Hello. My son is a junior looking to go to school for computer science. He has a 4.0 unweighted GPA (all A/A+), will have taken 8 AP classes when applying (currently has gotten 3 5s), and a 1540 (800M) SAT. He has decent ECs but nothing special (no research/USACO).
One very big factor is skiing. He currently races in high school and told me that having a club ski team is a must in college. He places high in states but is not going to be recruited.
With cost not being a factor, his top choices are Dartmouth and Tufts as they are two outdoorsy schools, but is concerned that these schools may lack in CS. His ultimate goal is to be a software engineer, so career outcomes is an important factor.
What are your thoughts on these schools? And do you have any suggestions for CS + skiing schools? Thank you!
Our son was a USSA/FIS athlete. Every school he applied to had skiing, save one. He ended up at the non-skiing school. He’s been out of school for nearly 4 years now. He still skis and coaches USAA though.
Binghamton has a good honors college too as you know. They unfortunately don’t have a USCSA race program though. It would depend on whether or not racing was a priority or just skiing.
Back to the OP, CU probably would be a safety, but CS/SE is often more competitive than general admission guidelines would suggest. It’s probably a match for CS.
Colorado State and Utah are both great and have USCSA teams. They were my son’s safeties. He almost chose Utah, because he liked the campus, town, nightlife etc. and they gave him a bunch of merit money.
Montana State and Nevada would both be great ski schools and safeties.
Lastly, certainly not safeties, but CMU and Georgetown both have USCSA teams.
Good luck!
I agree with this wholeheartedly. I think fit in general is important too. Both of those things are why my son ended up at the only non-ski school on his list.
Middlebury is D1 only. They don’t have a club team. Unless an athlete has years of national/international FIS competition under their belt, they won’t make the team.
Vermont only has a freestyle club team, no Alpine.
I missed the OP post about the club skiing. Too bad our friend’s son said he got in about 70 to 80 days a year depending on the conditions when he went to Middlebury
Both Middlebury and Dartmouth have their own ski hills. I don’t know about the quality of their CS program, but I certainly like the school and location.
U of Utah. SEVEN world-class ski areas within a 45 min drive from campus, and there are some good cheap pass deals, too.
The U has good engineering, good comp sci. SLC is less than half Mormon now, is developing something of a Pacific Northwest city vibe. It’s not the first place that I’d say for engineering and comp sci, but it most definitely IS the first place I’d say for access to incredible skiing.
I would agree that the access to skiing in SLC is unrivaled, maybe in the world. You can easily ski for just a few hours from The U, getting 100 days a year, and maintaining good study habits.
It depends though how much the OP is into freeskiing vs. racing. The eastern hills will be firmer, holding up better for SL and GS.
Yes, you can ski the same day that you go to class at the U of Utah. If you get a student season pass (highly recommend), it is feasible to ski most every day of the week for a few hours if that’s really what you want. As long as you have a chunk of time free from classes each day. The public transit (used to be free for students, not sure about now) will take you up the canyons.
I would consider Tufts better suited to your son than Dartmouth because Tufts has a Club ski team and Dartmouth has a Division I ski team that is recruiting racers from ski academies.
He’s been out of school for nearly 4 years now. He still skis and coaches USAA though.