Hi,
First time poster but have read hundreds of posts…thank you!
My son is c/o '22 with longstanding interest in Computer Science.
Brief stats: 4.0 (UW)/4.8(W) at public school in Central VA (don’t know how to gauge rigor but strong reputation in our county); ACT 36 in 2020; rigorous course load; relatively narrow ECs (Robotics, Computing Squad, couple summer internships in engineering) though will have Eagle Scout by application time.
Through this forum, I’ve been struck by how competitive CS seems to be and how many great kids are not getting into their top choices! I’m hoping to get a few more options for match or safety schools for my son whose list, IMO, is very heavy on reach schools. He won’t do ED as he’s yet to visit a school and doesn’t think he’ll fall in love with any one school. He’s hoping to stay within 6-8 hour drive of home, we won’t qualify for financial aid though wouldn’t turn down merit! He thinks “mid-size” but not sure he knows what that means and his list is blend of smaller/bigger & public/private. Thank you in advance for any suggestions. He has done virtual visits at the schools below and plans to apply to:
Why not go for the gold. MIT, Princeton, Cornell, Penn, Rice, Tufts, Vandy, Rochester, Wake Forest. I’d also look at Case Western and add WPI and Pitt as safeties if you want more. RPI is a solid choice although on the CC the reviews for “life” at school aren’t great.
You have safeties (Lehigh, Va Tech and UVA in state as scary as it is to call UVA a safety),
If you have a 4.0 UW and 4.8 W and you are using the traditional .5 for Honors and 1 for AP - and I’m assuming you are, his rigor is outstanding.
If you want merit, you have to think a little more outside the box - Alabama, UAH, UTK, Miami of Ohio, South Carolina. Some private schools I mentioned above also have merit. If in state and want mid size, why not W&M instead of VT. VT is great - but small/mid size is not VT which is unbelievably gorgeous yet unbelievably massive.
Anyway, that’s food for thought. I believe - and if you have the time - you have spots for 20 apps on Common App (and Alabama/UAH are like 10 minute apps - they don’t take common). If you apply to schools with no extra essays or easy to conform from other school essays, use em all or as many as you can handle without disrupting your son’s life. Aim high - such as GT and Duke. Yet aim low - and see what kind of merit you might find at a Case Western, RPI, etc. Even a South Carolina he’ll score big time aid - and has a great Honors College although less reputed in CS. Yes, it’s a bigger (not biggest) school yet the Honors College shrinks that.
We attended an Admissions event for GA schools this weekend. We were very impressed with Georgia Tech. It is mid-size and has great mentoring for students. Lots of internships, Co-Ops, etc. One thing to note - it is smack-dab in the middle of Atlanta! If your son prefers a rural setting, take GT off the list.
Thank you! He’s participating in a few virtual events this week at Pitt so we’ll see how that goes. I appreciate your other insights as well. We definitely benefit from being VA residents for VT and UVA!
I should add- I’m not calculating his GPA. I looked at it through his school portal. He’s taken all honors or AP if offered (obv. not gym, health, etc.) and done very well though not sure what weighting is being used.
A friend lives in the DC exurbs around Loudon. D19 was a NMF and chose UVA and really likes it. Only place she didn’t get in was CMU but I suspect didn’t apply to Stanford or MIT. The dad said of course those are great. GaTech is another really tough admit that’ll be a bit less expensive if you’re full pay. Purdue Honors is also awesome but will cost more than UVA.
My kids went to UVA and VT , instate in engineering . We are very lucky to have excellent instate options. Virginia Tech is large but seems very manageable and not overwhelming. Good luck.
Well if he loves big and middle of nowhere, Clemson comes to mind.
I think you have a strong list but do need some match/safety as just in case. Lehigh likely is one. In addition to other names I gave, he’ll go free/near free at Alabama and UAH, not to mention Arizona. Think of it as 6 hours - including flight. You might add WPI too.
OK - i’ll leave it alone now. We all gave you a ton of names
You can hopefully go elite. Or you can go cheap!! I prefer cheap 80K a year is a lot!! Some of the names on your list go there.
When I think of top CS programs I don’t think of Duke, JHU, or ND. If you’re going to pay that kind of money and want to stay near VA aim higher. Look at CMU, MIT, Columbia, UMD, Michigan, GT, Northeastern or Cornell.
UVA and VT are great in-state options. Our friend’s son will be graduating from VT CS this fall. I’ve worked with some sharp VT grads in CS.
Maybe NC State, Pitt, UMass, RIT, or Rochester for safety/matches?
Thanks for your insights! We will be full-pay (though hopefully not in 2 years when we have 3 in college, gulp). My son is quite interested in legal/ethical aspects of AI (he’s considered law degree after undergrad…but he’s also an easily excitable 17 yo). Thus, I think that was some of the attraction to Hopkins and Notre Dame- both seems to have neat ethics-type institutes/collaborations. He has CMU, Cornell and GT on his list but without ED I’m not sure he’ll have a chance. Others have also suggested Pitt, RIT and Rochester which are great suggestions and ones I’m asking him to research!
@momtofour12 If you’re looking for any other ideas or info, we recently published an article Best Computer Science schools. After researching a bunch of the top-ranked schools, we chose the schools below as are our picks. The article explains why. I hope that is helpful! Seems like you already have a solid list going.
I am curious. I can understand eight of the ten you selected for your article as they seem relatively obvious. But, Oregon State and William & Mary? What in particular made you include them?
My D has a very similar profile. She has GTech, CMU and Cornell from your list. Others from her list:
MIT as a reach.
Michigan as a stats match/accept rate reach.
Purdue as a match
If ND is the furthest, that rules out Stanford, Washington, UIUC, Caltech from her list.
Other Ivies have good programs, but we passed on them. Penn State is our in-state safety - probably the VT equivalent. Maryland is on her “maybe” list as of now (with Wisconsin, which is farther than ND).
(We also never had Oregon/W&M on the longest of long lists. They certainly stick out on that list, but “among the best” is undefined)
I was going to ask the same…I don’t know a lot about William and Mary but was surprised to see that on the list. It’s a great in-state option for us, but I’d never thought of it as a Top 10 CS school!
I’m intrigued re: William and Mary and will have to take a look. Based on profile name, are you from Pittsburgh area? Do you have strong feelings about Pitt?
I am sorry, but while the author of this list may be a great writer, she does not understand CS, nor does she understand what CS students need or are looking for. Writing reviews of Sci Fi movies does not provide the background that one needs to understand the factors that are important for a CS degree or the factors that are important for people looking for CS degrees.
For example, one of the most important elements of a successful CS degree is access to internships at top companies. However, she does not mention internship opportunities at all. She does mention research in the labs of professors, but that is absolutely meaningless for the 90% of the students who are not going to grad school.
The fact that they include Oregon State and W&M, but not UIUC, Purdue, or Cornell tells me that it is likely based on preconceived ideas as to which colleges are the best, and then retroactively finding reasons.
There are at least 20 colleges that I would put ahead of W&M, based on everything that they put there as reasons to select, and 50 ahead of Oregon State.
This list is absolutely useless, I’m sorry. Well, not useless, since it made some of my friends, who are CS faculty, laugh.
