You might have interest in the Brown rankings - different areas so the overall rank is by weighting.
UMD is 14
Rutgers is 34
Northeastern 39
Carolina is 70
I am not an expert but frequently we hear from CC posters that rank doesnât matter for CS. Stories are often conveyed of kids graduating from schools that are ranked very poorly who get competitive jobs.
With that in mind UNC gives you great national brand recognition and optionality if Flagler works out and worst case in CS the students own determination and grit is what will matter.
I continue to believe you should bet on your kid.
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and NC State is #47 in that Brown reportâŠregardless, Iâm skeptical ofâŠ
I realize that kids in NJ have a âany where but Rutgersâ mentality but Rutgers is still an R1 institution, and member of AAU. (~65 premier research Universities in North America).
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My son is a NJ resident and NU senior. Rutgers Honors College has beautiful dorms and I believe a nice scholarship (or they used to). My sonâs roommates include CS majors. Theyâve gotten co-ops as software engineers, one in San Francisco. One has a post-grad job offer, which is great in a difficult tech economy. My neighborâs son goes to Rutgers and she constantly complains about the lack of communication from the school and the poor advising. NU has school spirit around hockey and has won the Beanpot Tournament the past few years, which was exciting. Itâs easy to do combined majors and travel abroad in short-term summer sessions (Dialogues of Civilization).
Of course UNC has the big basketball program and is very hard to get accepted to from NJ, so congrats to your son.
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I think it all comes down to - which I said earlier.
There are no bad options. Rutgers has a great national brand and the Honors college has a great rep. A family friend got a great law school scholarship (free tuition) after going there - not a top school (they turned down Vandy) for a solid private in Florida but their experience was top notch
UNC is a great national brand - but in 90%+ of cases, that brand likely wonât extend beyond any other large flagship. But is your student interested in the area(s) where it might open a door? It sounds like potentially.
UMD has been dismissed - but is strong in both CS and Business - but like UNC, one has to be in CS and business vs just knowing the school is good in it - but since you dismissed it, it can be gone. That you got into CS is quite an accomplishment, btw.
Northeastern might be the hardest of the four to get in - and is a different school - in the big city - and is the one school that assures work experience - which may or may not turn into a career boost or transition into a formal career. Itâs also the one school that seems to fully meet your academic needs on day one (both business and CS).
I continue to believe - there isnât a bad choice here.
There are choices with an assurance of major vs. not. There are choices in bureaucracy or with an Honors program that may tear down some of that bureaucracy an/or provide a more thorough advising experience (by the way, not all kids need this). There are choices in the big city vs. the smaller city. And there are choices near home (which many kids eschew) and away from home.
What there isnât - best I can tell - is a bad choice.
In my mind, four different people could choose any of four different schools in this case - and itâs likely on campus, that will be the case with like schools. Not everyone chooses the school with the highest rank, best basketball team (although I did), lowest cost or even direct admit opportunity. Itâs perfectly reasonable that any individual would pick any of these four schools over the other three (Iâll use the original four even though it sounds like UMD has been eliminated).
Everyone thinks differently - and Iâm sure OP will have their thoughts after visiting both Boston and Chapel Hill.
PS - I also think that any parent who is willing to fund their kidâs choice of school, whatever it is, is in fact betting on their kid!!!
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Thank you very much. This beautifully summarizes every option we have in a single post!!!.
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Please let us know what you and your student decide. Not all parents are willing to fully fund their kids choices even if they have the financial flexibility to do so. You are incredibly supportive!!
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Will surely update this thread with final decision (hopefully in next few weeks)!. Thanks all parents for your support and suggestions.
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I would just add â donât discount the difficulty of getting into competitive clubs, if that is an important component for secondary admission. We see lots of posts here and on parent Facebook pages about kids who are shut out of college clubs and how stressful and problematic that is.
Not sure if thatâs relevant to the clubs under discussion here, but certainly this was nothing I was aware of ahead of time, so I wanted to mention it.
The parent Facebook page for UNC might have information on this, if itâs important to you.
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^ itâs VERY relevant, esp. for KF, but Iâve already posted on this topic so I wonât rehash. (Only OP would know whether their kid would handle the process fine or would âinterview poorlyâ or find the subjective process difficult).
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Thank you very much. I believe you are referring to KF clubs for freshmen. If yes, I believe another member also broached this topic. We will research more on this but any pointers on what these clubs are would be beneficial. We will check out the FB groups also.
Agreedâbut what was surprising to me (and to many other parents on my kidâs school parent Facebook page (not UNC) was that getting into some of these clubs was sometimes impossible, as that hadnât been true of our own college experiences and we had the mistaken impression that college clubs were meant to be inclusive, not exclusive.
So just reiterating your points, as Iâm sure I would have not realized the sea change in college clubs over the decades!
It may not just be clubs for freshmen . It may be many different kinds of clubs.
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What exactly are these clubs and what do they do in these clubs?
Some are pre-professional, networking and preparing for interviews in finance or consulting. They can be helpful but are not essential to landing those jobs.
Many clubs, including student newspapers and service clubs, have try-outs now.
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Itâs funny, I was contacted by Haas Consulting club - that I get - but these others people talk about seem like head scratchers.
But someone is getting in - right? 
I donât directly hire in my current role but I would hope, even for the most competitive roles, that one wouldnât include or dismiss a resume due to a club membership.
Depends on how many resumes the company gets from a school (at very large schools like Kelley it matters) and whether the student can obtain the preparation outside the clubs (business fraternities, boot camp style courses, books)
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interesting that you brought up Kelley. The student got into Kelley Honors too with decent ride :).
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Can you explain what this is and why you were contacted. It might give some context to some of us.
Iâm unclear as to why they reached out to youâŠunless you have consulting experience.
You should ask how competitive the clubs are when you visit UNC.
Many of the community service clubs are not competitiveâŠor at least they were not when my daughter was involved in them. They were also well attended. Community service is listed under âselection criteriaâ for the business school.
My daughter was also an admissions ambassador, which was very competitive (multiple interviews over several weeks). The remainder of her clubs were not.
I donât know about the business clubs and what is involved.
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