Not that this should be the determining factor, but with which state do you have residency? If you're concerned about costs someone may be able to recommend a good school you could get into and still have in-state rates the first 1-2 years.
Ask YC: what non-top-tier college to apply for?
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Re: Ask YC: what non-top-tier college to apply for?
#12Completely off base here, but um I think it's still relevant for anyone who ends up down in the dumps and just wants to go to school no matter what: DO NOT GO TO ITT TECH.
Bad experience?
Horrible experience.
- Staff with the exception of program chairs was always people who work entry level jobs in your industry, and have no idea how to teach the subject matter, or in some cases even interact with students
- The administrative process was nearly impossible for every aspect of your academic career. While tending to family matters, I got absolutely no respect in regards to emergencies or crises
- Education? Let me put it this way, after dropping out and getting to work on my Startup, ITT Tech seemingly had an innumerable amount of students who were willing to work, but because I knew the quality of information was terrible, I wouldn't hire a single one of them. Text books are published by an ITT Contracted company and is almost always filled with erroneous, and inaccurate information. Even the labs are awful. Operating systems, for example: we got to Linux. All we did was gather around a computer screen, the teacher went "THis is linux, this is what the terminal looks like" and that was as useful as it got.
- Career services? The career services department probably has my resume memorized, and while I knew, and the IT administrator knew I was more qualified than every student currently attending the school, Career Services was always sending me to Best Buy and Circuit City for "jobs".
- Then there was the whole thing with my buddy Chris. Around my 3rd full semester there, I was in the student lounge with Chris when a guy walked in wanting to inquire about getting admitted.
Chris "You want to go to school here?" Guy "Yes" Chris "Don't"
That little action caught the attention of the dean who refused to let him graduate on that alone, as a result his tuition skyrocketed because he couldn't take the classes if he was on academic probation, yet he was still registered for them (as you are automatically registered for classes, you can take no elective courses even if you pay foor them). He is currently filing a lawsuit against the school.
Want me to go on? I will. Way overpriced, way overhyped by their marketing crews, this place needs to be DESTROYED.
Re: Ask YC: what non-top-tier college to apply for?
#13What state are you in? Most states have at least one good public university, and these are generally fairly easy to get into and fairly cheap (if you're from in-state).
If there's not a good one in your state, try one in a nearby state. It'll be more expensive and harder to get into, but still generally cheaper/easier than a private school. I can personally recommend UNC-Chapel Hill (nice campus, small town, good mix of social+intellectual life) and Georgia Tech (great CS professors and students, although poor social life).
Also, as others have said, definitely seek out and apply for as many scholarships as you can. There are plenty available and you're almost guaranteed one if you apply to several. Especially focus on scholarships which are special to your situation (minority, athletics, service, etc).
Re: Ask YC: what non-top-tier college to apply for?
#14Public universities are not bad. I did my time in Univ of Washington and Utah State University, and I definitely feel like I got my money's worth. A warning, though. UW's proximity to MS and the other tech companies made the department really exclusive for undergrads while I was there. I majored in something besides CS, then did my master's in CS later. You'll want to learn about what the department's standards are (…
UW and Utah State both have great undergrad CS programs, and they produce lots of solid OSS projects, which could help your visibility a lot when you're applying for jobs after college.
I'm going to have to make my usual plug for my home state (Oregon) here, too, and suggest that the OP look at both Oregon State University, in Corvallis, and Portland State University, in Portland.
Neither is "world-class" for CS, but they both have solid software engineering and math programs, produce a lot of open source, and have good connections to the tech employers in the region. Plus, western Oregon (and Portland especially) is a pretty damn nice place to live.
Re: Ask YC: what non-top-tier college to apply for?
#15ASU (Arizona State University). Good party school, lots of hot chicks, and code
Re: Ask YC: what non-top-tier college to apply for?
#16Personally, I wouldn't worry too much about affording school just yet. A lot of schools offer significant financial aid packages, and there are plenty of scholarships available.
Take it one step at a time. Figure out where you want to go, get in, and then figure out how you can afford it.
Re: Ask YC: what non-top-tier college to apply for?
#17What state are you in? Most states have at least one good public university, and these are generally fairly easy to get into and fairly cheap (if you're from in-state). If there's not a good one in your state, try one in a nearby state. It'll be more expensive and harder to get into, but still generally cheaper/easier than a private school. I can personally recommend UNC-Chapel Hill (nice campus, small town, good mix…
I'm in California, so Berkeley is an obvious option.
Re: Ask YC: what non-top-tier college to apply for?
#18Where do you live? That will change the answers a bit. Having done a year where you need to get on a plane to get to school and back, it is generally not worth it unless the program at the other end is awesome.
Re: Ask YC: what non-top-tier college to apply for?
#19The SUNY (State University of New York) schools are great. There's pretty much a SUNY school that will cover you at most GPA-levels. Look at SUNY Geneseo (2 girls per guy!), SUNY Albany, Buffalo, and Binghamton for the best in the system, but there are easier-to-get-into schools there, too. If you're not going to MIT, or an IVY, I think very few other schools offer a return on investment that is comparable to a good state school.
Re: Ask YC: what non-top-tier college to apply for?
#20Option #1) Go to a junior college, do your best and transfer to a real school. (EDIT: In Cali, your grades will count as full "university" grades, so a 3.5 GPA will be taken as a true 3.5 university GPA when transferring)
Option #2) Simply try to get it the best school possible, top tier or not.
If you aim low, guess what? You're gonna have low results.
There are universities that exist to privide workers for the economy (ie, ITT tech). These schools just fill the vacant seats as currently required by the industry and don't teach you much that requires brains, or that will be required X years from now. These schools typically teach you the current popular programming languages and stuff like that. People like to call these "hands on," but it really means "no theory."
"Better" schools provide thinkers to the economy. These schools teach you principles and will make you study Scheme/LISP and implement quicksort and other algorithms like that. These schools want to teach you principles that you can apply to any language. You learn specific useful languages mostly on your own time. They might adopt something like C++/Java/etc as a "core" language, but the emphasis is always on the algorithm, not the language.
Sooo.... The choice is yours... Where do you want to study? What people do you want to surround yourself with?
You still have time, make a good choice.
EDIT: I see you live in Cali.... I stress option #1 above, that's the route I took. To put the two kinds of universities I talk about above, compare UC (University of California) system versus the California State University system. Why are there more CalState universities than UC? Because more labor is needed than brains, and more people just want to get out and work rather than think and go on to bigger things. Do your research.