Which schools to consider for computer science?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hi. We're looking for advice on which schools my son should consider. He's interested in majoring in Computer Science. He is top 5% at his high school, scored a 35 on the ACT, and has a fair amount of extracurriculars (e.g., orchestra, swim team, math club).</p>

<p>We are local to the University of Illinois, and right now that is the only school that is definitely on his list. We believe he is solid to get accepted there, and in the ballpark for some top level schools.</p>

<p>We have visited a few schools, and he is starting to develop some criteria for evaluating them. Some things he would like include the CS department having its own building, an active ACM chapter, a good selection of CS courses, and the ability/freedom to take courses in other departments. (None of these are absolute/ruleout kinds of criteria.)</p>

<p>Recently we visited U of Chicago and Northwestern, and while they were both very very nice, they were downgraded because Chicago doesn't have any engineering courses and Northwestern has one very large building that houses most/all of the engineering departments, with the CS dept. being just one nondescript hall/wing in that building.</p>

<p>Frankly, Illinois is a very good fit for him, with perhaps just one major downside -- the fact that it's right here (again, not a ruleout kind of issue, just a consideration).</p>

<p>We are planning a trip later this summer to visit some other schools, including Case Western Reserve, Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, Olin, and MIT.</p>

<p>Any suggestions/comments appreciated. Thanks!</p>

2

<p>U of Wisconsin has one of the top comp sci departments in the country.</p>

3

<p>Are there cost constraints?</p>

<p>UIUC is generally considered very good for CS, though need-based financial aid is not all that good, and the CS major in UIUC’s College of Engineering is reportedly harder to get admitted to than the school in general. In UIUC’s College of Liberal Arts and Science, there are math/CS and statistics/CS majors.</p>

4

<p>It would seem pretty expensive to find a similar quality school. Anyway to make it more acceptable–live on campus etc?</p>

5

<p>Thanks for the replies.</p>

<p>Regarding cost constraints, I’d say there are always cost constraints! (Although I’ve seen some posts here where that wasn’t the case.) We haven’t yet looked at the overall financial picture in depth, so it’s somewhat out of scope for this question. It will be more of an issue for private schools (we’re in-state for Illinois, plus I work on campus). (Another caveat: I went to grad school in CS here, so I’m pretty familiar with the department and the campus :-).</p>

<p>As to Wisconsin – we visited there, and weren’t all that impressed.</p>

<p>Also, I meant to include this in my OP – my son just finished his junior year of HS.</p>

<p>Added response to @barrons: I presume you mean how to make Illinois more acceptable, considering it’s right here. Yes, there are definitely things we can do – like kick him out of the house and tell him not to come back for a month :-). That’s why I said it was just a consideration, not something that would rule Illinois out.</p>

<p>And agreed that it would be pretty expensive to find a similar quality school (at least in terms of CS). But at this point we’re just looking into schools to consider, schools he would apply to. After he has acceptances and financial information, we’d take everything into account and make a decision based on the whole picture. It could work out that a school that was better overall, but not necessarily in CS, might win out. Or not.</p>

6

<p>You want to run net price calculators on the various schools before finalizing the application list, rather than waiting until April to figure out the finances. There is no point in applying to schools which are too far out of reach financially. For those schools which are out of reach on need based aid, but have large enough merit scholarships, your son should know that he would have to aim for the merit scholarships, not merely admission.</p>

7

<p>I’m surprised about your impressions of Wisc. I work for an elite software company and Wisconsin is considered one of the best to hire from (on par with MIT, Stanford) for what we do.</p>

<p>This topic interests me as I also have a Jr in high school who’s interested in CS (or law) although his numbers aren’t as high as your son’s (high SAT, mediocre rank) and aid $ is critical. I’m intrigued with the diamonds in the rough where the school is not elite level overall but its CS department is really strong.</p>

8

<p>Bill Gates just donated 25 million to the Computer Science center at UT. Just throwing that out there.</p>

9

<p>

</p>

<p>Pre-law has no specific major or course requirements, so your student can just major in CS and keep law under consideration.</p>

