ED - Columbia vs U Penn vs CMU for CS? [98% GPA, 1550 SAT, 35 ACT]

[goldy75]

Anybody has yield for CMU Computer Science college?

[DadOfJerseyGirl]

I don’t see how yield matters. Only the admissions office cares about that.

Re: CMU I think you’ll get the largest ED bump here vs the offer two schools despite CS being their hardest admit.

Also make sure your son has properly researched CMU. It’s not a school that fits everyone, and he needs to be happy wherever he goes.

What other top CS schools with higher acceptance rates does he have on his list?

[thumper1]

Forget about yield. That doesn’t affect your kid and his application at all.

[goldy75]

Why are you saying - its not a school that fits everyone. he liked CMU when he did there college tour.

This is list currently
U Michigan
Rutgers
U Maryland
North Eastern University
Stony Brook University–SUNY
University of Massachusetts–Amherst
RIT
CMU
RPI
Georgia Tech
Columbia
Urbana Champaign
U Penn
U Pitt

[goldy75]

His counsellor responded back with CMU. But also said - its highly competitive and unpredictable. Which is very true.

[citivas]

U Maryland

On U of Maryland, I suggest he applies EA. It’s non-binding and won’t impact any other early applications. Marlyand can be a target/match for competitive students during the early round but becomes a reach for everyone during RD.

Some of the other schools on the list also get super hard RD even though their overall admit stats should be more match or safety because they do so much early. NEU being a good example.

Are you in-state for Rutgers? It’s gotten less safety now that they joined the common app.

[DadOfJerseyGirl]

@goldy75

Why are you saying - its not a school that fits everyone.

Because the atmosphere can get intense within the CS cohort and not everyone feels at home in such environments. I personally know students who learned a lot and appreciate their time there but wish they had a different college experience.
None of this is a knock on CMU. It’s a great school, of course; but IMO a “fit” school.

@goldy75

he liked CMU when he did there college tour.

Ok, that’s good to hear. Hopefully he got to interact with students while he was there.

I like the rest of your list. It seems well balanced to me. As @citivas said, apply EA to UMD because they admit over 93% of their class through the early round.

[NiceUnparticularMan]

Depending on your perspective, it can be a relief there is not some obvious strategy here you are missing, not with these particular schools.

[Momofthree24]

@citivas

On U of Maryland, I suggest he applies EA. It’s non-binding and won’t impact any other early applications.

Actually, he should apply EA to all of the public schools on the list. The most competitive majors like CS do fill up at places like Michigan and Illinois.

[goldy75]

Thats the plan. Planning to submit to many colleges this weekend

[ucbalumnus]

@citivas

And foreign language is a fairly narrow criteria to skip – a 5 on the AP or taking Columbia’s own test for placement. So 4 years of a HS language and a 4 on the AP still means starting from scratch unless their placement test puts you up any of the levels. A 5 on the AP waives the full requirement.

As a practical matter, a student who recently completed high school level 4 and had an AP 4 score is likely to place higher than the beginner course in the same foreign language in the college’s placement testing.

However, the high volume of humanities focused requirements at Columbia can matter to some students.

[ucbalumnus]

As others have noted, apply EA whenever possible, since some colleges fill up in EA, making them reaches afterwards.

[theloniusmonk]

I’d eliminate Penn from this and focus on CMU and Columbia. If your son prefers the core as others have described then ED to Columbia. Otherwise, CMU, that’s really where the action is in terms of AI and CS.