Match a 4.0UW 1500SAT Public School Latino Male for CS/Math [OR resident, <$50k]

Chance Me / Match Me
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*Stanford University(Major: Symbolic Systems)
*Northeastern University (Major: CS + Linguistics)
*CMU?
*Princeton?
*Harvard
*Georgia Tech
*University of Michigan- Ann Arbor
*MIT?
*UIUC(CS + X(any suggestions for dual major?)
*University of Maryland - College Park - maybe
*University of Massachusetts
*UT Austin
*University of Washington - Seattle
*Purdue University
*Oregon State University
*Arizona State University?
*RIT?
*UC Schools: Berkeley, LA, SD?
*USAFA???

I guess I’m wondering why this list is mostly OOS public universities for you. Many OOS universities don’t give much aid to OOS students. Arizona likely will, but the UCs absolutely will not give substantial aid.

The top eight listed schools are substantial reaches for admission, but you are in the ballpark. Just run the Net price calculators and see if your family can afford the net costs. They really don’t give merit aid, so you would need to qualify for need based aid at these schools…maybe you do.

You have a wonderful list of accomplishments. As noted by @aquapt please make sure they are affordable for your family. This is a decision your parents need to make with you. Please discuss this with them.

There are a LOT of wonderful colleges where you will be a welcome student. Do you want additional lower cost suggestions?

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Yes, additional lower cost suggestions would be great. Currently in the process of building a new college list, ran NPC calculators on all potential colleges and are researching scholarships. I also qualified for the National Hispanic Recognition Program for reference. Budget is <50k, ideally lower. Parents hesitantly willing to invest in T20 school where top schools net price ends up around 45k, the rest are too expensive. Thanks!

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@AustenNut your suggestions?

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This list is old - and not sure how the Supreme Court ruling impacts it. For example, Alabama removed theirs but doesn’t mean they don’t still offer it - get your ethnicity in essays and activities. I listed many schools above - and many will hit under $50K - including very good schools like UF, Purdue, Ga Tech, ASU (which you have), U of Arizona, KU, UNL, UMN (with merit), and more. Ms State, Alabama, and UAH will be $20K or less - and Bama might come free. Also check for the RPI medal.

Other schools that will get there - from UGA, U of SC, UDel, Miami Ohio, Michigan State, Ohio State, UTK, UK, LSU, Iowa State, Auburn, Buffalo, Mizzou, Missouri Science and Tech, Stony Brook, Houston, Kansas State and really many more. At $50K, you have a lot to work with. U Denver is another that may get you there.

Schools like Rice, Vandy, WUSTL, Miami (FL) - have large merit possibilities as does SMU. But on paper wouldn’t hit. But maybe a few are worth an app.

Scholarships - College Board Recognition Program Signifcant, College Specific (core-docs.s3.amazonaws.com)

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List this in the honors section of the app.

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There was a student recently who had similar stats and interests, and these were some schools I suggested as possibilities that will all fall well below $50k/year.

A couple other options you may want to consider that also offer scholars for Vex Robotics participants include:

And if Michigan Tech, mentioned above, appeals, it too has a robotics scholarship of $4k/year that might be able to be added on: Scholarships | Michigan Tech Admissions

You will want to double-check with the universities, but I believe that all the schools that offer a robotics scholarship will stack that with any other merit aid you receive (I recall IIT’s website saying that).

ETA: I’d also look at Western Washington (a WUE school), Stony Brook (though investigate about whether it’s shifting from being more of a suitcase school), Binghamton, and U. of Arizona as additional possibilities, particularly if you continue to be interested in linguistics. Perhaps @dfbdfb might have additional thoughts?

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As a linguist, I’m curious why there are specific places where you’d plan to do a comp sci+linguistics combo but not others, when a lot of the places you list would let you do a comp sci major/lx minor (or even a double major), and some of the ones you list have what is effectively a computational lx major as it is. What exactly are your interests in computation?

