Which colleges for CS to transfer to as a fairly mediocre student?

Transfer Students
1

Hi CC, seemingly unlike many of the awesome parents and students here, I found my drive and bettered my mental health at a later age. This resulted in a bad 3.0 HS GPA with only an AP calculus and 1 honors chorus class which I was the pianist of. I then enrolled in my local college, (I live in Guam), so a very bad one as you can guess, and stopped attending toward the end of my first semester there which brought me down to academic probation. I did not attend school for a year and lived off being a piano teacher, tuner, and performer, but I soon picked up programming as I knew I wasn’t talented enough for a musical career.

I’ve been programming for exactly one year as of today and re-enrolled on January of this year. I’ve done badly in the past, but am deeply dissatisfied with my school and wish to go to a more competitive university without taking a ton of money in loans. I understand admission to a top school is impossible, but please recommend me any CS-strong universities (and preferably, with decent financial aid) that I may have a chance in.

I have a 3.175 cumulative GPA, this was brought down by my first semester. Since enrolling, I have gotten straight As except for one class. I am a sophomore and currently have a 4.0 GPA for all classes required for CS.

I have SAT scores (2400 scale) of 1790 both, one has a 680 in math and other has a 680 in reading. These tests were taken on December 2015 and January 2016 respectively.

I am a web developer intern at my school, and may receive another internship offer at a local company.

I have tested out of a programming class with a coding exam, which would allow me to graduate a semester earlier in this school.

I have 2 non-trivial but not great projects on github, one which I’m not sure I should put on my application because it deals with torrenting, and another is a full stack React application. Of course, I plan to make more.

I have attended a local hacktoberfest (not a hackathon) if that means anything.

My highest priority right now is to get a high-paying job and I figured that my school would stifle my efforts. Graduating in my current school costs about $4000 a semester without any scholarships which is cheap, but it would probably be very difficult to land a good software engineering job in America if I do graduate here, considering school reputation, lack of networks, and location. My parents earn a modest amount, somewhere around $60k a year but we live in poverty because of their extreme credit card debt, so I don’t think I can afford to take tens of thousands in loans, considering the worst case where I do not get a good job out of university.

2

Hi!

You may want to consider–

University of the Pacific – strong academics; decent FA; located the next valley over from Silicon Valley; ofers coop program which will provide work experience (prob in Silicon Valley) and offset costs of college; climate may suit you as you’re from guam

RIT – has coop program; strong academics just an all-around great school. It’s in a snowy part of Upstate NY.

U of Maine at Orono – CS program is ABET accredited and it’s currently matching in-state tuition. You are transfer student and so I’m unclear whether this FA is still offered to you, but it’s a fairly small school (all things considered) and you may be able to work something out with them. Campus is attractive. Maine is a gorgeous state. Orono is a sister city with Bangor, which has an international airport.

Drew U in New Jersey – decent academics in an arty liberal arts setting and for CS it has some programs shared with Stevens Institute of Technology. Also Drew is close enough to NYC that it has some programs there. I’m unclear how you may combine this opportunities. It’s also a pretty campus and on the commuter train line to NYC.

Union College in Schenectady NY – an LAC that’s strong on tech, is on the Amtrak line to NYC; offers excellent FA in general As a student from Guam, you would be considered geographic diversity and might get extra consideration in terms of admission and FA – I should think.

Drexel – next door to UPenn-- and an enterprising person would perhaps consider attending Drexel and attending events at UPenn for networking. In addition, Drexel offers solid academics and it offers a coop program allowing you to offset costs. Drexel’s coop program is well developed and the website (if you dig around enough) publishes how much on average CS coop people tend to make.

best of luck to you.

3

Also –

Connecticut College – has a special transfer opportunity for CS students https://www.conncoll.edu/news/news-archive/2015/science-leaders-ii-provides-pathway-for-computer-science-transfer-students.html The college is across the street from a service academy and you can take additional tech classes there.

4

I agree that U.Maine Orono is worth looking at. I would also take a look at U.Mass Lowell. These will both however be a long way from Guam, both in distance and in weather.

5

That’s actually not true. Yes you can go to a “less prestigious” school and come out with a good entry level job. You already have more experience than most CS graduates. Computers is all about experience, accomplishments and fit. I went to a regional state university and I had no trouble finding a job out of college. Once you start gaining a few years of experience, your worth goes up very quickly.

6

@coolguy40 – your advice seems accurate for most mid-level schools in the lower 48 but the OP is located in Guam. That makes finding connections in the mainland US a little more tricky. I’m not sure if that was entirely clear.

7

Guam is in the WUE, so many less selective public universities in the western region will offer 1.5 times in state tuition. However, living expenses could make attending them much more expensive than attending University of Guam as a commuter.

8

Thank you to everyone for all these wonderful advice! I know very little about colleges and admissions and some of the schools that were mentioned definitely seemed interesting, especially the ones with coop programs. I do have one question though. It seems that transfer applicants do not need to take the SAT, but should I re-take it so that I can lessen my burden with scholarships if I do score highly? Or are my current qualifications I listed in the OP enough for a decent financial award? I plan to take on all the internships and coop programs I can find, and hopefully end my tenure as a student with no more than $30k in debt.

9

Check each college whether SAT scores are considered for admission or scholarships for transfer students. Often, they are not considered for junior-level transfers.

But note that merit scholarships are much less available for transfer students than frosh. Need-based financial aid at public universities tends to be the same for transfers as for frosh, but that usually means no aid if you are not a state resident. At private universities, it may or may not be the same. In all cases, try the net price calculator on the school’s web site to get an estimate.