Potential Colleges

College Search & Lists
1

Hello,
I copied this layout from someone else with the goal of getting suggestions for possible schools to consider.

Stats
Ethnicity: White
Gender: Male
State: Minnesota
Scores: ACT - 27
GPA: 3.45
APs: None
Extracurriculars

  • I have been in Boy Scouts since I was eleven years old (six years). Also Cub Scouts prior to that starting at age five.
    I am an Eagle Scout (Highest Rank), am an elected member of the Order of the Arrow and am a Boy Scout STEM program participant. I also have done 450 hours total of community service through this.

I am currently a junior and will more than likely end my junior year with a 3.4 - 3.5 GPA

I am mostly interested in potential out of state schools. I am not scared off by out of state costs. I am just interested in what I could potentially want to tour and apply for. My intended degree would be computer science.

Thank you in advance

2

Congratulations on your hard work and success! That’s great that you’re an Eagle Scout. It’s a great accomplishment, and shows diligence, which is one of the best, if not the best, predictor of success in college. So that’s great. As the cherry on top, it looks great to admissions offices.

A couple of questions,

Do you have a preference in terms of the size of the school: Small (under 4000), Medium (4000-10,000), or large. (My categories are pretty arbitrary? Generally speaking, small liberal arts colleges (LACs) might offer smaller classes, larger universities might offer more research labs, big-time sports, etc. But, of course, there are small classes at big schools and research opportunities at small schools.

Would you prefer a rural, college town, or urban school? Grinnell is in rural Iowa, NYU is right in the middle of NYC. Very different places.

Do you have a regional preference? South, New England, West. Maybe you want to get out of the cold weather; or maybe you love it.

Any general preference: Yes to fraternities, or no interest? Chill and laid back or more competitive?

There are lots of great places you can study CS, especially if you can pay for them. So some preferences might be helpful. State flagships like UVA, UNC, and Michigan receive tons of applications and are extremely competitive. But lots of similarly outstanding flagships are not nearly as competitive in admissions. I’d think maybe Kansas or Kansas State, which are both in great college towns, but maybe you don’t want a large state school like that.

Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) is a STEM school that might work, but maybe is not of interest to you.

In terms of admissions, can you take the ACT again. Your score is good and getting it up might help. Does your school have APs? Schools like students to challenge themselves. If your school does not offer them, or does not offer many, college admissions should see that and it won’t be held against you. On the other hand, it would probably be detrimental if it offers a lot, and you don’t have any. So that’s something to consider in terms of evaluating the possibility of admission. For example, RIT might work, but might not, depending on things like this.

And when you get to college, 1) go to class 2) get a tutor for math and science classes, it’s a sign of academic strength, not weakness, and you’ll be paying for the resource, so very reasonably to use it. It really can help for these classes, which can be very challenging.

I think you can get some good suggestions with answers to these questions.

3

Thank you very much for your reply. In terms of the specific type of college, I primarily am looking for a very large school. I like the idea of your example of NYU as you mentioned it is in the middle of a large city type of environment. I took the ACT once at the beginning of the year officially and got 27. I plan on taking it again in two months with the goal of a 29 considering I have been taking an online ACT prep course for the past three months and have shown improvement. Finally, in terms of AP classes, my school does offer multiple AP classes. I regret not taking them earlier on because in all reality I could have succeeded greatly in them in hindsight. Next year I plan on taking AP Econ, AP Gov, College accounting and AP Computer Science. Once again thank you very much for your reply.

4

Some options based on that and given your score targets that are either large, urban, or both:
Drexel
American
GWU
Temple
U of Minnesota Twin Cities (I know it’s in-state but it aligns well with your preferences honestly. Don’t be scared to stay in state if the shoe fits! I actually listed this school off before checking your home state)
UF
UCF

Note that some of these are large reaches and some are matches. Wait until you get your scores and GPA more finalized before locking your designations for safety/match/reach in.

5

Look at U of Wisconsin Madison as a reach. You will need top math grades and scores. I believe you will get a tuition discount in Wisconsin as a Minnesota resident. Madison is really a top computer science program with top engineering. Your math test score will matter more if you want to study engineering. Computer science is in some cases in Arts and Scitnce departments. Also look at WPI in Worcester MA. They offer a very interesting hands on learning plan with a lot of support. Its a smaller technical school with less grad students than the big public schools you may favor. Visit schools like WPI, RIT and Drexel to see if you like they. Do you want to do a co op degree plan ? Drexel has a standard co op degree plan. You will work in a consul fot some semesters eaerning credits and money. It will give you experience as well.

6

Michigan state could be a target

Penn State UP (maybe the summer start)
Iowa
Umass Amherst

7

thank you for the input/reply

8

U of M was actually my top choice but I was under the impression that it was a significant reach given my stats. Definitely going to apply and if I get accepted attend there but if I don’t that’s were out of state comes in.

9

Congrats on the hard work and earning the coveted Eagle Scout honor. Way to go.

Many of the schools are excellent “thought starters” for you.

But oos oublic schools like UF would be a super reach. Massachusetts as well. UM although in state, would not be on my radar.

MSU and FSU in Michigan and Florida. UNH UMaine and URI in New England. All awesome schools and you would be a match for all. URI would be a near safety for you.

Good luck.

10

Your ACT & GPA are a bit low for one intending to major in CS.

The University of Michigan & the University of Florida are not realistic options for you based on your current numbers.

