Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Coding on their own.
Projects they did.
Languages they already know to code in.

Most CS programs are strictly data schools with strong SAT/ACT/GPA.

Ignore DCUM that your kid needs a ton of extras they do not.

Most of what you wrote would be consider extras since it's done outside of school.

High stats yes, but demonstrated interests in CS is important, too, and that means extras.

+1 we listened to the "be a well rounded person" and that didn't work.

DC didn't focus much on CS projects, but did other activities. Very high stats. Rejected to T20 national, but in at UMD honors, in state.

Anonymous wrote:Depending on which top programs you're talking about.
For CMU SCS, qualifying for USAMO helps a lot.
For MIT, you probably need math Olympiad training camp (next step after USAMO) and/or significant research competition awards or experience (think STS, academic publications).
Above is for non-URM boys.

This advice is spot on.

Depending on which top programs you're talking about.
For CMU SCS, qualifying for USAMO helps a lot.
For MIT, you probably need math Olympiad training camp (next step after USAMO) and/or significant research competition awards or experience (think STS, academic publications).
Above is for non-URM boys.

Anonymous wrote:Thanks.. which schools are direct admits to CS/ECE and more likely than others for high stat kids?

Realize that the majority of kids applying to CS are high stats. At some point it becomes luck. So "more likely" means schools with higher acceptance rates over all, or engineering schools where the overall applicant pool is already narrowed to STEM kids.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aside from high grades and SAT scores, what can a student do to stand out when applying to top CS programs?

No idea. My kid had multiple internships, even one paid, a few competition wins and was deferred from Ga Tech and Northeastern and flat out rejected from UIUC. Very high stats and highest course rigor.

Any luck at UMD?

DP.. my kid got rejected to both UIUC and GA Tech, accepted to UMD honors for CS.

Deferred at MIT and UMich.

Very high stats.

Very strange college admissions world.

Not strange at all because you don't understand how top college admissions works. Stats is only a very small part of the credentials AOs look at. You didn't mention anything else other than stats, so I guess your kid didn't have much else to show for.

Anonymous wrote:As a side question - is there a list of colleges that don't require direct admission as the only realistic means to obtain a CS degree?

Any SLAC.

Thanks.. which schools are direct admits to CS/ECE and more likely than others for high stat kids?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aside from high grades and SAT scores, what can a student do to stand out when applying to top CS programs?

No idea. My kid had multiple internships, even one paid, a few competition wins and was deferred from Ga Tech and Northeastern and flat out rejected from UIUC. Very high stats and highest course rigor.

Any luck at UMD?

DP.. my kid got rejected to both UIUC and GA Tech, accepted to UMD honors for CS.

Deferred at MIT and UMich.

Very high stats.

Very strange college admissions world.

I'd go with UMD over GA Tech and UIUC. Sure, the latter two are highly ranked, but when you look at the specifics of their programs, I find MD to be stronger since it has fewer 1950s-era electrical engineering and physics requirements that aren't all that helpful for CS. Look GA Tech and UIUC are fine programs but as someone who has worked in the industry for 40 years and has advanced degrees, there are only a handful of programs that I like better than MD. About half of those ranked above it to me aren't really worth the bother.

PP here. Thanks for the feedback.

But, then why is GA Tech and UIUC ranked so much higher than UMD for CS?

Not so much really, by most reckonings UMDCP is ranked around 13th in the US for CS. If you are interested in a specific area like say machine learning, it's around #8 according to csrankings.org. My point is it's not significantly different. I think GA Tech and UIUC are fine but as someone who went through this when I was younger, I'd avoid any school that requires you to study engineering for CS. The most attractive thing about the UMDCP CS program to me is it has a lot of flexibility baked in. So you could study say networking and cybersecurity if that's your thing or avoid that altogether and focus on machine learning and algorithms...

Thanks for the feedback.

Are you saying UIUC and GA tech don't have that kind of flexibility to take networking or machine learning classes?

This is very interesting. More info, please.

Most of these schools have a rigid set of requirements. Subjects like compilers or Operating Systems are typically required, but very few students will ever work in those areas. Now those are fine classes but not useful to everyone. MD has all those courses but allows students greater flexibility. Schools like GA Tech and UIUC I believe, have CS in their engineering schools and impose additional requirements unrelated to modern CS. I haven't looked at the specifics lately and could be mistaken, but I would encourage you to look at these programs more closely. Specifically look at what a 4 year plan would look like.

When I was in CS, I went through an engineering program, and can tell you it just made it a lot less pleasant and there was little benefit. I didn't need to take 12 hours of physics or 12 hours of outdated electrical engineering classes. I would rather have the freedom to pursue areas of interest more deeply. This isn't possible in many programs because of the restrictions.

https://undergrad.cs.umd.edu/general-track-degree-requirements

As a side question - is there a list of colleges that don't require direct admission as the only realistic means to obtain a CS degree?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aside from high grades and SAT scores, what can a student do to stand out when applying to top CS programs?

