Need help with last minute college list major change emergency thing

Today I kinda came to the realization that I only planned on majoring in business because my dad told me to. I don’t like business or know anything about it. I took both Computer Science APs in high school and liked them enough, and I’d rather do that. The issue is my college list isn’t really catered toward that. I am on somewhat of a budget for most schools and my list isn’t conducive to CS.

Also - im a national merit semifinalist and I don’t qualify for any need based merit money

Rutgers (In state, don’t really want to go here)

Penn State (rutgers but out of state and more expensive)

Fordham (national merit full tuition, but CS is awful here)

Boston U (Good for CS, but I’d need the NMF scholarship to afford)

Northeastern (Really good for CS, but I’d need the NMF scholarship to afford)

Boston College (only applying to shoot my shot for their full ride thing which im not getting)

Indiana (rutgers but out of state and more expensive)

Princeton (my stats aren’t good enough to get in)

UNC (already applied as a business major, out of state, hard to get into)

I know Rutgers is fine, but I really don’t want to go in-state for school. My parents don’t want to pay more than 50k really for anything, and only wanna pay near that value if its way better than my state flagship (rutgers)

It’s too late to add other schools early action to my list like Maryland (top 8 CS) because of my school’s transcript request forms. I could apply regular decision, but then I wouldn’t be eligible for any scholarships because it isn’t early action (or is it the november 1st deadline in general, even if regular)? My schools aren’t really oriented toward my major and I already have a budget restriction. Could I even get a scholarship from maryland?

Please help I don’t know what to do and I have so much homework and no time to think about it. I just really don’t think I want to major in business at all. My stats are below

SAT: SAT - 1550 (790 RW, 760 Math) took it once

UW/W GPA and Rank: School doesn’t do class rank, 4.5766 weighted GPA, 3.96 UW

Coursework: 10 APS

  • AP Comp Sci A -5
  • AP Comp Sci Principles - 5
  • AP Bio - 5
  • APUSH - 5
  • AP Calc AB
  • AP Latin
  • AP Stat
  • AP Psych
  • AP Lit
  • AP Physics 1

Awards: National Merit Semifinalist in NJ, 3x Summa Cum Laude (4.3WGPA >), AP Scholar with Honor, NJ Latin Seal of Biliteracy

Extracurriculars:

  • Cross Country (9-12): 2x varsity letter winner, senior line leader, won a “character award”; led younger runners on race day, 16hrs/14 wk
  • Indoor Track (9-12): Senior line leader, JV for rest 16hrs/14wk
  • Outdoor Track (9-12): Senior line leader, JV, raced in relays, team qualified for MOCs (not me), 16hrs/14wk
  • Local tutoring through church organization for displaced kids (11-12) (2hrs/28wk)
  • Virtual tutoring for low-income families through club at school (10-12) (2hr/22wk)
  • Self Taught Guitarist - Taught myself to play, read chord charts, music theory, practice every single day, played/jammed with a band (9-forever) (14hrs/52wk)
  • Summer job as slide attendant at local pool (11th grade summer)
  • Chess Club member, attended meetings and played games at lunch (sort of a throwaway tbh, 9-12) (1hr/18wk)

Essays/LORs/Other: I think my essay was strong, LORs should be pretty good

please help

Apply regular decision to some schools that are affordable and have a computer science as a major. IIRC, Alabama has CS, and you would be awarded a huge scholarship there. That one is rolling admissions.

Look at some other schools that might come in under budget…would University of Delaware?

Seconding UAlabama for the automatic merit scholarships and the “Honors within Honors” opportunities.
(The only thing is whether the very strict abortion restrictions recently enacted matter to you or are in opposition to your religious beliefs. This applies to other states in a similar situation.)

UMass Amherst is topnotch for CS. Do apply to the Honors College.
Same thing for Maryland.

For Penn State, you can call tomorrow and ask to switch your major to CS (or DUS, undeclared, from which you can freely pivot to Business or CS). Make sure to complete the Schreyer essays since they’re a key factor in the decision.

The Luddy School at Indiana is excellent. Do call to indicate the major switch. Do apply to Honors College. (Same sidenote as w/ Alabama).

I wouldn’t apply to Fordham indeed.
Would you like SUNY Bing better than Rutgers?

What about Case Western Reserve? (Same sidenote as w/Alabama).

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Northeastern is very accommodating with major changes, so you would probably be okay even if you applied to business. They also have combined-major options like this one BS, Computer Science/Business Administration - Khoury College of Computer Sciences if that’s of interest. (And it would be very easy to drop the business side later and go straight-CS, since the first year is primarily CS classes either way.) I think the cost would be right around your max with NMF merit, but at least CS co-ops tend to pay pretty well which is a help.

Several of the NMF full ride schools have strong CS - UCF and UT-Dallas in particular. Their priority deadlines are December 1st which you could hopefully still meet.

Lots of good CS at the SUNY schools, which should also be in budget.

