San Jose State University would be an academic safety, but the COA is $26k/yr. You would have to go $45k in debt (you could lower that by working or doing paid summer internships), but I don’t think that is too extreme for a computer science/engineering major. SJSU doesn’t have a nation-wide reputation, but its computer science and engineering programs are very highly regarded in Silicon Valley.
SJSU is more like $37,333 for out-of-state students. While the in-state price of $26,173 would be a stretch budget ($15,000 from parents, $5,500 from federal direct loan, $5,673 from work earnings), the out-of-state price is just out of reach.
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I was refer to affordable safety schools so I think they are in that category.
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Uh no. it’s not a safety unless it’s known to be affordable. Any school with competitive merit can’t be a safety for this student.
UPitt’s merit has become very unpredictable. He might get full tuition, but he also just as easily will not.
again…
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it’s ok to apply to a couple of the UMich or Cornell-like schools “just to see,” but you already know that those aren’t affordable, and those apps will just be a donation of XX hours and XXX dollars for the app process. You don’t want to waste a lot of time with essays, etc, and cost applying to schools that won’t be affordable.
You need to be asking for two types of schools with eng’g.
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Those with competitive merit that will bring costs down to about $15k. (apply to 2-4 of these)
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Those with assured merit that will bring costs down to about $15k. (apply to 2-3 of these)
Once you’ve identified schools THAT YOU LIKE within those 2 groups, then if you still have time and application money, apply to some top schools “just to see”.
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“San Jose State University would be an academic safety”
San Jose State CS only has a 23% admission rate.
While SJSU’s CS major is often its most selective major (see http://info.sjsu.edu/web-dbgen/narr/admission/rec-10079.12651.html ), the student’s CSU eligibility index (= GPA * 200 + ACT * 10) is at least 1140 (and probably close to 1200 if a decent number of 10th and 11th grade AP courses are included), and it is hard to see the threshold for admission to the SJSU’s CS major (see the link for threshold by major for various recent years) being higher than that in the future.
However, SJSU is unaffordable for the student based on being out-of-state with a $15,000 parental contribution.
I think either some people don’t know what a safety is…or they don’t realize that this student won’t qualify for aid, yet his parents will only pay $15k per year.
I safety is a school that the student will certainly get accepted and the student knows that he has all costs covered either thru assured grants/merit and/or family contribution, and maybe a small fed loan and maybe a couple thousand from a job.
Schools where acceptance, affordability, and/or enough merit is questionable can not be considered safeties.