Well. We are at the end of the admission offers. My daughter, a senior, now has direct admits into these three programs. She likes USC the most because it has the dual CS and Business Administration program. We live in Seattle so UW costs and location just cant be beat. We have a trip to go visit UIUC. We visited US earlier in summer. The $$ are way too much for us to consider USC.
At USC, she did not get aid even though she is a National Merit Scholarship Finalist. Any suggestion on how we can appeal for that? And not sure of placement after USC - CSBA program?
And with financial aid, is USC, UW or UIUC a better choice?
Seems like Washington with direct admission to CS at in-state prices is a much better deal than UIUC or USC at much higher prices.
I thought USC had a 50% off tuition for all NMS finalists if you designate USC as your first choice for NMS. Have you contacted USC about this?
All of them are great schools for CS.(Like, extremely good) Congrats btw. Choose the one that your daughter favors within the range of acceptable tuition.
No. We have not. We will contact them tomorrow to see if they can honor the 50% off tuition.
And then is USC a competitive option. My D really loves the CS/BA program.
Quick Update - We are now down to UW (UDub) and USC. We gjust ot a letter from USC confirming the Presidential scholarship (Tuition waiver of 50%). Thanks for all your support team.
Need Help → USC is still at 2X of the cost of UW - CS (program is #6 in US), our local university. Big decision for us. She loves their CS-BA program but hard to justify the 2x!
My D missed the Dec 1st 2018 deadline to apply. – Any other ideas or suggestions to get USC to reconsider any other merit-scholarship? It will help immensely!
With the direct admission to CS in hand, your daughter could pursue a dual degree in business administration at Washington.
https://www.washington.edu/uaa/advising/academic-planning/majors-and-minors/overview/
https://www.washington.edu/uaa/advising/degree-overview/majors/double-degree-and-double-major/
Perhaps contact the CS or Foster School of Business advising staff to inquire about this combination of degrees.
Even if they do not seek a dual degree in business, CS students often take business related courses, as discussed on the UW CSE website:
“‘Business has helped me view things in a different light, and I definitely recommend classes like Econ 200, 201, 301; Accounting 215, 225; Marketing 301; Finance 350. These classes give us the ability to apply the CS knowledge in a practical way … the ability to give a profitable form to the brilliant creative ideas.’
…
“‘Many business-oriented classes in the Information School will prove beneficial to your career. It’s not enough just to know how to program. You need to understand how technology, people and especially business fit into where you want to be. Any classes opposite of CS are beneficial in stretching the way you think. CS requires analytical skills as well as artistic. People-oriented classes are a good balance to studying about machines.’”
Congratulations, and good luck to you and your daughter!
U-Dub is a great school. Go Dawgs.
Reviewed the UW requirements for CS BA…she would have to do at least 225 credit hours (45 more than regular degree). That implies an extra year given that it’s Foster and BA is a capacity constrained major.
In UW realistically it will be CS only with business minor. 
You’re probably right, but I would consult with the CS and Foster advisors. Depending on her credits toward graduation from AP, IB, Running Start, etc., the extent to which the general education/areas of knowledge requirements for the two majors overlap, and her planned quarterly credit load (including a summer quarter or two), she might be able to complete both in four calendar years. If any student has the firepower to pull it off, it would be a DA to CS!
@mmkedia has your D decided yet? My son is also struggling between UW and USC.
Missed this. Yes. My D decided to go with USC CSBA. We are so happy and proud of her.
How about your son?