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UMD will be tough RD. I get the feeling you don’t want large school - is that correct although UMD is large.

You can join an Honors College at a large school.

Or you can find smaller schools if that’s a liking. UAH would be a smaller public and dirt cheap. Miami Ohio, with solid merit and Pitt (will be about target). Miami is rural and Pitt urban….both large but smaller than the large ones.

What kind of school do you seek size wise ? I’m sure you can do fine in CS from anywhere. So saying Fordham stinks is not true…especially at the price.

But yes with your national merit you’d have lots of affordable options.

Have you looked at MIS as a major which is usually in the b school ?

Anyway it’s smart to start CS. Business is often a fall back for CS/ engineers who struggle.

Let me know size wise what you like. Good luck to you.

You know…according to your OP, you applied to five of ten schools that you either don’t think you can afford or you don’t think you will be admitted to…for anything.

The five schools remaining are fine for your major choices.

I would urge you to add a couple of larger universities and apply to the honors colleges as well. Do some research. It seems you want to stay in the northeast…or close to it. U delaware isn’t far off the mark. It very well could come in at your price point.

You might want to look at University of Massachusetts. If you got a decent merit award, it would also come in within budget, I think.

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UMass Amherst. Great Comp Sci, all the resources of a large flagship state U in a beautiful setting, with fantastic food and good dorms, plus the resources of the 5 college consortium. Unless they’ve changed things recently, you don’t apply for honors - they just give it to you. Plus they might give you as much as 16K merit money, which would bring it in line with your budget. Looks like EA deadline is Nov 5, so I suggest you hurry, and check for yourself.

BTW, is it too late to apply for Nat’l merit finalist status?

Hoping the OP did this!!

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OP… Rutgers is stronger than CS than some of the other options folks are posting… so I encourage you to take another look at the opportunities there.

Check out stonybrook and see if it’s affordable.

Not sure what your actual budget is…and if it includes the federal loans for you?

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@blossom its really a decent budget.

I do agree with @blossom. Rutgers has everything you are looking for. It’s large enough that you won’t see everyone from your high school unless you want to.

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Not criticizing the budget just wondering if Princeton et al are affordable. If not…save your application fee!

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I concur with the suggestion of Binghamton as an alternative to Rutgers.

I wholeheartedly agree and was going to say the same thing. Rutgers has a strong CS program and has a very good reputation with employers. Plus OP may get enough merit to bring the annual cost under $20k. Going to UAlabama (not known for CS) vs Rutgers would be a bad idea IMO.

OP - Rutgers gets a bad rap amongst in-staters, but it really is a good school and you’ll do very well graduating from there with a CS degree.

Yes, likely too late as they need everything submitted by 11/1. No exceptions.

No, Nov 1 is only the EA deadline, but getting admitted to UMD CS in RD is very, very hard.

Only if you apply EA but even then it’s very competitive.

UMass has an excellent computer science program. COA for OOS students is about $53,000 a year. But you would have the chance to get some sort of merit award. I would add this RD.

Binghamton is about $48,000 a year.

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There is a Data Science major within many business schools. It could be something you may enjoy as well. You are still developing your interests. Most students change major once in college. Focus on a good fit college (including financial) and the rest will come into place.

Good point!

Not sure where you heard that. I’d place Rutgers above Northeastern for CS. They’re also very expensive. My advice: save your money, it’s not worth it.

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I have worked with a few CS graduates from Rutgers. When I was a graduate student at Stanford, there were several Rutgers graduates in the same program and they were all very good. You can do very well with a CS degree from Rutgers.

I agree with others that U.Mass Amherst is also very good for CS. I have worked with quite a few very strong software engineers and managers who graduated from U.Mass (some with a bachelor’s and some with a master’s). The EA deadline is November 5 which you might be able to meet if you act very quickly.

There is a tendency for students to under-appreciate their in-state public schools. I know a parent from Massachusetts whose daughter did not like U.Mass and wanted to go to UVM, and another parent from Vermont whose daughter did not like UVM and wanted to go to U.Mass. Both students got merit aid at the out of state university. Even with this both sets of parents paid an extra $20,000 per year for their daughter to go out of state. Fortunately both did very well and graduated in 4 years and on budget or slightly under budget. Regardless, they both could have also done well in-state at a lower price.

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Just to agree with the others, Rutgers is probably your stronger CS program and good opportunities.

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Virtually every student in my kid’s year applying to UMass from OOS was awarded merit money, ranging from 10K to 14K (their max went up to 16K a couple of years ago). So it’s very likely that cost of attendance without health insurance would be about 40K. But I don’t know if they’re so generous with merit money for Comp Sci - it’s very competitive to get into it, so they may not need to offer the applicants merit money.

@parentologist i agree…but if this student adds in the $5500 Direct Loan plus the $50,000 the parents will contribute, they will have it covered. And it’s a great program. We know more than several extremely successful graduates working for companies everyone here would recognize.

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