My son is trying to put together a list of schools he is interested in applying to. He always use to love MIT until he visited and then didn’t like the vibe. He now likes liberal arts schools, even though he is a probable computer science major. He loved Princeton, Yale and Harvard when we toured. Those schools are reaches, so he we are trying to put matches/ safeties on the list. This is where I was hoping for some advise. There are some awesome liberal arts schools like Bowdoin, Williams, Amherst etc. They also have low acceptance rates so I’m not sure if they are also reaches. He has a 4.3 unweighted and a 1560 sat. SAT MATH II subject test is 800 (going to take physics and chemistry in June). Tons of AP classes and strong leadership in extracurricular.
How many schools would you apply to? Also how many reaches? How many matches?
Thank you.
Bowdoin, Williams, and Amherst are reaches for anyone because they accept so few. I would make sure you have 1-2 safeties and 3-4 matches, especially if you are looking at smaller schools because the stats are merely a screen for who gets seriously considered, not the basis for acceptance.
Your son’s stats are good but I personally know several kids with impeccable stats and seemingly flawless profiles who had complete washouts at all the super selective schools. They are all thriving and happy elsewhere - one after a transfer - but the system doesn’t always work quite like you think it will.
Check out Davidson College. It is a great school.
Agree, find a safety or two at most first, then 3 match type colleges. Are you full pay or do your matches need to have the possibility of a discount for merit? Do you need a specific region of the country?
With a kid like the OP’s son, it really doesn’t make sense to talk about “matches.” All of your matches are reaches. If you step down a couple of rungs on the prestige ladder on the LAC and private university side, you get to schools where there is a very good chance of admission. Being a boy interested in science is probably something of a plus at LACs that want more boys and more science students. Davidson may be in that category, and so may be places like Vassar, Lafayette, Franklin & Marshall, Trinity, Connecticut College, Bard, Colby. Larger schools could include Wake Forest, University of Miami, Elon, Syracuse, also some excellent Catholic universities.
Also a really good bet are larger public flagships, which tend to have more stats-based admissions and (with a few exceptions) admit a lot of students. They often have attractive honors colleges for high-achieving students, too. Don’t be fooled by the fact that they educate students with a broader range of abilities and achievements than Princeton does. They have excellent faculties and offer top-quality opportunities to top-quality students who seek them out and take advantage of them.
I thought about the publics too, but it really is going to depend on the family financial situation. Illinois, Wisconsin, Purdue and Michigan come to mind - but again not for the faint of heart if finances are a consideration. Even Michigan, which has an initiative to increase financial aid for OSS students bases need on Profile as well as CSS and has very little “merit based” tuition discounting dollars.
We do have a 529 for our son, but with the prices of college It won’t take him too far. He is planning on applying to a couple of state schools -University of Florida and University of Central Florida. In Florida if you have above 1300 / 3.5 , tuition is free. Then just need to apply for scholarships for the rest, which is actually more expensive than tuition. The more selective schools promise to meet all needs without loans, which would be awesome. Looks like he will be applying to a lot of schools! Thanks for additional college suggestions. I will look into them. I don’t want him to get a lot of debt so that is a consideration.
If he doesn’t mind staying in Florida, I would think he’d be scholarship material for Rollins.
I thought UCF was supposed to have a great CS dept or at least I recall seeing that their CS team did very well on a college programming competition and I believe has performed better than most all US universities? Is UCF not close to the top of his list or am I mistaken on their CS reputation?
I think the OP is trying to find something between the Ivy League lottery schools and their local publics. I’m reading it as an LAC type environment since the OP mentioned Williams and Amherst and Bowdoin – OR that the OP’s son wants to go to school in the NE.
I’m a computer professional for a living. If he’s going for CS, there’s no need to go to an elite or even OOS school, because the degree is highly employable out of college. You’re just wasting your money going out of state. Just go for a good school that he likes and one you can afford. Scholarship is a huge plus if he can get one. Employers are more concerned about whether he can do the job than they are about school.
They do have an amazing CS department, so he definitely applying. The downside is that it close to home. I think he would like to experience something different. He is applying for dual enrollment there for next year (senior year) to potentially take a couple of CS classes.
Coolguy40,
Online different sites show large differences in starting salaries. Do you think they are accurate? Also don’t different colleges have different focuses? Example: applied vs theoretical? Or different quality of instruction? Do higher paying companies focus there recruitment at stronger schools? I appreciate your insight. Thank you
Momofthreeboys,
He likes the liberal arts colleges because in his words " he want to go to a school where everyone else is not just like him". So no Georgia Tech, Carnegie Mellon etc. He also likes collaborative environments vs competitive environments. Another aspect of the liberal arts he likes is that he has a chance to delve into other subjects. He is intellectually curious about all sorts of things. He listens to my advice and I just want to be able to guide him well. My knowledge on liberal arts colleges is limited to what I can find on the internet
I found the results I had seen before. I am not sure how prestigious this competition is but UCF was the top US based university, tying for 13th place. MIT was the second ranked US university tying with many other universities at 20th.
Russia and China did very well. Is this competition highly regarded?
Professormom1
Rollins is very nice but super expensive. Do they have scholarships that cover everything?
Yearstogo
They are amazing. They compete in algorithims competition. My son doesn’t mind these competitions but that isn’t what excited him about computer science. We have gone to UCF team practices and it just isn’t his favorite. I don’t know enough about computer science to be able to explain the differences between memorizing algorithms (basically what the contest is) and and the programming he loves.
If you understood it and tried to explain it, I am pretty sure I would not understand your explanation of the differences. Good luck to your son!!
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/19190340/#Comment_19190340 may be helpful in evaluating CS offerings at liberal arts colleges and other smaller colleges, although offerings may have changed since then. Check on college web sites for current offerings.
Yes - Rollins has a few full ride scholarships! You can also put some percentage of the Sunshine State Scholarships towards FL private schools. I forget what the exact number is but it is a certain dollar amount per credit. Just Google Rollins Merit Aid and the scholarship page comes up.
We visited Rollins last month and D19 really liked it but it is probably too small for her. It’s hard to beat Winter Park though - it is so cute!