No idea. My kid had multiple internships, even one paid, a few competition wins and was deferred from Ga Tech and Northeastern and flat out rejected from UIUC. Very high stats and highest course rigor.

Any luck at UMD?

DP.. my kid got rejected to both UIUC and GA Tech, accepted to UMD honors for CS.

Deferred at MIT and UMich.

Very high stats.

Very strange college admissions world.

I'd go with UMD over GA Tech and UIUC. Sure, the latter two are highly ranked, but when you look at the specifics of their programs, I find MD to be stronger since it has fewer 1950s-era electrical engineering and physics requirements that aren't all that helpful for CS. Look GA Tech and UIUC are fine programs but as someone who has worked in the industry for 40 years and has advanced degrees, there are only a handful of programs that I like better than MD. About half of those ranked above it to me aren't really worth the bother.

PP here. Thanks for the feedback.

But, then why is GA Tech and UIUC ranked so much higher than UMD for CS?

Not so much really, by most reckonings UMDCP is ranked around 13th in the US for CS. If you are interested in a specific area like say machine learning, it's around #8 according to csrankings.org. My point is it's not significantly different. I think GA Tech and UIUC are fine but as someone who went through this when I was younger, I'd avoid any school that requires you to study engineering for CS. The most attractive thing about the UMDCP CS program to me is it has a lot of flexibility baked in. So you could study say networking and cybersecurity if that's your thing or avoid that altogether and focus on machine learning and algorithms...

Thanks for the feedback.

Are you saying UIUC and GA tech don't have that kind of flexibility to take networking or machine learning classes?

This is very interesting. More info, please.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Coding on their own.
Projects they did.
Languages they already know to code in.

Most CS programs are strictly data schools with strong SAT/ACT/GPA.

Ignore DCUM that your kid needs a ton of extras they do not.

Most of what you wrote would be consider extras since it's done outside of school.

High stats yes, but demonstrated interests in CS is important, too, and that means extras.

What kinds of extras?

clubs, activities, competitions related to CS.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Coding on their own.
Projects they did.
Languages they already know to code in.

Most CS programs are strictly data schools with strong SAT/ACT/GPA.

Ignore DCUM that your kid needs a ton of extras they do not.

Most of what you wrote would be consider extras since it's done outside of school.

High stats yes, but demonstrated interests in CS is important, too, and that means extras.

"Extras"
Sure just not travel to another country and pretend you are helping. Or John Hopkins gifted programs.

Any kid that is into CS can do a coding project at home and put it on their college app.

My kids got into MIT< CMU, GA Tech, Standford, and many other equally as good schools without any "extras"s strictly high GPA's and high test scores. As I said CS no need to be that OBO player.

And from a public HS. LOL

Then it must be a lottery because my DC got deferred MIT and rejected at GA tech with *very* high stats and did some coding projects "for fun".

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Coding on their own.
Projects they did.
Languages they already know to code in.

Most CS programs are strictly data schools with strong SAT/ACT/GPA.

Ignore DCUM that your kid needs a ton of extras they do not.

Most of what you wrote would be consider extras since it's done outside of school.

High stats yes, but demonstrated interests in CS is important, too, and that means extras.

What kinds of extras?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Coding on their own.
Projects they did.
Languages they already know to code in.

Most CS programs are strictly data schools with strong SAT/ACT/GPA.

Ignore DCUM that your kid needs a ton of extras they do not.

Most of what you wrote would be consider extras since it's done outside of school.

High stats yes, but demonstrated interests in CS is important, too, and that means extras.

"Extras"
Sure just not travel to another country and pretend you are helping. Or John Hopkins gifted programs.

Any kid that is into CS can do a coding project at home and put it on their college app.

My kids got into MIT< CMU, GA Tech, Standford, and many other equally as good schools without any "extras"s strictly high GPA's and high test scores. As I said CS no need to be that OBO player.

And from a public HS. LOL

When did your kids get in? It definitely cannot be in recent years. May be 5 or 10 years ago???

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Coding on their own.
Projects they did.
Languages they already know to code in.

Most CS programs are strictly data schools with strong SAT/ACT/GPA.

Ignore DCUM that your kid needs a ton of extras they do not.

Most of what you wrote would be consider extras since it's done outside of school.

High stats yes, but demonstrated interests in CS is important, too, and that means extras.

"Extras"
Sure just not travel to another country and pretend you are helping. Or John Hopkins gifted programs.

Any kid that is into CS can do a coding project at home and put it on their college app.

My kids got into MIT< CMU, GA Tech, Standford, and many other equally as good schools without any "extras"s strictly high GPA's and high test scores. As I said CS no need to be that OBO player.

And from a public HS. LOL

When was this?