These are basically my three realistic options, or my “safeties”. So, which one do you think is the best? My intended major is computer science, but intentionally I left my intended major out of the title because I’m asking about the schools’ qualities overall, not just academically. Although academics is the most important thing, so which one is best for CS? I’m talking about quality of education as well as likelihood to get a job/be recruited and starting salary. Besides academics, another big thing is location. I’m from downstate New York, so obviously Stony is the closest. But it’s kind of too close for me, and from what I’ve heard the students go home often leaving the campus dead most of the time. The other two are in the middle of nowhere as well, but I kind of want to get out and be far away, not with the exact same people for another 4 years. But I’ve heard nothing specifically about the locations of each of the other two, so if you can inform me a little on that that would be great. Specifically I’m interested in the social life and especially internship opportunities (in the field of my major obviously).
Besides that, another concern is finance. I’m fairly well-off, but clearly spending $8,000 on Stony is better than $30,000 on one of the others. It’s not a deal breaker because, again, I can easily afford any of them, but just something to keep in mind.
Texas A&M and Virgina Tech are both very strong engineering schools so I’m sure there CS departments are all both good. One thing you could do is call the college placement office and each school and ask if they can give you a list of the companies that came on campus in the last year to recruit CS majors. Some schools put this on there website but it can be hard to find. That would at least give you an idea of who recruits at a school. If the placement office won’t give it to you try the academic advisors for those majors. I know we ask that question at each school we have visited. Sometimes I get the we have over 400 companies come on campus each year to recruit our engineering majors (GT) and others they show a list in the general info session for engineering. If your looking at Texas a&M and VT might as well look at Georgia Tech, University of Illinois, Purdue all good engineering school with good CS majors.
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most obvious of these is Stony Brook. I’m a NY resident so it’s insanely cheaper than all the other ones. So obviously the only reason to go anywhere else is if their CS program was significantly better/had significantly better job opportunities. And to make it more complicated, I really don’t want to go to Stony Brook. I’ve heard the CS program is good, but every other aspect seems terrible. Apparently it’s largely a commuter school, so the campus is dead on the weekends. I only live an hour away, so I’d basically probably be a commuter too. This isn’t what I’m looking for in a college experience. I want an adventure, to be out in the real world. Going to a commuter school in Long Island for that is basically like going camping in your backyard. But alas, an extra $20,000-$30,000 isn’t worth it if I’m getting the same academic experience. Which is why I’m looking for options, schools with a similar acceptance rate to Stony while also having a superior CS program. One of these schools I’m looking is VA Tech. I know they have a good engineering program, but I don’t know about CS. Their acceptance rate is 70% and they’re public, so I think it’s a pretty good safety. Another is Texas A&M, which has a similarly high acceptance rate and also I’m not sure about their CS. Purdue is slightly more difficult to get in but still well above Stony. I’m pretty sure they’re superior by far to Stony in CS, which makes me think that their CS acceptance rate is actually much lower than their overall (a la UIUC and UWash). Then there’s UW Madison which has a slightly higher acceptance rate, but again the ranking of its CS makes me think it’s one of those “oh yeah this school is easy to get into unless you want to do CS” schools.Finally there’s UC Irvine, which presents another interesting dilemma. Their acceptance rate is almost identical to Stony, but I think my numbers are good enough to get that thing where if you apply to a UC school, you’re admitted to the “UC system”, meaning you can go to at least one UC school, just not necessarily the one you applied to. So I guess I’d ask how Irvine compares to Stony, and also how all the ones below it compare too.
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You’re forgetting that some schools might give you a merit scholarship for your stats, so they may end up cheaper than Stony.
CS at VA Tech is in the Engineering school. I’m pretty sure they don’t accept 70% of the applicants to Engineering. Look on the VA Tech section of this forum and plenty of high stat out of state students don’t get accepted. The stats are skewed because VA Tech is also an agricultural school and there are some other majors that are not all that demanding. You don’t have to phone VA Tech to find out what companies recruit there, as someone suggested. It is easily found on their site as well as a google. There was a discussion on Reddit a while back.
You say “you” are fairly well off. Do you mean your parents are? Do the COA calculators on every school you are considering. Do them with your parents and make sure they agree with paying the sums. Every year on this site we see “my parents make a million dollars a year but won’t pay for college.” Lock them down now.
You’ve chosen three schools that sound great. There’s nothing wrong with applying to all and figuring it out when you get accepted and know the cost. Since you didn’t list your stats we have no idea whether these schools are in reach or not. Make sure you have a couple of true safeties. Make sure you visit the schools too.
Be aware that TAMU and VT both admit to first year pre-engineering; students must then earn a high enough GPA to enter their desired engineering or CS major.
For Stony Brook, there is also a GPA requirement to change into the CS major after enrolling, but you may want to check if you can get direct admission to the major as a frosh so that you would not have to worry about it.