Transfer suggestions for CS major at Comunity College?

Transfer Students
1

<p>Hello,
I will be attending my local community college next fall. I chose the CC over a four year school to save money. My high school GPA ended up being 94ish and my SAT score was 1690.
I plan to really focus on college from this point forward in my life and even quit my job to do so this fall. What are some good Computer Science schools you might suggest I consider? I live in NJ so I currently have Rutgers in mind since it is close, cheap, and I can probably get in. I also have CMU and Cornell in mind since they seem to be two of the best CS schools that take transfers. So I have a realistic match type college (Rutgers) and two super unrealistic reach schools (CMU, Cornell). I am looking for schools that would fit in the middle of those two categories for me to consider. Any advice or insight is greatly appreciated!</p>

2

<p>What kind of EFC does your family have? Will your parents be contributing toward the EFC? These days one needs not just to pick “safety, matches and reaches” but to make sure at each level the student can AFFORD the college based on what is going to be the financial aid package. There are several threads going on in the Financial Aid section of College Confidential about kids getting into their dream-reach schools like NYU and then spending a few months rolling around in misery because no amount of number crunching helps fill the financial aid gaps. And EFC is just an estimate - many colleges are so expensive and unable to give enough grants/aid and the amount of out-of-pocket cash (even after loans are exhausted) far exceeds the EFC number.</p>

<p>So, my first advice is to know exactly what can you afford.</p>

<p>The list of questions:

  1. what is your EFC?
  2. max Fed Stafford Loans (sub and unsub) you are willing to take out
  3. max ParentPLUS loans your parents are willing to take out
  4. max amount of out of pocket CASH you and/or parents can pay each year
  5. other sources (private loans) you are willing to take out</p>

<p>And then stack those numbers up to an average financial aid package from your schools at all the different levels.</p>

3

<p>1)EFC: about $16,000
2)$20,000
3)$10,000
4)$10,000
5)$0</p>

<p>2-5 could increase if I had an opportunity for one of my reach schools (cmu, cornell). Aside from getting into an extraordinary school, I would like to keep costs down as much as possible and graduate with little to no debt. This is why Rutgers seems like a good match for me at the moment.</p>