Match Me: HS Senior, Computer Science or Computer Engineering Major looking for college with friendly environment [PA resident, 3.8 GPA, 1470 SAT, 33 ACT, NMSF]

Chance Me / Match Me
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Looking for college suggestions, as my son only has a couple schools on his list.
Shy and introverted kid and is looking for:

  • School with a strong computer program, either computer science or computer engineering (preferred) including hardware side (networking, security, circuits) and AI, programming, etc. May also want to major in math (instead or additionally?)

  • Has relevant experience and is talented in a variety of computer fields already, but DOESN’T want a very competitive environment, where kids are studying late Friday nights and always stressed out. Prefers more collaborative environments with team projects, etc.

  • Should have very challenging classes but less of the ranking kids against each other and grading on a curve, that fails a good portion of the students kinda stuff (and other things that makes for a competitive instead of collaborative environment).

  • Likes interacting with teachers/professors, likes research, likes being social in small groups, enjoys most club or rec-level sports

  • plays several instruments and wants to keep doing so for fun or ideally be able to take music classes on campus and have access to practice rooms.

  • Doesn’t like big drinking or big football culture. (That can exist at the school, but not what EVERYONE revolves their weekend around.)

  • Prefer: LGBTQ+ friendly, progressive-leaning ideally, bonus if nice weather but not necessary.

  • Friendly/welcoming culture

  • Size of school or town isn’t important…except, he doesn’t like NYC, Chicago, or other very big cities. Likes “regular” sized cities. Small towns or rural is fine too.

  • Also doesn’t love very spread out campuses where you have to take a bus or ride a bike to get to class bc it’s so spread out, like UofMichigan. But would deal with it.

Doesn’t care much about prestige.

Cost isn’t the primary decision factor.

May want to get a masters, so an undergraduate school that would help get into a good graduate program would be nice.

**Demographics: US citizen, PA Resident, Public High School

**Cost Constraints / Budget: Open

STATS:
GPA: 3.8/4.0
SAT: 1470 (single score), ACT: 33
8 APs with almost all 5s, took almost every high level STEM class offered at high school with all As in STEM classes. 9 or 10 honors classes.
Two (full semester) college computer classes from prestigious universities over the summers, A’s

National Merit Semi Finalist (but we aren’t seriously looking at the full ride schools, although could)

Good Extracurriculars, including lots of music, sports, leadership, jobs, independent study

Solid references (they reached out to him and offered to write).

Essays are probably below average (just a so-so writer.)

Looking for a good culture fit that also has a solid computer track that will be exciting and challenging and worth the investment.

I know some of these things contradict each other, but any ideas? Anywhere in California that would work? Or anywhere?
I think he would like a liberal arts college vibe that is strong in STEM or at least strong in computer offerings. Does such a thing exist? Thank you.

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Would it be correct to assume that colleges where there is competitive secondary admission to his desired majors would be less desirable?

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warm but expensive: ucsd and ut,austin
midwest: wisconsin, virginia tech and minnesota

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Lafayette may be worth a look.

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Harvey Mudd - LAC strong in STEM, and it’s in California.

Amherst College also came to mind (although, it’s on the opposite coast).

There are several others like these.

The main thing to check at LACs is the availability of advanced CS classes, in case your son exhausts his options early.

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What schools are on his list? What schools has he researched and said no to?

Rochester, Tufts, and Carleton fit some of the criteria, but not warm weather. Emory could work, although the state is not great for LGBTQ (but school is.) Has he considered U Miami?

I know you said the big NMF merit schools aren’t on the list, but UT Dallas really hits many of his wants.

ETA: Case Western

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I think that could work. Excelling at coursework in engineering weedout level classes, for example, should not be a problem. But once you you in your major, if fellow students are not interested in studying together (b/c they are still being competitive) that would be miserable.

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Have you identified schools like this in CS or CE?