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Was hoping it would help diversify my interests and portfolio and maybe increase my chances of acceptance instead of just applying under the broad computer science umbrella. I have some additional EC’s related to language learning and it’s always fascinated me but I’m not sure if I want to more intensely pursue it in college and/or for a career. I realize language learning and linguistics are a bit different, it’s an interest I’ve had but haven’t fully developed yet. Based on my EC’s is there another major that would be less competitive but still relevant to my coursework/EC’s? As a side note, what exactly do you do as a linguist and how much computer science is involved vs actual language? Is it a career/lifestyle I should consider going into? Thanks!

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First of all your ECs do not need to have anything at all to do with your intended major.

Also, some universities (Harvard, MIT, Stanford come to mind) do not even consider your major when deciding whether to admit you as a freshman coming out of high school. MIT for example if you are admitted and choose to go there uses your stated intended major to help to match you to a freshman year advisor. Then at the end of your freshman year you pick any major that you want (which in some cases, including mine, implies a change in advisor).

Also, you are a very competitive applicant and are going to get admitted to some very good universities.

I think that you should apply for whatever major is your first choice. I do not think that you should game the system and I do not think that you need to game the system by trying to apply for an “easier admissions” major.

The two considerations that you might face are affordability, and finding a school that is a good fit for you. These are of course important considerations for a very large number of students. In terms of “a good fit” the schools are also looking for this, and they get it right quite often.

I might also add that both math and computer science are skills that can be applied in a wide range of different careers.

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I’m a quantitative sociolinguist and dialectologist, but any of the quantitative linguistic fields—and many of the non-quantitative ones, FTM—are trending more and more into computational analysis. (Heck, I just wrote a short review article on exactly that development!) I wouldn’t call myself a computational linguist by any stretch of the imagination, but one has to keep up at least a little bit with that subfield to feel at all current in anything else!

Given your description of yourself, there appear to be—oversimplifying quite a bit here—two different academic directions you can go: You can major in comp sci and minor in lx (or, though this is rarely available at the undergrad level, major in comp sci and follow a comp lx track within the major), or major in lx and minor in comp sci (or major in lx with a comp lx focus, which is more available but still not widely so at the undergrad level). You could, of course, as a third option double major in comp sci and lx, but unless you’re coming in with a lot of AP/IB/DE credits it would be difficult, and some places won’t allow it if the majors are in different colleges anyway.

My recommendation: If what interests you is language itself (or language acquisition) as a cognitive phenomenon and you see computational approaches as a tool that would be useful for understanding that, major in lx. If what interests you is the algorithmic modeling of intelligence(s) and you see language as a useful way to conceptualize and test those models, major in comp sci. (And if what interests you is the languages themselves, then major in languages—and maybe seek out a dual language major.)

And in terms of future employment, the comp sci major is a surer bet, and much more lucrative; in terms of flexibility for what directions you can take it in the future, the lx major approach (IMO) offers a wider range of possibilities. I’ll second @DadTwoGirls, though, that you should not think at this point in terms of “less competitive”—if you mean at the front end, most universities don’t admit by major anyway (though for those that do, comp sci tends to have lower admission rates—but you’ve got decent enough stats for most places); if you mean that in terms of getting through the major, it depends entirely on your own talents (e.g., I’ve known English majors who would absolutely perish in math classes, but I’ve also known math majors who couldn’t write their way through an English class’s writing assignments even if you told them exactly what to write about and gave them forever to do it).

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Just wanted to refer back to the LAC suggestion, as there may be good financial options in this category.

Pomona, especially, offers similar resources to a larger research university in many ways - there are over 7000 undergraduates in the Claremont Consortium, and some grad-level coursework is available too. Linguistics is in a shared department with Cognitive Science, which has a CS component, so there’s a lot of interdisciplinary crossover. You could major in CS, math, CogSci, Ling… double-majoring is common… and you don’t need to apply to a specific program or even declare your major until sophomore spring. Pomona’s course offerings are great, and you can cross-register seamlessly at the other four schools as well. Could be a really nice option. Very reachy, but potentially generous with aid.

