My daughter’s ideal major choice would be something that mixes Computer Science and Psychology/Behavioral Science (more like Human Computer Interface). So far she got early acceptances from CU Boulder (Comp Sci), U of Oregon (Comp Sci) and Purdue (Brain and Behavioral Science). She has applied Early Decision (ED2) at Scripps College (Neuroscience), decision for which will be out soon by Feb 15. We are wondering if it is worth converting our ED at Scripps to RD and awaiting news from more colleges like U Michigan (Neuroscience) and UW Seattle (HCI). She still likes Scripps a lot, but Purdue is more well known internationally. This is a hard choice for her and us. Assuming she gets in both Michigan and UW Seattle, she would still have a hard time making decision between Scripps over any of these other colleges. Thoughts?
Are all of the schools affordable?
She should pay attention to whether she gets direct admission to her major and (if not) how competitive it will be to enter her major after enrolling.
Scripps does not have CS natively; students would take CS courses or a major at other Claremont colleges. http://catalog.scrippscollege.edu/preview_entity.php?catoid=15&ent_oid=1136
Scripps has the best academic reputation out of all of those schools aside from the bigger state schools, which would offer her more resources. But with the claremont college consortium Scripps gives her the academic benefits of a smaller college but the resources of a larger university. I would keep her decision as a ED.
She should check out the Computation track within the Cognitive Science major based at Pomona (which she can declare as a Scripps student). http://catalog.pomona.edu/preview_entity.php?catoid=24&ent_oid=1405&returnto=4880 Don’t be put off by the need to base her major on another campus - there is no barrier to doing this.
She can also declare the CS major through either Mudd or Pomona. The Keck Science Neuroscience major would be hard to combine with a CS major, as it has heavy lab science requirements - I am not sure that both majors could be completed in four years. (But a Neuroscience major with a CS minor would be doable. Plus, there are non-major neuroscience classes, such as the one my daughter is taking this semester, that can be taken to round out a CogSci or Psych major.) There is no shortage of options for your daughter at Scripps, academically; and CS at Mudd/Pomona has a stellar reputation, and the best gender-parity to be found in a CS program.
My daughter had similar interests and chose Scripps over both UDub and CU Boulder (as well as a bunch of others not on your list). While there are some things that she wishes were different at Scripps, socially and geographically speaking, the academic experience has been excellent, and there isn’t any other school she applied to that she thinks would have been better. UW’s programs are terrific, but if you don’t get Direct Admit to your major, there’s a lot of stress associated with applying to CS and CS-adjacent majors, which have around a 30% admit rate, once you’re there. You have to scratch and claw for perfect grades in large, “weeder” intro classes. My daughter LOVED UDub, but ultimately it wasn’t worth paying OOS tuition to compete for resources when she could get a 5C’s education for less money (thank you, merit aid!) and have small classes with supportive professors from Day One. (I think she’d still love to get to Seattle for grad school, though!)
If your daughter liked Scripps enough to ED, I would say that there is zero academic reason to change her mind, unless she wants to keep the option of a full-on Engineering program open (but it doesn’t sound as if she’s applied to any Engineering majors, and they aren’t easy to switch into after the fact - even CS at Purdue may not be easy to switch to from Brain & Behavioral Sciences. The mobility between/among programs is going to be markedly easier at the Claremonts than at any of her large public U’s, excellent though they are.) Feel free to PM me if you have questions.
Purdue is such a great school! Have you visited any of these colleges? It may help to speak with faculty in the various departments.
Purdue caps the number of CS students so It would be good to check on difficulty of transferring or taking courses in the department. Also as far as programs go Purdue is several magnitudes stronger than CU so much so that we will be paying OOS tuition at Purdue or another better OOS option.
Scripps appears academically distinguished – at least in terms of selectivity – when compared to most of her other choices:
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-610-smartest-colleges-in-america-2015-9
Other factors beyond the above ranking matter of course, but a potential offer from Scripps should not be regarded lightly.
Scripps is the stronger choice for her interdisciplinary interests, especially due to being a model program in cs for women. I’m not sure how supportive Purdue is in that regard. I’ve heard it’s very weedout.
really appreciate your detailed reply regarding our query…aquapt@ - will get back to you with more queries…fingers crossed for ED 
I’ll just throw in support for what everyone else mentioned. Be confident with your daughter’s ED2 application at Scripps. Listen, if this were a case where your daughter was considering an isolated LAC solely for its prestige (Oberlin, for instance) when other larger schools were more appropriate for her desired major, I would suggest rethinking that ED application. However, as others has noted, not only will your daughter be able to attend a very well-regarded school (and a woman’s college to boot, with all the benefits that come along with such a special learning environment), but she’d get to fill in whatever courses she’d need at the other schools in the Claremont consortium, including Harvey Mudd.
This is what makes the Claremont schools so special. Each school is its own college, with its own independent structure and its own culture, but the schools also cross-pollinate, in the classroom, in social settings, and on the field (I forget which schools pair up (or “tri” up) to form Div. III teams, but they do). Of course, the OP knows all this, but for anyone who’s new to this site, it is important to note just how unique the Claremont system is. Of course, the schools are all very difficult to get into. Gosh, I’m old enough to remember when both Pitzer and Scripps were considered “easy” (comparatively) to gain admission.