My kid wants to major in computer science but is also interested in neuroscience and anthropology. She wants a broad education and would like a collaborative atmosphere rather than a competitive or stressful one.
What do you think of her list?
List looks appropriate for a very strong student who can afford the numbers you come up with on the net price calculators. Some on the list do give merit-based aid. You’ll get a bunch of responses trying to get at whether your student actually has a chance of getting into these schools and a bunch of responses trying to ascertain whether you can afford these schools. That said, she probably needs to add one or two true safeties to this list unless the state schools are true safeties.
As far as anthropology goes, make sure the departments has the subfield of anthropology she is interested in. Not all anthropology programs have many classes in archeology or physical anthropology. I mention physical anthropology because that can overlap with neuroscience. Linguistic anthropology can also overlap with computer science. I’m an archeologist and we desperately need more archeologists with computer programming skills. Brown, BU, CU Boulder have strong archeology programs.
For your daughter’s preferences and combination of interests, she may benefit from considering Amherst (developed the nation’s first undergraduate neuroscience program), Hamilton (offers a four-field anthropological program), Smith (as with the other schools listed, offers a notably flexible curriculum) and Grinnell (if interested in a geographical outlier). All of these schools offer excellent computer science programs.
UIUC has CS + Anthro as an option in their CS + X program. My D22 debated on applying to CS in Grainger or CS + X because she also wants to be able to study other things. CS + Anthro was really appealing to her, but she ended up applying with CS + Astronomy. UIUC CS programs are a reach for her, but she liked that there are so many options.
It’s funny that you mentioned the other three colleges in the Five College Consortium. We liked all of them but in the end decided to apply to Mt Holyoke & UMass. She can always take some classes at the others.
How about one out of two? 
If she has any HS friends with older siblings in CS programs she ought to talk with them about the pace and workload when they’re home over the holidays. Assignments can take many hours (meaning long nites and weekends) to complete using tools that must be quickly learned (and come with a helpful 800 page online manual that presupposes knowledge of dozens of other tools and concepts).
It isn’t uncommon for classes to cover theoretical approaches to things like compiler design but the assignments to require use of software tools that have not been actually taught in the class (many CS students will have stories about time spent with their friends lex and yacc). At best a TA might hold a session or two on how to use GIT for source control, or they may simply be expected to pick it up on their own (but it’s how they must turn in assignments).
These days the projects outside of the lowest level classes are often so big in scope that one person can’t complete them, so often students work in teams and split up the work. Even in classes without group projects students are often told “You can share ideas and discuss general principles with others in the class, but all the code that you submit must be your own work”. This is from the UCLA CS 131 syllabus. The “enemy” isn’t competition from your fellow students, its the unyielding nature of the compiler and the difficult nature of mastering the package after package required to implement and verify correct operation.
Just remember, the broader one’s education is, the shallower their technical education will be. They’ll be competing with job applicants who went all in on their technical background. I’m not saying one way is better than another. Both choices have ramifications.
To avoid a competitive atmosphere, check whether there is any competitive secondary admission process (or GPA/grade based process where grades are “on a curve” i.e. competitive) to declare the CS major.
For broad education, it depends on what other subjects are of interest. Generally, non-engineering-based CS majors tend to have fewer non-CS requirements which may allow more schedule space for student choice of out-of-major free electives.
However, CS programming projects can be quite large and time consuming.
My daughter goes to Rice and has many CS friends. It’s a great program. As with most of their STEM majors some of the freshman classes can be tough and a lot of work, but the environment is very collaborative. My daughter always says the students are competitive with themselves, but not each other. They work a lot in groups when possible. Rice also has a “distribution requirement” meaning the students are required to take several classes in various areas (humanities/arts, social sciences, and science). CS is a major where students often have a second major or minors. It’s also very easy to change majors at Rice. The CS kids get great internships and jobs.
Excellent schools in that list. My Daughter is a senior at UMass so I have some insight there. Double major Anthropology and Political Science, loves it. The CS department is well known to be a top program nationally. Daughter says Anthropology classes are even better than her Poly Sci FWIW. Cultural Anthropology is her focus but she’s been impressed will all courses in that major. Their Anthropology program broke into the QS top 100 worldwide and a growing program. Very strong university overall but merit money is somewhat limited. Good luck!
The OP’s title leads me to mention Harvey Mudd College, one of the “premiere engineering, science and mathematics colleges in the US” and a liberal arts college. The CS program is excellent, and the student will need to decide whether the liberal arts component fits the student. HMC is small, but part of the Claremont consortium.
In my opinion, UMass, CU Boulder, and Mt Holyoke are her likelys. Though not true safeties, CU Boulder has a >80% acceptance rate.
Also, she has been accepted to UGA. That early acceptance is truly a great thing and I guess a true safety now.
Specifically for applying to CS I believe only Brown, Rice and Tufts would be more difficult admits than UMass. It’s about on par with BU and Rochester in that space. If applying anthropology UMass it is a bit easier admit.
Looking at an aggregate admissions rate gives an over sense of confidence for CS and engineering at most schools.
True, however, data on CS acceptance rates isn’t available. So we have to guess based on overall data.
That guess could be off multiple fold depending on the school if you intuit anything from the aggregate. I would assume CS is not a safety at any school with a name.
At CU the 25th-75th percentile ranges for all students admitted are:
GPA 3.58-4.0
SAT 1230-1420
ACT 28-33
For Engineering they are:
GPA 3.9-4.0
SAT 1330-1490
ACT 30-34
It’s the most competitive college at CU.
Glad you could find that info for the college of engineering. The good news is my daughter is above the 75th percentile. But yes, it’s not a slam dunk.
She got in at Tufts where she had ED’d.
Congrats to her!
Son also got in ED1 CS. Congrats! What state are you from?