If you’d be open to a smaller LAC that is not in a consortium, Grinnell might be one to look at. It isn’t quite as tough an admit as the Pomona/Williams/Amherst tier of LAC’s, but it has a huge endowment and thus can be quite financially generous. Plus, it’s strong in CS/math and offers a fairly robust ling concentration. Run the NPC to see whether the projected aid would work.

You seem like you’re going to be in a situation where your options are split between very-reachy privates that offer enough need-based aid, and relatively affordable public U’s that are more in the match or safety category. In that situation, it can be worth considering “playing the ED card” at highly competitive but generous schools that advantage ED applicants. This would not be “HYPS,” as their early application cycle doesn’t confer any advantage. But schools like Rice U., for example, can be just as generous as HYPS, but applying ED gives a meaningful boost to your chances of getting in. Other schools like this include Northwestern, Duke, Johns Hopkins, Pomona College, UPenn, WashU, UChicago… I’m sure there are more, but I’m less sure of top-tier aid at some than others, so run NPC’s to see which would offer a compelling financial package that could be worth a binding application. Some of these schools have ED2 also (JHU, Pomona… also Grinnell if their aid turns out to look particularly good). I often think that ED is overutilized, especially among the CC crowd, when many students would be better off keeping their options open; but for your situation, if there are highly-rejective schools that land in the sweet spot of fit, generosity, and ED advantage, it could be smart to take your shot in ED.

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I was just talking to my parents about considering ED! We’re definitely interested in applying to some public schools early for a chance at merit aid(think Purdue, etc.) as well as potentially considering private colleges. I really appreciate the suggestions and will be continuing to refine my list going forward while considering potential options. I noticed that after considering costs with family, a lot of my OOS “match” options were off the table and I realize this is the most lacking part of my college list–do you have any recommendations regarding this category? Any schools that are strong in CS/Math/Business/Linguistics yet not extremely highly-rejective? As of now the only one that really fits that category for CS is Purdue and maybe some others(no longer considering UC’s or UIUC/UT Austin as those are very likely off the table)

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As a side note how likely would I be to recieve any merit aid from University of Maryland - college park/baltimore? Is it worth keeping on the list or should I remove it(slightly out of price range at 55k full pay+ probably not going to attend if full pay). What about university of Wisconsin madison for merit? Thanks!

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As recommended above, Utah will meet budget with WUE at ~$35K and potentially better (there is additional merit aid if you have ~4.0UW and a strong course load eg full IB or 8-10APs).

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How accurate are the NPC’s for T20s? Should I take it as the truth when considering what college to apply early to?

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Depends on the simplicity or complexity of the parental finances and how accurate the information you put in them is. If your parents are married and have mainly W-2 income with perhaps small amounts of interest and dividend income, that is a simple situation where NPCs are likely to be close to the actual FA. But if they are divorced (and not cooperative about sharing financial information with whoever uses the NPC), have income from self employment, small business, rental real estate, farming, unusual types of investments, etc., then the likelihood of NPC accuracy goes down.

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Thanks! I have a pretty simple financial situation so I’ll definitely take that into account.

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Purdue is under $45k full pay as would be U of Florida.

Wisconsin is highly unlikely to meet. Maryland has a very slim potential for large enough merit. Minnesota will assuredly come under budget with $15k merit and it’s similar in prestige if that’s your concern.

Many, many schools are under $45k for you….many schools - and Alabama may end up free tuition and one year housing given your National Recognition Status.

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  1. Most anywhere that’s strong for comp sci and also has a lx program will have a decently strong lx program.
  2. I scrolled up and saw that you’re from Oregon—any particular reason the University of Oregon isn’t on your initial list while Oregon State is?
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Yeah, I heard that the CS program falls off after the fundamental classes and the math department isn’t very good at all. Could be mistaken though, they also offer a full-ride Stamps scholarship