My D is trying to decide between the following colleges for Fall 2017:
East Coast:
The College of William & Mary
University of Virginia
James Madison University
West Coast:
Chapman University
Loyola Marymount University
Scripps College
We’re relocating to San Diego within the next year, which is why she decided to apply to schools on both coasts. We currently live in Virginia. Now, she is having a tough time deciding which school to attend. All schools are affordable.
More Details:
For UVA, she was accepted into the College of Arts & Sciences and would receive a BA in Computer Science. Her brother attends this school and I like the fact that they would be together.
For a long time, William & Mary has been her dream school but she is concerned about the difficulty of the classes and the stress level. (She’s a bit lazy ;p)
At James Madison, she was accepted into the Honors College and has friends there.
Chapman University seems to have a growing program, but during our brief visit, nothing stood out to her.
Loyola Marymount has a very small computer science program and restricted class selection, which is a concern. However, she loved the campus the most out of all of the California schools.
On our visit to Scripps, the campus seemed vacant and we didn’t get a good impression. She would take her computer classes through Harvey Mudd, which is a huge opportunity, but we don’t know that this is the right fit for her.
I’d rate W&M, UVA, and Scripps (as part of the Claremont Colleges) as being above JMU (even with Honors), Chapman, and Loyola Marymount. If you are in Virginia now, it could be that she could have in-state tuition for the duration (but you would have to check), which could make the Virginia publics less expensive. On the flip side, obviously, she’d be far away.
I doubt that there would be too much difference between UVA, W&M, and Scripps (with the computer science classes at Harvey Mudd, a pretty hard-core school) in terms of difficulty and intensity. There was a survey in Virginia papers a short while back on time spent studying per week at Virginia colleges. W&M was one hour more per week than UVA, and a couple hours less than Washington and Lee. That is fairly insignificant in my view. Average GPAs are approximately the same for W&M and UVA graduates.
Having your daughter at the same school (UVA) as your son would seem to be a plus as it might be easier to check up on them and easier to organize travel and visits.
Scripps is fairly unique as it is part of Claremont Colleges. They are adjacent and are close to the size of W&M combined. UVA as you know is significantly larger, but not huge.
@ucbalumnus If she chose a VA school we would stay in VA and maintain our residency. My husband is fortunate to have a lot of flexibility with his job. We realize we may have to be bi-coastal for a while. I don’t believe any of the schools are restrictive with the CS major.
@izzoOne Thanks for the information. Very helpful. Good choices, but such a hard decision.
It’s coming down to big fish/little fish and the prestige factor.
UVA CS is a selective major: https://www.cs.virginia.edu/acad/declaring.html indicates that minimum of C+ grades in prerequisites are needed to be eligible to apply, but then admission to the major is competitive based on GPA and essays. It does not say how competitive it is, though.
According to the Scripps website, a Scripps student can pursue a CS major through either Harvey Mudd or Pomona. http://catalog.scrippscollege.edu/preview_entity.php?catoid=7&ent_oid=680&returnto=441. See additional info on the HMC website about off campus majoring through HMC. https://www.cs.hmc.edu/off-campus-students. From the OP’s comments, doing the CS major at Pomona might be a better fit. My Pomona D has taken 2 CS courses at Pomona and in both classes the professors frequently taught barefoot, which I think conveys a “chill” vibe.
Yeah, as a Scripps student she would be identical to a Mudd CS student in terms of the academic experience and opportunities available. Mudd is one of the most well-regarded schools for CS.
I’d strongly encourage her to do an overnight to Scripps once more if possible. The Claremont Colleges cover a large area (425 acres) for a small undergraduate population of 5500 students, so the campuses feel empty to outsiders, but in fact the quality of life is great and the students and campuses heavily interact. Scripps was named #5 for best quality of life by the Princeton Review. The students just concentrate in different areas- dining halls, classrooms, dorms, student center, etc.- depending on the time of the day.
@Corinthian and @nostalgicwisdom Another question - My D is concerned that there might be a stigma attached to taking a major at HMC or Pomona as a Scripps student. She thinks the other (HMC or Pomona) students might look down upon this. Have you all seen any evidence of this?
Perhaps it is more of an arbitrage opportunity if a student has trouble enrolling at HM or PO from either an admissions or cost standpoint, but can enroll at the other colleges.