<p>However, if patent law is of interest and the student does a CS major, the student needs to either do an ABET-accredited CS major, or take courses as specified by the patent exam requirements – see page 4-6 of <a href=“http://www.uspto.gov/ip/boards/oed/GRB_March_2012.pdf[/url]”>http://www.uspto.gov/ip/boards/oed/GRB_March_2012.pdf&lt;/a&gt; .</p>

10

<p>He’s just considering both career paths, not patent law although I’ve thought about that. Today he’s leaning towards CS, tomorrow he could be back to law. He’s a HS boy and doesn’t have it all figured out yet. Nor did I at his age. I still don’t ;-)</p>

11

<p>He won’t have to decide until much later. He can just major in CS, and then take the LSAT and apply to law schools when the time comes, if he is still interested in law.</p>

12

<p>This thread has gotten a little side-tracked, thought I’d try to re-focus it.</p>

<p>We’re looking for suggestions of schools to consider for CS that fit my son’s constraints, which roughly are:</p>

<br>

<br>

<p>His credentials are quite good (e.g., top 5% in HS class, 35 on ACT).</p>

<p>We’re local to the U of Illinois, and that is one school on his list – and it seems like a very good fit for him. That should give some additional info about what he likes (e.g., large schools are not an issue, in fact, too small might not be appealing).</p>

<p>We will consider the financial picture in more detail at some point in the process, but we’re not to that point yet (e.g., it was suggested to run NPCs on the various schools – but at this point, we’re still trying to determine what schools to include on the list).</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

13

<p>

I can’t see why this is important to him. At many U’s the engineering disciplines are in the same building. Doesn’t seem to impact their reputation or what students learn. The buildings aren’t what matters, its what the people in them do, the overall facilities available, the diversity of courses available, what companies recruit from the school, the advising system, class size, etc. My 2 cents anyway…</p>

14

<p>You have listed schools in the eastern US and you aren’t factoring in costs, yet, so have you considered the west coast? UC Berkeley, Stanford, Harvey Mudd and Caltech will all probably meet your criteria in some way. (I too am puzzled why a separate building is necessary). These schools are in the middle of the largest job markets for CS majors which should be a consideration.</p>

15

<p>yet (e.g., it was suggested to run NPCs on the various schools – but at this point, we’re still trying to determine what schools to include on the list).</p>

<p>As you consider adding schools to your list, run the NPC to see if it’s worth adding. </p>

<p>When money is an issue, waiting til offers come in next spring to evaluate may mean no affordable schools (unless you’re certain that you can afford UIUC and your child would be super happy there.) </p>

<p>Personally, when money is an issue, I think it’s a good idea to have 2-3 financial safeties in hand so that the student still has a choice to make if the other schools prove too expensive. No one likes to feel railroaded into their one affordable school.</p>

<p>If your child goes to UIUC will he commute or live on campus?</p>

16

<p>@mikemac (and @Miles Perrara): You make some good points, and yes, it is an arguable criterion. We’ve talked about it some. An advantage of the department having its own space is that you have a clear place you can think of as “home” – that isn’t meaningless. But don’t get too bogged down on it – it’s not an absolute requirement, just a consideration.</p>

<p>@Miles Perrara: I didn’t list California schools partly because my OP was already kind of long. Interestingly, the four schools you list are exactly the ones I would include from CA (and perhaps the entire west – maybe U of Washington too). It’s not that we’re not considering them, but they’re kind of far away and unfamiliar (to my son). Also, they’re very difficult to get into (and Berkeley is OOS, so would be expensive; and Harvey Mudd is undergrad only, which could be a factor). It would be great if we could do a trip out there to visit them, but I don’t know that that will be possible. We do hope to find out more about them.</p>

<p>@mom2collegekids: We are pretty sure of UIUC being affordable and of our son being quite happy there. (Of course, we also have to consider that it’s not certain he’ll get in there.) Most likely he would live on campus, at least for the first year or two. That will help in making it more like the true college experience.</p>

<p>Thanks again for your replies. Although I still don’t feel like we’ve gotten the main information we were looking for, it’s been interesting and informative :-).</p>

17

<p>Remember that the safety is the most important school on the application list; it must be certain for admission and affordability, as well as a school suitable for the student.</p>