VCU seems like a good safety
1 Like
I think VCU is a decent sure thingā¦but Iām not sure what that has to do with your NM status.
Nevermind, I read the search result incorrectly. They only give scholarships to Finalists.
ASU is assured. You meet the threshold.
GMU is - I donāt know if itās assured - but Iād say 99.9%.
I say you get in everywhere down to Wisc - but even if not, Iām confident a few. Assured - no. But I think you easily hit whatever threshold.
I donāt know what this means - [quote=āmello.o, post:4, topic:3697628ā]
budget is a non-issue, though I would prefer a cheaper university, but I am willing to spend a lot for a top one.
[/quote]
There are no assurances in life. As one parent notes on this site, her parent was recruited by Google from N Georgia. My nephew, who Iām with right now, works for a similar company in New York, had a Poli Sci degree from Arizona with a finance MBA. Had to pass a lot of tests. I just asked him - kids from ātop schoolsā get turned down in droves. He listed who is on his and various other teams - they are all over - some of these, some regional, directional, two Iāve not heard of (just looked them up) - one in Kansas, one in Iowa.
Based on that comment though and not truly understanding your NM comment, Iām going to make two suggestions.
- U Tulsa - if you are NMSF, they award you free tuition and dorm.
- U Alabama, if you get NMF, you get 5 years tuition (think Masters degree), 4 years housing, $4k a year and $3k one time for research or abroad. I just mentored a kid from a similar SEC public (not a CS power) who interned at companies in Nashville, a night in Kansas City, a night in Seattle, and is starting there at $150k with a $25k sign on. He did a 5 year Masters.
- I donāt know much about UT Dallas but people here highly recommend it for CS. Itās a large commuter population but also residential. It looks like their NMF gets four year full ride and money to study abroad.
I say apply to these three - why ? Because they are safe, likely easy apps and all three offer enrichment too (Honors and even sub Honors like Randall Research at Alabama). And because when you make a statement like I put in quotes, youāll want flexibility - in case you talk with your folks later and decide itās smart to save $2, $3, $400k.
Iāll tell you this without naming the school as I was asked by the mods not to - my MechE son chose Bama over Purdue. One summer he interned (and rented a Airbnb) with kids from one of the schools on your last three tiers. He was invited back a second summer and offered a job. They were not invited back a second summer.
The point - in most instances - itās the kid, not the school, that matter.
No one knows the market today, let alone four years from now. But hereās an article about today. And thereās others.
Good luck.
Soā¦not gonna lie but really I lied.
Sorry, Iām out. Truth matters, even in a confidential forum. Youāre asking people to spend their time offering advice and you canāt even give us accurate information. Good luck to you.
3 Likes
Canāt blame you
Iām missing what the lie is but why would you lie ?? Doesnāt speak to your overall self.
My opinion above doesnāt include whatever it is - but youāre off to a bad start in your academic and professional like if you do this.
I said I got a National Merit Scholarship, and Iām really a National Merit Semifinalist. Iām not a lying person - I prefer honesty in real-life situations, but youāre very right. I just added it as like a āwhy notā, but now I realize I probably shouldnāt have done that. With deceit, youāre just wasting othersā time.
The proper thing is your are NMSF with a likelihood of getting NMF.
It wonāt change your admissions decisions if you donāt. It will change your financial packages at some schools, the last two of which I listed. The first qualifies with NMSF.
Alright. Iāll definitely consider the colleges you suggested. Even so, no matter how many times people say āit wonāt matter for job apps what college you went toā, itās all so ingrained in my head I wouldnāt possibly be happy with myself if I didnāt go to a T30.
Top 30 overall , top 30 CS?
Who is rating the top 30 ? U.S. News, WSJ, College Transitions, myriad of others? Itās why a top 20 in one can be 100 in another.
Ranks are for selling magazines. They are made up based on myriad data. Btw if itās overall schools, most you lost, including many top for CS, arenāt top 30, if for example using US News. And do you really think a large company sits there and says, we used to go to top school Wake Forest but now US News redid the criteria and they are #51 so weāre not taking Theyr grads anymore ? Or sorry, neither Ga Tech nor Purdue makes the top 30 so if you end up at one that your college app season was an epic fail ? Most companies simply donāt care but the folks (applicants, parents, private schools) sucked in by the marketing do. I was one of those when my kid made his choice til he told me I was wrong - and based on the # of interviews, job offers, and who he works with today, he was right. And I have a lot more $$ in the bank because of it !!
And how does one pay back hundreds of thousands they could have saved via work when many, likely most, companies pay by location, not school ?
