Which schools should I apply to for computer science?

College Search & Selection
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<p>I want to go somewhere that offers a really good computer science program, but I'm having trouble deciding where to apply. I have gotten straight A's (except in PE freshmen year), and I have taken college prep classes. My GPA is currently a 4.08. I play varsity volleyball, I'm the class secretary, have 100+ volunteer hours, I'm in National Honor Society, and I will be participating in National History Day next year. I live in Michigan and I would prefer to go somewhere in the Midwest. Thanks :)</p>

2

<p>CMU is #1 for CS. Go girl!</p>

3

<p>University of Michigan and Michigan State seem like obvious choices. The dean of my college was a former Michigan Tech professor and remarked that it’s a very solid school, although extremely cold.</p>

4

<p>Here is my take as someone who has a BS in EE with strong CS background.</p>

<p>In Midwest:<br>
University of Illinois Urbana Champaign:
At one point, microsoft hired from UIUC more than any other schools. Their alumn created youtube. UIUC is also known for making the first graphical web browser. </p>

<p>UMich:
Very good CS program here as well, but UIUC is slightly better in terms of CS rankings. </p>

<p>Outside of Midwest:
MIT, Stanford, Cal, CMU, Cornell (Go Bear!!) </p>

<p>If you are sure that you want to work as a developer/engineer in the future, then any of the above programs will get you there. However, if you want to leave room for possibly going into other areas such as finance, I strongly recommend you to consider the non-midwest. At Cornell, I was interviewed not only by tech giants (microsoft, google, facebook, oracle etc.), but also the investment banks that were interested in my quantitative abilities. In fact, many of my friends who studied engineering at Cornell went to wall street, including myself. I hear similar stories with other Ivy Leagues + MIT + Stanford.</p>

5

<p>Some great CS colleges in MID West:</p>

<p>University of Michigan
University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign
University of Minnesota- Twin Cities
University of Wisconsin- Madison</p>

<p>Michigan State(basically for UMich rejects)
Iowa State (low OOS tuition, full of UMinn, UWisconsin and UIUC rejects)</p>

<p>If you can come to Northeast:</p>

<p>Boston University
University of Massachusetts -Amherst
Definitely CMU
Cornell</p>

6

<p>Case Western - might also be generous with merit scholarships if your GPA and test scores are high. Further east than you were thinking - RPI, WPI (both also likely to be generous with merit aid for a highly qualified female).</p>

7

<p>We haven’t seen her test scores, and they will matter. Consider CMU’s 25-75%tile SAT scores: CR: 720-780 Math: 780-800 Wr: 720-780</p>

<p>Gotta love the 25th percentile math at 780 …</p>

<p>Average class Rank: 5% GPA: 3.85</p>

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<p>Nor do we know if the OP can afford to pay for schools like UIUC as an OOS student.</p>

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</p>

<p>That’s seems ridiculous and impossible…and I wasn’t wrong.
Just check the common data set. The 25th math percentile is 690.
<a href=“http://www.cmu.edu/ira/CDS/pdf/cds_2012_13/c-first-time-first-year-admission.pdf[/url]”>http://www.cmu.edu/ira/CDS/pdf/cds_2012_13/c-first-time-first-year-admission.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>If you were talking about the engineering college inside CMU, then I wouldn’t be surprised.</p>

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<p>^ The AVERAGE math SAT for CIT is 746. <a href=“http://www.cmu.edu/ira/factbook/pdf/facts2013/admission-and-first-year-enrollment-pdf-for-web.pdf[/url]”>http://www.cmu.edu/ira/factbook/pdf/facts2013/admission-and-first-year-enrollment-pdf-for-web.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

11

<p>and for the College of Computer Science it is 786 ;)</p>

12

<p>DOH! I read somewhere the Comp Sci program was in CIT. Apparently not true.</p>

13

<p>My son began his college search wanting to study civil engineering and therefore was considering big state schools. When he made the decision to study computer science he decided to look into small schools. A good computer science degree can be had at numerous schools, and does not require the resources and research budgets of a big state school. The small schools will not show up in any CS rankings. If there is a small school you like then reach out to them and ask questions about their computer science department. Find out what their graduates are doing. We discovered that the school my son attends has a great reputation in computer science and their graduates are doing extremely well. I think most students will get a better computer science education at Grinnell or Carleton than at the University of Illinois. Small classes and the ability to be fully engaged with your professor makes a huge difference. Of course the downside to the small school is frequently money. Good luck!</p>

14

<p>

It does, but it’s certainly possible to connect with professors at larger schools. Even in huge lecture classes very few students take advantage of office hours or other ways of connecting with their lecturers. Also, at smaller schools (or schools with a small department in the intended major), necessary course sections may only be offered once a year. Finally, at many schools classes within the computer science department are quite small which allows for close interactions with professors. At my 22,000 person school, non intro comp sci classes are capped at 35 students, but most have around 25 or fewer undergrads enrolled.</p>

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<p>I didn’t clarify, but the post was regarding computer science so I posted the entrance numbers for the College of CS. I have a link to each school: [Carnegie</a> Mellon Admission | Admission Statistics](<a href=“http://admission.enrollment.cmu.edu/pages/undergraduate-admission-statistics]Carnegie”>http://admission.enrollment.cmu.edu/pages/undergraduate-admission-statistics)</p>

16

<p>At in-state rates for CS, the University of Michigan is the school to beat.</p>

17

<p>Also check out Rose Hulman.</p>