<p>My son is a junior getting ready to visit and apply to colleges. He wants to know if there is a good resource to finding colleges that fit him and his major. Any suggestions?</p>
<p>In no particular order, the strongest CS programs are </p>
<p>Stanford, Princeton, MIT, Cornell, CMU and Berkeley. Hope that helps!</p>
<p>Here’s a fun statistical analysis:</p>
<p>[Google-based</a> Ranking of Computer Science and Engineering Departments](<a href=“http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~remzi/rank.html]Google-based”>Google-based Ranking of Computer Science and Engineering Departments)</p>
<p>Tier 1: Stanford, Berkeley, CMU, and MIT</p>
<p>Tier 2: UIUC, Princeton, Caltech, and Cornell</p>
<p>Tier 3: University of Washington (near Microsoft headquarter), Wisconsin, UCLA, Harvard, Yale, UT<em>Austin (near Dell headquarter), UMASS</em>Amherst, Georgia Tech, and a few more.</p>
<p>Texas was stronger than Illinois, Washington, Wisconsin, Harvard, Caltech, Georgia Tech, UCLA and Yale per the NRC and has gotten MUCH stronger since those 1995 rankings. It also currently has the fastest academic supercomputer (i.e., dedicated to general scientific research) in the world. I would say it’s a solid tier II</p>
<p>Do any of the schools listed give merit? What tier will give merit awards?</p>
<p>For merit, Stanford, MIT, Princeton, Cornell, Harvard, Yale are pretty much out.</p>
<p>Caltech gives some merit, but only to returning students (not freshmen).
CMU may give some merit aid, but this is kind of rare (though my interviewer, a CMU alum, did receive merit aid) - looks like their info is at [Grants</a> & Scholarships](<a href=“Home - Computing Services - Office of the CIO - Carnegie Mellon University”>Home - Computing Services - Office of the CIO - Carnegie Mellon University)
The public schools probably are more apt to give merit scholarships. I know, for instance, that Georgia Tech has the President’s Scholarship. ([Georgia</a> Institute of Technology :: President’s Scholarship Program :: What is the President’s Scholarship Program?](<a href=“http://www.psp.gatech.edu/prospective/what.php]Georgia”>http://www.psp.gatech.edu/prospective/what.php))</p>