Hi,
I am in the process of applying to colleges for computer science. My grades are not good, but I have a high SAT score (2200). Where should I apply? Can you give some suggestions other than Carnegie Mellon, MIT, or caltech? Thank you so much! it would be preferred if the school is located in NYC.
In New York City check out:
NYU-Poly
Manhatten College
Stevens (just outside in Hoboken)
CUNY-City College (CS and CE), CUNY-Hunter College and CUNY-Queens College
SUNY - Stony Brook outside of NYC.
How bad are your grades? What is your GPA (%)?
I have a roughly 3.0 GPA (about 85%).
Why are your grades so low, with such high SATs?
Seconding CUNY City & CUNY Hunter. Also:
-Fordham University
-Pace University (Safety)
Northeastern is in Boston, not too far and an amazing program with a huge co-op program.
When I worked on Wall Street I worked with some good programmers who had gone to St. John’s.
Another option is the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark.
A couple hours north of NYC, Marist and SUNY New Paltz have good CS programs.
Just about any CS program from a legitimate school in the vicinity of NYC should be fine.
I was in the same boat when it came to high school grades and SAT and ACT scores. I was in the bottom third of my class when it came to grades and the top 2%-3% nationally when I took the SATs and ACTs. I got into the nearby state flagship, which was the only place I applied to.
Others might know better, but I think your unusual split between GPA and SAT scores might make it hard to predict your chances at any schools with a higher average GPA than the GPA you have.
I would call some of the schools in the New York metro area, like NYU, Manhattan, and Stevens.
And if you’re not completely stuck on being right inside NYC or close to it, I would give Stony Brook a call. I’m not sure how they’ll view your GPA, but the admissions office might be able to tell you.
I called a few college admissions offices for my cousin, and I was surprised by how much detailed information they gave me about their expected GPA. I was asking specifically about transferring, though.
I don’t know much about the CUNY schools, but Stony Brook has a better reputation for CS than Fordham, Pace, St. John’s, Manhattan, NJIT, New Paltz or Marist. I’m not saying the others aren’t good, but I’m just trying to give you an idea of where they stand.
Stevens probably has a reputation similar to Stony Brook, maybe even a little more selective, but it’s very gender imbalanced.
NYU is harder to get into than Stony Brook, and it’s obviously in a very different kind of area - urban as opposed to suburban for Stony Brook.
I would look at SUNY Oswego too, but it’s way upstate in NY - nowhere near NYC.