scores and recommendations to Stanford, Rice and Carnegie Mellon. Thanks for the encouragement about still applying… he definitely lost a bit of wind to his sails, so I appreciate your input. U Minn sent a nice scholarship offer. Don’t know yet about CSM. We will look into the other Mines schools.</p>
<p>I tried to get him interested in CalTech - even showed him the turtle ponds - but no liberal arts. I don’t know why he doesn’t want USC either… </p>
<p>“Probably any of the other smaller Association of Independent Technological Universities: AITU schools would be a reasonable fit”… Thanks also for this tip. This is a helpful list!</p>
<p>mom2collegekids… what safety schools did you have in mind?</p>
<p>I realize that I am a bit late to the game here, but just wanted to clarify that Embry-Riddle Prescott does have numerous LA class offerings. Granted, not on the scale of a liberal arts school or large public university, but decent selection for a engineering-oriented school with only 1,700 students.</p>
<p>Rose hulman should be on your list. Liberal arts are not well represented but its a good school. Union in Schenectady has a great LAC feel and ABET accredited engineering. Swarthmore has an ABET engineering program. Lafayette also has an ABET program in a LAC setting. Someone already mentioned WPI. Syracuse has ABET programs in a larger school but not that huge. </p>
<p>Clarkson U has great engineering and has LACs in a small setting. The CUNY system in NYC is a bargain. Super cheap. Not hard to get into. ABET programs. And it’s in NYC. NYC is currently working actively from the high school level through the university setting to make it an true high-tech center. It already has a “Silicon Alley” but the city government made a huge investment in creating new integrated tech centers, at the college and grad-school level. They’ve also founded several high school and 9-14 high school/early college programs in the tech area that have partnered with tech companies here. Attending a CUNY school could be a v. smart way to go. Columbia U is building a new integrated STEM campus at 127th-132nd Street and Broadway west to the Hudson River. The City gave Cornell and Israel’s Technion University (joint proposal) room on an island in the East River plus several million dollars in construction/ infrastructure to create a new campus. The idea behind that campus is to integrate several tech areas. They are planning to have a patent office in the facility. The campus, not yet built, has it’s first class of grad students. Google gave the school space until it’s built. In other words, whether you’re about to graduate from high school or college there will be jobs. That’s why CUNY might be a good option. Or–Cornell U. in Ithaca. Although the grad school in NYC is not yet fully operatinal, Cornell in Ithaca has a regular bus service to the City for internships etc. It’s a 5-hour bus ride, but it’s possible to do this. </p>