Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP - not a cutthroat school. Lots to do and lots of good stuff to eat & shops within walking distance.
Morning runs through CW, tons of clubs, Greek life is great for mine but not necessary.
My DC is very very happy there
Good luck with your search

Is W&M good with merit for high stat kids who don't meet need or are they stingy like VT and UVA?

Nope--W&M offers virtually no merit aid--and has so many high stats kids it's hard to differentiate yourself that way. There are a couple of big merit grants each year. Others get funding for a summer project.
The one good $ thing about WM is that they are very good at funding kids with need, and will use grants when possible--I guess the other good thing is that most kids who wants one can probably find a research job on campus that pays $18-20/hr. My kid regularly did 10hrs/wk from Freshman spring on and then worked winter break and summer break. The nice thing is these jobs build up the resume and are real research work, not just an inflow of cash.

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Anonymous wrote:
If you need to go instate, but can't make UVA or VT, then do it.

It's harder to get into W&M then VT.

not for CS.

Kids' stats are higher at WM.

not for CS.

2023-2024 According to their data page, Virginia Tech CS acceptance rate roughly matches their overall acceptance rate (57%) which is overall higher than W&M 36.5% rate.

Overall, VT's SATs are: 1250-1410, (54% submitted any standardized test scores)
WM are 1360-1510, (62% submitted any standardized test scores).
Overall average GPA at VT is 4.33 at WM it's 4.53.

So unless you can point me to a data page where the average CS kid at VT is above WM average overall GPA of 4.53 and mean SAT of 1450 (which is above VT 75th percentile)--there's nothing in this data that suggest VT is harder to get into.

Overall averaged difference is actually much less than I thought.

CS/STEM at VT is most likely at least on par if not higher.

Anonymous wrote:OP - not a cutthroat school. Lots to do and lots of good stuff to eat & shops within walking distance.
Morning runs through CW, tons of clubs, Greek life is great for mine but not necessary.
My DC is very very happy there
Good luck with your search

Is W&M good with merit for high stat kids who don't meet need or are they stingy like VT and UVA?

Parent of a W&M STEM major but not CS. Pretty happy place with lots to do on and off campus. Rigorous but not cut-throat.

OP - not a cutthroat school. Lots to do and lots of good stuff to eat & shops within walking distance.
Morning runs through CW, tons of clubs, Greek life is great for mine but not necessary.
My DC is very very happy there
Good luck with your search

Something wrong with a list that has W&M CS above Cal Poly SLO CS.

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Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:
If you need to go instate, but can't make UVA or VT, then do it.

It's harder to get into W&M then VT.

not for CS.

Kids' stats are higher at WM.

Some are; some aren't. There's a range everywhere.

The 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles are all higher at WM by quite a bit. And since fewer kids have higher stats, that means it's harder to get into. The admissions rate is also lower at WM. Doesn't mean there will be some kids who would get into WM vs VT--admissions isn't 100% predictable on a person by person basis.

If I were a kid who was interested in CS for sure but wanted it in the context of a broader degree (i.e., through arts and sciences not through a college of engineering), UVA and WM are the key options in-state. If I had the stats for both (they are nearly identical) and I liked both schools I would say the best strategy would be to ED at WM because once you're in, you can major in CS with no further hurdles. And WM has a higher acceptance rate than UVA. It's a limited enrollment major at UVA, which means you would have to major in something else if you don't make the cut--and if you really wanted CS then you would need to transfer, which would suck if you were settled into the school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
If you need to go instate, but can't make UVA or VT, then do it.

It's harder to get into W&M then VT.

not for CS.

Kids' stats are higher at WM.

Some are; some aren't. There's a range everywhere.

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP - I think it is honestly a very good program because it is not part of an engineering school and so students also have to take part in the liberal arts curriculumScience. I also believe it is now ranked higher than Mason's CS program

Lots of schools have CS in and out of engineering. And even kids at engineering schools have liberal arts core requirements.

Yes, but often times you can only get a BS through engineering. A BA is CS is less valuable for the average person. And yes again about the core requirements, but there are often also a lot of (unneeded) engineering core reqs as well thrown in - UVA engineering's program for example requires multivar, chemistry, intro engineering, intro physics. How is this useful for a software dev??

UVA also offers a BA in Computer Science.

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Anonymous wrote:PP - I think it is honestly a very good program because it is not part of an engineering school and so students also have to take part in the liberal arts curriculum. I also believe it is now ranked higher than Mason's CS program

It is not higher than Mason CS.

On USNWR it is. And they are investing a lot into it.

No it isn't. I just looked.

You looked at grad rankings, undergrad is behind a paywall.

W&M is ranked #65 for undergrad, Mason is #72

https://www.reddit.com/r/ApplyingToCollege/comments/yrhu3m/us_news_2023_ranking_of_best_undergraduate/

They are one spot apart given that a bunch of schools are 65 and a bunch of schools are 72 with no numbers in between. So all those schools are essentially the same.

Those are grad school rankings. Which is odd, because WM has virtually no CS grad school.

No those are undergraduate rankings...

It's in the title: "US News 2023 Ranking of Best Undergraduate Computer Science Programs"

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP - I think it is honestly a very good program because it is not part of an engineering school and so students also have to take part in the liberal arts curriculum. I also believe it is now ranked higher than Mason's CS program

It is not higher than Mason CS.

On USNWR it is. And they are investing a lot into it.

No it isn't. I just looked.

You looked at grad rankings, undergrad is behind a paywall.

W&M is ranked #65 for undergrad, Mason is #72

https://www.reddit.com/r/ApplyingToCollege/comments/yrhu3m/us_news_2023_ranking_of_best_undergraduate/

They are one spot apart given that a bunch of schools are 65 and a bunch of schools are 72 with no numbers in between. So all those schools are essentially the same.

Those are grad school rankings. Which is odd, because WM has virtually no CS grad school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
If you need to go instate, but can't make UVA or VT, then do it.

It's harder to get into W&M then VT.

not for CS.

Kids' stats are higher at WM.

not for CS.

2023-2024 According to their data page, Virginia Tech CS acceptance rate roughly matches their overall acceptance rate (57%) which is overall higher than W&M 36.5% rate.

Overall, VT's SATs are: 1250-1410, (54% submitted any standardized test scores)
WM are 1360-1510, (62% submitted any standardized test scores).
Overall average GPA at VT is 4.33 at WM it's 4.53.

So unless you can point me to a data page where the average CS kid at VT is above WM average overall GPA of 4.53 and mean SAT of 1450 (which is above VT 75th percentile)--there's nothing in this data that suggest VT is harder to get into.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP - I think it is honestly a very good program because it is not part of an engineering school and so students also have to take part in the liberal arts curriculum. I also believe it is now ranked higher than Mason's CS program

It is not higher than Mason CS.

On USNWR it is. And they are investing a lot into it.

No it isn't. I just looked.

You looked at grad rankings, undergrad is behind a paywall.

W&M is ranked #65 for undergrad, Mason is #72

https://www.reddit.com/r/ApplyingToCollege/comments/yrhu3m/us_news_2023_ranking_of_best_undergraduate/

They are one spot apart given that a bunch of schools are 65 and a bunch of schools are 72 with no numbers in between. So all those schools are essentially the same.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
If you need to go instate, but can't make UVA or VT, then do it.

It's harder to get into W&M then VT.

not for CS.

Kids' stats are higher at WM.

not for CS.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
If you need to go instate, but can't make UVA or VT, then do it.

It's harder to get into W&M then VT.

not for CS.

Kids' stats are higher at WM.