<p>It does to the extent that the school offers the usual set of CS courses. Plenty of “CS departments” have CS offerings that would be too limiting for a CS major. This includes some generally prestigious schools like Amherst, whose CS offerings are limited compared to those of the “lowly state school” nearby. Another thing to be careful of is the existence of “CS departments” that are more like business-major-oriented IT/MIS departments.</p>
<p>In general, if the school has an ABET accredited CS degree program, it should be fine as far as CS course offerings go. However, there are good non-ABET accredited CS degree programs (e.g. Stanford) as well as bad ones, so the absence of ABET accreditation merely means that you have to do more investigation and evaluation of the quality of the CS degree program.</p>
<p>“Brilliant kid. 2400 SAT, 5 SAT2 800s, 7 AP 5s. Top math/physics/chem awards - in the top 5 in the state. Great writer - voracious reader.”</p>
<p>Seems like the admissions staff would be really interested in what is holding this kid back. Family issues? Course in basket making too facile? High on dope?</p>
<p>'I think a state U with a decent program is probably exactly what he needs."</p>
<p>I agree. It’s worth seeing if Wisconsin or U. of Washington will take him. Stellar CS programs. He’ll get into Purdue, and that’s a fine program, too.</p>
<p>Just keep in mind that you will have to learn most of what you will do at every job on a job. Have done it 9 times with 9 IT jobs on my resume. Different platforms, languages, applications, industries. As long as company is willing to hire straight from college, you are in and be prepared to learn on your own mostly… Then it is your previous experience, nobody would ever care what you learned in college…but they might ask about your GPA…even when you do not remember it after 30 years of experience…and suprizingly advanced degree also help to find another job, degree that absolutely not needed for your job performance…</p>
<p>I honestly don’t know enough about the kid to know what’s going on. My DS says he works really hard in some things and always has something going on. Maybe adhd or something?</p>
It really makes a difference what the grades are in, and what’s causing the problem. If he’s just an unbalanced kid who gets super grades in math and science, but not such great grades in the humanities, there are colleges that will be interested. If, on the other hand, he’s the kind of kid who can’t be bothered to turn in “busy work” or work in subjects that bore him, this will come through in his recs and he might have a very tough time with selective schools.</p>
<p>Virginia Tech (EARLY DECISION). It’s around $31,000 out-of-state. Great CS BS program and offers a 5 year MS -computer science program as well. This kid could end up being a NMF with those scores (nephew is on a full ride at Ohio U for NMF and a 3.0 GPA, and still received the $2500 NM scholarship --VA tech is a NM sponsored school btw).</p>
<p>And, if he does end up NMSF, he’ll be able to start looking through his other sponsored school options…BAMA…etc. Do you know his PSAT scores? What state is he located?</p>
<p>Just saw that you gave his state of NJ. Ask his PSAT scores if you can. Pm me if you find out what they are…</p>
<p>I wouldn’t advise a big state university. It sounds to me like this kid needs some kind of accountability to get the best out of him, and he’ll have a better sense of that at a small school where the teachers know his name. That’s my 2¢.</p>
<p>But many state universities have excellent computer science programs, and honors colleges that are like small colleges within the larger university.</p>
<p>If he’s got accomplishments in comp sci that might help. I’d have him apply to some of the top programs, but have a lot of safeties. Carnegie-Mellon SCS might take him or University of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign. I’d also look at some of the smaller tech school RPI and WPI are worth a look, places like Rose Hullman might be worth it. As others have said, a lot will depend on what his recommendations look like.</p>
<p>RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology) is a good bet.
Also, in a case like this where the grades don’t match the test scores, he should cast a wide net. Hard to predict which schools will overlook the inconsistency and assume he will be a more consistent student in college.</p>
<p>It is generally true that big universities are more likely to have “complete” CS departments, while small schools are often limited in course offerings, but it may be hard to get into the honors colleges with a 2.9 high school GPA.</p>
<p>Interesting case. This kid needs to show an improving trend in GPA thru 1st sem 12th & detailed recs from teachers willing to advocate for him. No EA/ED. May still be worth a shot to apply to schools such as Harvey Mudd, Olin, Rice in addition to safer bets.</p>
<p>Our son, who had a similar profile (slightly higher grades, near-perfect standardized tests, well regarded public high school in Illinois), is a freshman in computer science at the University of Texas-Austin, and is very happy with the program and the school. UT has a Top 10 program in computer science and a Top 50 rating overall–not a “trade school” by any means. At least by our son’s experience, UT values test scores highly for out-of-state applicants–he was advised that he would be admitted to the school 15 days after the uniform date for applications, and months before others from his class with better grades and worse scores heard.</p>