Consider the University of Central Florida & the other universities suggested by @PengsPhils in post #3 above. Also consider the schools listed by @privatebanker in post #8.

11

Just a pitch how do you feel about the service academies. Having the extracurriculars that you have are certainly attractive to those schools and your scores though not necessarily a high match can be looked aside if you have those strong points like being an Eagle Scout. You would be getting a high quality for free and none of those schools have weak STEM or CS programs. Consideration probably wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.

12

Oh and I hate to be preachy and cliché like many others, but retaking the ACT would probably help. Raising your score really does extend your options.

13

@GoCubsGo719 What would you say should be my ideal target score?

14

@privatebanker Thank you for the suggestions. I plan on researching deeper into that of which you have suggested and hopefully do a few tours over my spring break.

Thanks again

15

@PengsPhils U of M was actually my top choice but I was under the impression that it was a significant reach given my stats. Definitely going to apply and if I get accepted attend there but if I don’t that’s were out of state comes in.

What do you think my odds are?

16

If you like U of M, maybe consider the University of Kansas. It’s a large school with big-time sports. Lawrence is obviously not NYC but is a great college town. In fact, you can google “lawrence kansas college town” and you’ll see it ranked on lots of lists. There’s a nice area with lots of restaurants, etc. right down the hill from campus. A lot of the top high school students in Kansas go there, so quality students. And a major research university, so quality faculty. Here’s info on freshman merit scholarships, and it looks like you’d be eligible. Scroll down to out-of-state students.

https://admissions.ku.edu/tuition-scholarship/freshman

https://livability.com/top-10/college/10-best-college-towns/2018/ks/lawrence

Universities of Iowa and Nebraska are both urban schools.

There are some good recommendations. Drexel and Temple in Philly are urban schools and might work if you are interested in going to school in a big city.

I’m going to give you one out-of-the-box recommendation (at least for a MN student): James Madison University (JMU) in Virginia. Why JMU? It’s a large public university. The football team is FCS and has done very well in recent years (national championship). In VA the public universities have very competitive in-state admissions, and JMU gets lots of great students, especially from Northern Virginia. It’s not well known in MN, I know, but is very respected in the DC area. It has more of an entrepreneurial vibe than the vast majority of schools. It’s in Harrisonburg in the Shenandoah Valley. Beautiful campus. It’s not quite southern weather (a little in the mountains and in the northwestern part of the state) but much warmer than MN. Maybe most importantly, JMU students/alums LOVE the school. Really very loyal and devoted. Big downside: it is expensive for OOS students.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMirFrEaZKs

If a school looks good to you, make sure to check a school’s policy regarding majoring in computer science. Sometimes students can just declare it as a major; sometimes they need a certain GPA; sometimes they must apply after completing a certain number of semesters, etc. at a school; and sometimes an applicant must be directly admitted into the program. For example, a student cannot just show up and major in CS at Carnegie Mellon. The University of Washington admitted most students directly into CS, although I think they have opened it up to more students in recent years. I am just using those two schools as examples where there is a direct admit process into CS, or at least there was in recent years.

Good luck!

17

^^^This is so important. For instance at Purdue, students applying for computer science must apply by the priority application deadline of Nov. 1 to be considered. Every year, students who have great credentials don’t understand why they didn’t get admitted – and it’s because they didn’t apply by Nov. 1. Once the program is full, it’s closed. Computer science is an impacted major at many schools, so you have to dig a little deeper to find out the parameters of applying to that major. Every school is going to be a little different, so ask questions about deadlines and priority application dates when you visit. If you can’t visit, make sure you search the school’s deadlines, both on its admissions website and on the computer science department pages.

18

@Isoinfo Thank you for informing me of that

19

@TTG Thank you, I will definitely look into JMU

20

I’ll also amplify on the @Isoinfo comment on early deadlines. That is also often true for consideration for financial aid. I believe that Kansas link on OOS merit aid in my earlier post said the deadline for merit aid is also Nov. 1. So students who get close to a Jan. 1 or Jan. 15 or Feb. 1 deadline might very well be out of luck, for direct admission to some programs, and for merit aid at many places. But it does mean if you get things done early, you are competing for money in a much smaller pool.

It seems to me like Kanas offers a lot for a pretty reasonable OOS cost with that merit aid. I live in a great college town. A neighbor teaches at the school here and at Kansas. They said they really enjoy Lawrence more–better restaurants, etc.

It seems like you are doing your research early, which is great, and itself is a good predictor of success in college!

And I’ll just add on JMU, it has a great alumni network in the DC area, which is very economically dynamic (home for the new co-Amazon HQ with something like 37k jobs). Northern Virginia is a huge, premier tech area, and JMU grads are well represented in that. One reason is that the business school is very good and very entrepreneurial. That Northern Virginia connection is really a huge bonus for the school that might get overlooked from a distance. It’s more like some of the excellent CA public universities that are not Cal Berkeley or UCLA–they have lots of terrific students and the close proximity to Silicon Valley, SF, LA, etc. offers them great career opportunities.

Fairfax County has over a million residents and lots of large high schools filled with excellent students. UVA and William and Mary are crazy competitive. JMU is considered a very competitive school, requiring excellent grades and test scores. One of my best friend’s kids was accepted there and Virginia Tech. They went to JMU and loved it and have a great, high-paying job just a couple of years out.