Not telling you to go inexpensive. Just letting you know whatās out there. Thereās a reason Bama has far more NMFs than anyone on your list, likely the top or at last report top two in the country. At the same time, 2 years ago, more than 1/4 of Tulsa enrollees were NMSF or more, by far the highest in the country. They buy the smart kids in.
Simply noting at decision time, it gives you choice, that especially if the family strains financially, could be a gift. And if you have to borrow, a gift to last you a lifetime.
My personal prediction is that you are likely to get quite a few acceptances to very good universities from this list, and are likely to have some thought needed to figure out which one to attend.
Computer science is a field where they really do not care much about the āprestigeā of where you get your bachelorās degree. You can do very well with a bachelorās degree from pretty much any school on your list.
Some of the universities on your list are very academically demanding and a LOT of work if you go there. MIT and Caltech particularly come to mind in this respect, although I doubt that UC Berkeley or Georgia Tech or Cornell are much different, and in my experience Stanford is not much easier either. You need to want to work that hard if you go to any of these academically very demanding schools.
You also are applying to a lot of universities, which implies a lot of essays. āWhy do you want to come hereā is a question that is likely to come through one way or another on your applications, and your chances would be improved if you have an answer for each school that actually fits that school.
Some of the schools on your list are a long way from Virginia. Do you want to go that far for a bachelorās degree? A bachelorās at UVA plus a masterās at Stanford might for example cost less than just a bachelorās at Stanford, and you will not need to travel so far until you are in your mid 20ās (I mention this partly because I didnāt ātravel that farā until I was going for a masterās degree in my 20ās).
I think that this is a good list except that it is too long. I would leave the safeties and in-state schools on the list, and for the rest of the list think about which schools are the best fit for you. Then make sure that you get your applications in to your safeties, in-state schools, and best fit or preferred schools, then think about whether you even want to bother with the rest of the applications.
Best wishes. To me it looks like you are doing well.
1 Like
I mean T30 CS according to US News & World Report - and, youāre making a very good point. Iāll take this to heart, especially after I get my results and am able to weigh my options with more leeway.
You brought up some points I hadnāt fully consideredāespecially how academically demanding some of these programs are and how valuable some closer to home options can be financially. Even though I would be happy with any of these colleges that Iāve applied/am going to apply to, Iām planning to spend some more time figuring out which schools I genuinely connect with. If you donāt mind me asking, how did you decide on your own undergrad/graduate path?
One last - this is how US News determines who is top. Thereās really little ācorporateā relevance. Rather itās a popularity contest. Thatās what I mean when I say, it likely doesnāt matter. They donāt even use data. Crazy. Huh. Hereās how they determine.
āTop academics and officials at computer science programs rated the overall quality of undergraduate programs with which they were familiar on a 1-5 scale. A schoolās undergraduate computer science rank is solely determined by its average of scores received from these surveys.ā
There are other rankings, of course. Iām sure all the schools are great but I donāt think US News is the barometer people think it is. Iād rather look at rankings that use data if I were to use rankings.
You are competitive and have a chance at all your schools on the list. Great accomplishments! Keep in mind Georgia Tech is extremely competitive for OOS. Georgia Tech has a 9% OOS Acceptance Rate and I believe that number is even lower for CS.
1 Like
Many of the schools to which you are applying for CS like MIT or CMU turn away 10 highly qualified students for every one they accept for reasons that are totally out of the studentsā control. Universities are trying to ābuild a classā with kids from different backgrounds, skills, strengths, etc. As my wife likes to joke, āCollege ABC needed a trombone player for the marching band and you played trumpetā. You might be rejected by a given university because they have too many applicants from your state, or too many kids from your high school have been accepted, but opted to attend another school. On the other hand, you might get a bump because a school wants kids with your language skills, or other alumni from your high school did well there.
2 Likes
I take it that CMU is your top choice since you applied ED, correct?
You have a pretty long list - thatās a lot of applications. How many have you visited? The schools on your list vary greatly in terms of region, size, state v public, etc. What is the profile of your ideal school?
I agree, but here is my inaccurate prediction -
GMU - 95%
ASU - 97%
VTech - 78%
UVA - 71%
UMD - 78%
UMassA - 80%
Purdue - 70%
Wisconsin - 75%
UNC - 31%
GTech - 26%
UC Irvine - 55%
UC Davis - 60%
UCSD - 50%
UCSB - 55%
UCB - 25%
UCLA - 25%
Cornell - 19%
Rice 26%
UT Austin - 32%
MIT - 10%
Harvard - 10%
U Wash - 41%
CMU - 19%
Stanford - 10%
Brown 12%
Princeton 10%
Cal Tech - 10%
Columbia - 11%
Was this a joke?
How does this sound like a joke? My teachers like me, and think I deserve to go to a good uni. What part of this seems like a joke??