Please suggest college for comp sci major for below average student

[Anonymous]

Vcu

[Anonymous]

Maybe non flagship state universities. Umass Lowell, SUNY IT Utica, northern arizona university, Georgia state, eastern carolina, Michigan state, Wisconsin whitewater.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:GPA is about 3.1. SAT about 1150. Class rank in the lower 50%. Any colleges where comp sci isn't a competitive major? He wants to do comp sci (but note his grades in related HS classes are C's). All ideas appreciated. Thanks!

You might also consider some CS-adjacent programs. Picking Shenandoah University as an example, there are majors for data science, simulation engineering, game design and development, and virtual reality.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thank you all. I should have said we're not local, so appreciate ideas anywhere in the country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thank you all. I should have said we're not local, so appreciate ideas anywhere in the country.

I’m sorry, but you’re being ridiculous. You’re asking posters in the Washington DC area to suggest colleges all over the entire country. There are thousands of them. It is really bizarre that you are on this website.

[Anonymous]

Aren’t you worried he will fail at college level comp sci classes which are math and logic heavy ? Is there and adjacent field that he could get excited about? Maybe user interface or a stem business type major?

[Anonymous]

Valparaiso
Clark
Quinnipiac
UConn

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thank you all. I should have said we're not local, so appreciate ideas anywhere in the country.

I’m sorry, but you’re being ridiculous. You’re asking posters in the Washington DC area to suggest colleges all over the entire country. There are thousands of them. It is really bizarre that you are on this website.

DP but I get why OP is here. There is no other message board similar to it. There used an nyc based site called urban baby. Otherwise, there’s just Reddit. DCUM fills a void for a certain group of people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was going to say GMU too.
Or maybe you want to do NOVA Community College track that has the guaranteed placement to UVA or VTech after your two years at NOVA. It's a good deal.

GMU is unlikely for two reasons: first, OP’s kid is scoring below the bottom 25th percentile of them last year’s class for SAT and GPA (75th percentile is a 1340; median a 1240; 25th percentile is an 1160) same for GPA (75th percentile is a 4.00; median a 3.88 and bottom 25th percentile a 3.62). So, unless hooked, the stats are not high enough. The other reason is that GMU’s comp sci program is one of the best at GMU and increasingly difficult to get into

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:GPA is about 3.1. SAT about 1150. Class rank in the lower 50%. Any colleges where comp sci isn't a competitive major? He wants to do comp sci (but note his grades in related HS classes are C's). All ideas appreciated. Thanks!

You might also consider some CS-adjacent programs. Picking Shenandoah University as an example, there are majors for data science, simulation engineering, game design and development, and virtual reality.

This. Information Systems, cybersecurity, etc are a safer bet than core CS.

[Anonymous]

OP here. This is all very helpful. To answer some PP's questions, I am in the DC area but posing the question for a dear friend who asked my advice and is on the West Coast. They've explored CA schools, but it's very difficult to get the comp sci major at schools that might otherwise be likely admits.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:GMU is an awesome college for comp sci, and is also a good school to get internships in the field. Don’t let his grades discourage his passion. A lot of well known tech gurus didn’t do well in HS. The founder of Napster went to Oakton and Chantilly HS, and didn’t attend college. It is known fact that most tech people have ADD or ADHD.

The tech gurus who didn’t go to college didn’t necessarily perform poorly in HS (no idea how Sean Parker did in HS)…usually the opposite.

The founder of Tumblr was a computer prodigy that dropped out of HS at 16.

Most of the kids that skip college are very smart and highly motivated to learn programming on their own…and more advanced in HS than most college kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are some good ideas here. But I recommend that your student look in detail at the curriculum required at the universities for CS majors. Most require (for the major, as part of the college curriculum) some level of calculus, linear algebra, discrete mathematics and sometimes two semesters of a lab science. Has your student taken CS classes? Do they like math well enough? I say this not to discourage, but just to prepare. And the requirements vary between schools and sometimes between a BA and BS at the same school.

Also, maybe look at Elon. Good luck!

yea, my DS is at UMD as a CS major, and the math is heavy. DS is a math whiz, so he has no issues with the hard math classes, but I know that a lot of other kids do.

So, if your kid doesn't like math, he will struggle. Alternative is to major is something like data science or IS rather than CS.

[Anonymous]

Honestly, for the people saying GMU, the com sci program is very rigorous

What CS program that is worthwhile is not going to be rigorous?

The obvious advantage of GMU is that it is very affordable and very close. If the kid flames out then at least you haven't spent a bunch of money on it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:GMU is an awesome college for comp sci, and is also a good school to get internships in the field. Don’t let his grades discourage his passion. A lot of well known tech gurus didn’t do well in HS. The founder of Napster went to Oakton and Chantilly HS, and didn’t attend college. It is known fact that most tech people have ADD or ADHD.

Maybe try to keep your ADD under control for more than 4 sentences before giving advice.