Please let me know your thoughts on this list of colleges for our son who’s focused on computer engineering/computer science:
Reaches
-Colorado School of Mines
-WPI
-UC Santa Cruz
-UC Irvine
-UC Davis
Target
-University of Denver
-Santa Clara
-Seattle University
-RIT
Likely
-University of Portland
-University of Puget Sound
-Bradley
-Gonzaga
Selection criteria
Small to mid-sized (UCs and RIT are willing exceptions to size criteria due to many strengths)
Suburan/urgan
Debated LAC vs polytechnic and decided to include both
West coast preferred but open to other areas (we live in Nor Cal)
Collaborative culture
Good co-op/internship opportunities
Access to professors
Cost ~50K, aiming for some merit aid with privates
Profile
GPA: 3.7 UW/3.9 W (steady improvement: 3.2 freshman, 3.5 soph, 4.0 junior)
SAT: 1370
ACT: 31
ECs: Student government, president of clubs, unique paid internship at national astro-physics lab, student of the year, multiple awards
I would probably put UCSC in the target range, UCI and UCD in the High Match/Low Reach range along with SCU. I would probably add another UC like UCR or 1-2 Cal states as safeties due to lower costs.
Non-automatic means that it is not given automatically for GPA, rank, and/or test scores that the applicant has.
I.e. it is competitive or given on a basis that you do not know. In most cases, there is not enough information to say that it can be easier than a reach to get such a scholarship.
Your capped weighted is going to be an issue since 6 of the 9 UC campuses have average UC capped weighted GPA’s of 4.0+ and CS/CSE accepted majors usually have stats above the averages.
Expect admit rates to be lower than posted below:
Freshman admit rates for UC GPA of 3.80-4.19 capped weighted and not major specific;
How about adding SJSU and/or Cal Poly SLO? Both do quite well in tech employment.
D16 got a little merit at SCU with higher scores, but it didn’t bring the COA down to $50K. Given the high number of applications for computer engineering, I’d put SCU in the reach category. Similarly, at other schools, admissions for computer engineering or computer science is going to be more difficult than the general admissions stats predict.
Cal Poly SLO’s average Engineering GPA was 4.16 last year (9-11th grades) and average SAT was 1467. Computer Engineering had a 17% projected acceptance rate so still a tough admit. SJSU will be a solid Match school for Computer Engineering.
Thanks but deliberately did NOT include the most competitive UCs on our list for this reason. From these stats, assuming lower admit rates for CS/CSE, looks like UCSC, UCR and UCI are potential reaches.
I would put Seattle U as a likely, Gonzaga as a target, RIT and Santa Clara as high match/ low reach based on the major and what we see locally (Seattle) however you may have better data for Santa Clara for the major and your HS. Seattle U will likely also be the most generous as far as merit goes for the Jesuit/Catholic options and has a really nice year long research project senior year that is very co-op like.
I do not think you’ll be able to get Santa Clara under 50k, not sure about U Denver. You may want to consider Drexel as a target if you like co-op as an option. The CS department at UPS is very very small, it is a truly lovely LAC but it came off our list for that reason. It does not offer engineering so may not give the flexibility you’d want. If you are open to a bigger school, Colorado State (CSU) has a very solid CS and Engineering program, it’s WUE and I’d think the honors college could be an option.
Bradely is a bit of an outlier to me for your list. It gets great (self promoted) press and always sounds good on paper to me, but I don’t know I’ve heard from actual students or alumni. It would be a significant climate and culture change from NorCal compared to most on your list. They are quite generous though.
Basically, less selective public universities in the western region of the US offer residents of other western region states tuition that is 1.5 times in-state tuition, instead of the usually much higher out-of-state tuition. Details vary by school, since some may allow only students in some majors to use this tuition discount.
Colorado Mines is a good school, but I don’t think I’d want to pay a $20K/year premium for it over an in-state alternative (esp. one of the UCs). If $50K is close to your actual Expected Family Contribution (not a budgeted amount that is much lower than your EFC) then you might get a lower net price from a reachy private school than you would from some OOS publics. I’m thinking of places like Grinnell or Macalester (for CS, not Computer Engineering), if the Net Price Calculators show EFCs < $50K or so.
Rose-Hulman is good for CSE and would probably offer merit, though whether it would be enough merit to hit a reasonable price point would be TBD. If you’re willing to go as far as Rochester, then consider ranging a bit farther into almost-Canada upstate NY to see what kind of merit he can get from Clarkson.
Macalester will not come in under 50 even with their top merit. As a PROFILE School, the family contribution will generally be higher than FAFSA efc. Though it is a meets full need school, they will perceive less need. We took it off of our list for that reason. My S19 has similar interests. It’s a lovely school and a relatively decent CS sized program for a LAC.
That said, the Jesuit Schools really are wonderful size wise and for offering both solid engineering and CS programs whereas the LAC’s will not offer the engineering option