But check whether class registration for courses offered at HM or PO prioritizes native HM or PO students over students from the other colleges, and whether this means difficulty getting into desired classes for an off-campus major.
In my experience, no. I’ve taken some CS courses at Mudd as a Pomona student myself and I have never found the need to ask others what schools they come from. It is assumed that everyone is equally interested and competent in the classroom: no one is wearing a tag that lists what school they are from or anything like that. There is a heavy culture of collaboration, and students work together to tackle challenging problems. I’ve made friends from all the five colleges and hold them to equal regard.
@ucbalumnus Scripps CS majors are considered native Harvey Mudd CS majors or native Pomona CS majors depending on the track they pick. The link above about off-campus students says it very explicitly: “A student who chooses to major in CS at HMC will be considered identical to a HMC CS major with respect to advising and access to HMC CS courses.” Then it goes to explain that HMC CS majors have priority for some of the classes, which includes the off-campus majors who are doing CS.
I know it seems strange given the different admissions requirements for each school, but the Claremont Colleges heavy collaborate with each other and fill in gaps that the others may have. It’s one of the great highlights of the system that few other schools offer. Also, all of Harvey Mudd’s employment fairs and career information panels are open to students from all of the 5 colleges.
@ACollegeFan - I can’t offer much advice on the East Coast vs. West Coast question, as we’re a CA family who didn’t look closely at the VA public U’s. But I can say that between Scripps and Chapman/LMU, I would 100% go for the Scripps core with the 5C’s CS programs.
My D is also interested in CS, and has narrowed her decision down to Scripps vs. Northeastern. She is likely to prefer an interdisciplinary program to a straight-CS degree; her most likely majors would be CogSci (through Pomona - there is a computational track with a lot of CS) at Scripps, or one of the CS+X combined majors at Northeastern (where “X” would be psych, linguistics, or design). But both schools offer a good amount of flexibility, which has been a selling point on both counts.
Obviously Scripps and Northeastern are very different schools, so it’s kind of odd to have it come down to these as the final two, but here we are! D is doing an overnight at Scripps next week; hopefully we’ll have more clarity after that. Please share anything you learn about the Claremonts and accessing CS programs as a Scripps student!
@aquapt My D is also going to do an overnight at Scripps - the night before the accepted student day. It would be great if she liked it. Good luck to your D! Such great options she has. I will definitely post anything we learn about the program.
Tough decision, @ACollegeFan ! I grew up in NoVa - and used to go to summer music camps at W&M - great public U’s there. I actually thought W&M would be a great fit for my older D - and she was accepted there - but the OOS cost wouldn’t have been much less than Rice, where she ended up going.
Sounds like a lot of it is coming down to the big school vs. small school question for both of our kids. There’s no way my D would consider a school the size of Scripps (and even more so a single-gender school, about which she’s still a little dubious) if it were a stand-alone. Best-case, Scripps may offer the best of both worlds - the benefits of a small, women’s college without giving up the resources and larger social circle of a mid-sized co-ed university. But D will have to size up, firsthand, how it really feels to be there. We’re close enough to get back down to LA for the admitted students day, if she feels after the overnight that it would be worth missing school for. But that’s a question for after next week’s visit; one step at a time.
What kind of experience is she looking for? Scripps will be the small liberal arts school experience; even all the Claremont Colleges together is still quite a small community, and she will have small classes with lots of interaction with classmates and professors. The University of Virginia and JMU will be larger, more traditional/stereotypical Big U experiences: Greek life, big sports, etc., especially in the case of UVa. UVa has the nice benefit of having this atmosphere and having a reputation as a highly intellectual school (and it is technically on the small side for a Big U).
William & Mary will be in the middle - medium-sized student body, and it strongly identifies as a small research university, where professors will do research but are scholar-teachers and invested in supporting both.
It doesn’t look like either W&M or Scripps require application into their CS major. Someone above says UVa does, so that’s a consideration.
I went to a small women’s LAC within a larger consortium of colleges/universities, and I really loved the experience. You get the best of both words: A women’s college and a small LAC environment with lots of other college students nearby for socializing, student groups, and learning from one another.
@seniormom2021 UVA is actually last on her list of the Virginia schools. I like it because her brother is there. She will go to admitted students day and check it out again.
@juillet Thanks for your viewpoint. I hadn’t really thought of it that way. I’ve been thinking big fish/little fish and VA v. CA.
