Notes

School Considerations, March 2018 Edition, Draft 1
by Bruneton

Goal: To make an academic plan for you.

Discussion: This is a work in progress. This draft will be focused on universities located in programming job markets. The following paragraphs are general thoughts, with a table at the end showing a list of universities that I'm at the moment most open to considering. My perspectives may likely change significantly based on your opinions and feedback. This is about you, so please speak loudly when you wish, and know that I'm open to hearing you out on whatever ideas you have in mind. For example, if you consider that you want to live at your parents and go to UW-LAX, let me know. I'm open to discussing the possibility of moving with you for you to go to any university, anywhere.

Currently my main preference is that I'm most willing to move with and support you if you choose a school that is located in a programming job market. My other general living preferences like climate can potentially be sacrificed. I could wait until after you graduate to get a job, as I'd likely be busy with my own schooling anyway. But I'd like to have jobs available for the possibility of a local internship or getting a job before my graduation. Also, having the option of staying in the same city after you graduate is a significant plus for me... as opposed to moving to a place for a couple years and leaving, it would be nice to have the option of settling in to a location long term. But again, I'm open to considering places that don't have CS jobs.

On the subject of job markets... a preliminary search found there to be a fairly similar number of per capita "chemistry technician" jobs for a number of large metropolitan areas that I had already shortlisted as favorites for myself. There were a few outliers though. The per capita jobs for programming are a lot more varied between metro areas.

UW Madison appears to be the big target.
Your GPA is estimated between 3.4-3.5 currently. A 3.5 GPA for transferring gives you roughly a 35-50% chance of acceptance, from what I'm reading. But this is a rough guess. Spring 2019 application deadline will probably be in October, with decisions posted around December 1st. This is different from a lot of schools, I think, as other schools usually would have rolling admissions and give you a decision a lot earlier if you apply early.

Other programming job market universities that would give you in-state or nearly in-state tuition are listed in the table after the following paragraphs.

Other options not listed in the table: It is possible that good options could be found by taking community college courses for a year in another state, and transferring to that state's university after getting in-state residency. But this is a complicated option. You'd be moving to a state before getting an acceptance and explicit financial aid award letter from the university that you are aiming to get a degree from. The risks include difficulty securing residency status, unknown exact financial aid award, and uncertainty in acceptance to the targeted university. Delays in academic progress could occur due to not being able to take the equivalent classes that the university requires while at a community college. And universities could have transfer credit limits which would cause more graduation delays, as I'll mention would be an issue in California...

The possibly most relevant non-Midwest option is California, due to the possibility of housing in Davis, CA. I've extensively researched the residency process for CA in the past. Residency is possible after a year, and tuition at CSU-Sacramento or other CSU campus is 6k annual. UC - Davis would be a likely option as well as other UCs, with uncertain aid packages. A UC aid package could be very strong, or too weak to accept... and necessary due to high in-state tuition at UC campuses. UC-Davis is of similar prestige as UW-Madison.

For California, a big con is transfer credit. CSUs and UCs will consider equivalent courses for transfer students, but the credit # count maxes out at 70. So if you took 30 credit hours of California community college classes in the 2018-19 academic year, you'd still need to take 50 credit hours at the UC/CSU starting in Fall 2019, even though you already would have over 110 credits at that point. So your estimated graduation date in California would be May 2021, which is possibly an extra year compared to a UW campus.

These CA cons are why I haven't talked up the idea to you very much, despite my love for CA and waiting and working for many years to get myself to CA.

So finally, this is the list of schools I recommend focusing on. After we discuss this email, or at least I listen to your reply, I'll make an adjusted list with a potentially different set of schools and different types of information on each school, depending on what you're wanting me to find out.


School metro area students/tuition median score metro pop software jobs
UW-Madison Madison 27-31 act 660-780 math new sat
UW-Milwaukee 20-25 act
U of Kansas KC 20k 14k 23-28 14k tuition after Exchange scholarship
U of Missouri - KC 15k 8-12k 21-28 510-660 14k - 2k scholarship - 4k OOS waiver possible scholarship?
U of Missouri - St Louis 17k ? 22-27 510-580
Purdue Indy 19-26 act 490-590 mns
University of Akron Cleveland, OH 20k 19-26 500-620
UW-Parkside 4k 8k 18-23, 470-540
IU SE Louisville KY 7k 10k? 17-22, 450-540
IU NW Gary, IN 4k ?? 17-22, 450-540
University of Nebraska - Omaha Omaha, NE 15k
Harris-Stowe State University st Louis 2k, ?? 400-570, very selective
Metropolitan State University St. Paul MN 10k
University of New Mexico Albuquerque, NM 20k? 7k



Appendix notes:

This is a full list of schools that are part of a tuition agreement with Wisconsin. They give a discount on OOS tuition for Wisconsin residents, in some cases the same rate as in-state tuition, but not always.

Minnesota:
St Cloud State
Metropolitan State
University of Minnesota - Morris
U of Minn Duluth
Minnesota State University - Mankato

Missouri:
Southeast Missouri State
Missouri State University - West Plains
University of Missouri - St Louis
Lincoln University
Truman State University
Missouri Southern State University
Missouri Western State University
University of Central Missouri
Harris-Stowe State University
University of Missouri - Kansas City
Missouri State University
Northwest Missouri State University

Nebraska:
Wayne State College
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
University of Nebraska at Kearney
University of Nebraska at Omaha
Chadron State College

North Dakota:
Valley City State University
North Dakota State University
Bismark State College
University of North Dakota
Mayville State University
Valley City State University

Ohio:
University of Akron
Shawnee State University

Indiana:
Indiana University Southeast
Ball State University 23k students, research school.
IU - Purdue University Indianapolis 14k tuition
IU Kokomo
IU East
Indiana State University in Terre Haute, IN. Depressing city.
IU South Bend
IU Northwest

Kansas:
Emporia State
Wichita State
Fort Hays State
Kansas State
Pittsburg State
University of Kansas - Lawrence, KS commute distance to KC

Michigan:
Ferris State