IMO it’s possible for the academic environment to be intense where students are highly driven to succeed, yet many of the students are collaborative where study groups abound…for example, again IMO, Harvey Mudd, JHU, CMU are like this. Can one find a competitive loner who doesn’t want to collaborate at those schools? Probably, but that’s not the norm, even at some of the schools commonly described as ‘competitive’.

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Congrats to your son.

So when you say cost isn’t a primary driver, you are ok spending $90k plus a year vs $0-$20k?

Lots of schools have the ability to take advantage of NMSF / NMF from Bama, FSU, Tulsa, UTD (mentioned above), Maine.

I think all schools have weed out classes in engineering/CS, he’ll find study partners at all if he seeks them out, and all will get him to grad school - whether Ga Tech or Ga State. So the where won’t matter. Now some will get you grad school for free. It’s not for you but Alabama gives 5 years tuition, four housing and money for NMF. Others won’t be free like Bama but may offer a free 5th year or free Masters. So you might seek one out. Of course many go in thinking masters and quickly change. It’s hard to think that far out.

So to me - you get to budget first. You say it’s not the primary driver and it’s great but just making sure you understand the true cost and the differential vs possible schools since you mentioned NM.

Also many schools are LGBTQ friendly - so a Case Western, Texas. Is it the school or the state that’s the important part here. Some feel the states those schools are in might not work.

I think even schools with football culture have many that avoid it.

It does seem a smaller school would be better.

Larger school Ga Tech (reach), Pitt (likely), UTD with NMF for larger. Cal Poly SLO too.

RPI, WPI, Col School of Mines, RIT for smaller. Union for an LAC.

There’s many more but would be far less selective.

Hope that helps in addition to the others above.

You should really set a budget unless you are willing and able to spend $400k.

And define lgbtq friendly - is it at the school level (many) or governmental - less.

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WPI? Small city, not a sports culture - good friends have a son there and he really likes it. A bonus is that due to the quarter system kids can go abroad which is often tough if you are a CS/Engineering major.

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I thought I saw something about city or weather but then couldn’t find.

So maybe not Ga Tech ( a reach anyway) or Pitt which is in the Oakland neighborhood so urban but not downtown.

To OP several mentioned UTD. it’s in Richardson, not Dallas. Still on the sprawl but not downtown. Same with CWRU etc but check each school’s location.

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Thank you so much! Harvey Mudd looks totally perfect, in terms of culture and what they offer.

But I don’t think there is much of chance of being admitted, as their typical student has a 3.96 unweighted and 1520 SAT. I think it’s likely he could get his SAT score up, but not sure it’s where he should put his effort now given the unlikely chance (10%) because of GPAs they are looking for are much higher.

Any other schools that are similar in terms of offering and culture but accept students with a lower GPA? Thank you again.

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Taking out some of what you desire (like Harvey Mudd) - Rose Hulman, WPI to an extent. Col School of Mines a bit bigger and a bit more academically diverse.

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Thank you! Will look at those three.

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Edited to add:

LGBTQ+ Friendly means just the school culture and by that we mean mostly the fellow students are accepting. Don’t care about the state laws or state politics.

Schools looked at or currently considering:

Cal Poly - Haven’t visited but seems like it could be a good fit, from people we know who attended. Hard to get to from PA.

RIT - Applying. Visited. Liked it. Liked the new feel of the buildings and campus. Didn’t like the Rochester weather (extra cold, windy, and less sun than average.)

Lafayette - Applying. Visited. Liked it. Friendly.
Didn’t love it. Not sure why. Didn’t get much of a chance to learn about their engineering or STEM courses, so I think that’s the big question. Would visit again if accepted.

Pitt - Applying. Visited with CS and Engineering specific tour and liked the engineering school a lot. Students and tour guide were very friendly. Looked like they have state of the art lab equipment and students get access to it early. Currently top choice. Don’t know about access to professors or what the social scene is like for shy kids. Seems bigger than they wanted, but maybe that doesn’t matter as much once you get into your school/major?

Virginia Tech - Visited. Likely a no. Too spread out, felt too big, concerned they would get lost in the system. Seems heavy into government and military industries for jobs and less connected to big Tech, but could be off here.

Drexel - Visited. No. Kid doesn’t like it. Too urban, Philadelphia seemed…ugly (sorry, not my words) Campus seemed “dead” but maybe just when we visited. Not many kids out and about chatting or studying together.

Boulder - Visited. Probably a no. Likes the Colorado “vibe” but school seemed really spread out and probably more of a party vibe than he is looking for (although i’m sure everyone can find their place).

Didn’t visit CO School of Mines, unfortunately. Had heard it produced engineers who act like know-it-alls. Probably unfair assessment and we should give it a look.

Haven’t visited Case Western. Maybe should.

Oberlin - visited and really liked it culturally (strong access to professors, friendly students when we were on the tour), but concerned would quickly exhaust their CS offerings and not sure about doing a 3-2 engineering program because they would need to acclimate to ANOTHER school after 3 years, for 2 years. But considering. Would mean paying full price for 5 years of school to get a 4 year degree, so doesn’t seem like a good value, but maybe if the engineering degree was from Caltech it would be financially worth it? Planning on talking to school again to get a better idea of offerings.

CMU - Not applying. Very unlikely to get in and we have heard their undergrads are exhausted from the workload (they don’t have time for extracurriculars or much of a “regular” social life). I know that’s all relative and may be untrue.

U Rochester - Visited, not applying but not totally sure why. Did get to talk to a CS student while on campus and they didn’t seem very positive on the school. Sometimes just one person can turn you on or off to a school, and I’m not sure how much weight to give those interactions. Also, heard there is a lot of crime that borders the campus.

Currently researching:

RPI and WPI
Washington and Lee
UC schools and if any of them would be a fit and are worth the $$
??

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Va Tech is interesting. It’s HUGE but the school area where they go not so much. But it wasn’t for you -it’s all good.

If you looked at Va Tech, how about UMASS - and I only say this because while it’s not HMC like, it has a consortium - so you could take a class at neighboring Amherst as an example. Same with Pitt and CMU - although there may be rules behind what you an take.

The Minnesota schools have similar.

I’m guessing he’ll like School of Mines, on the outskirts of Denver. It was my sons #3 but it closer to home could have worked. The student panel was great. Never heard a comment about know it alls but I think kids should inspect and not go by I heard.

Pitt - if it’s the top choice, you can stop there. Access to profs can be had most anywhere if the student makes the effort.

As for lgbtq - I’ve seen kids holding hands (same sex) at both my kids schools (in SC and Alabama) and I don’t think the LGBTQ thing is probably a huge deal at most mainstream schools. My kid’s school in Alabama has a 4.5 of 5, Pitt a 5. Other schools you’d think would be “friendly” have lower scores - but in general, while you’ll have kids everywhere who may “oppose” - just like you’ll have liberals and conservatives, short of a religious or truly conservative school, I think you’ll find LGBTQ kids/clubs, so of course check out the schools you visit, but it’s likely not going to be a barrier at schools mentioned in some fashion above.

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As mentioned by others, I would add RPI, WPI, and Case Western to the list.

I hesitate to say Purdue because of the size but it fits all the other criteria and a living learning community at a big school may really help. Here’s the link to Purdue’s CS and engineering LLCs: Learning Communities - Learning Communities Available to Students in the College of Engineering

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@2025_Is_Almost_Here do you want suggestions of colleges that are less costly? I understand that you might be comfortable being full pay anywhere. Some families will do this…because they can, and want to. We did.

So please, just clarify. If you want less costly options, then some have been provided.

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thank you!!!

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I agree Rose-Hulman seems like potentially strong fit. WPI, School of Mines, and Tulsa as well.

Have you considered Clarkson? Maybe not a weather fit, but otherwise seems promising to me.

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