Slashdot Mirror
Best Tech Colleges Are Harder Than Ever To Get In
alphadogg writes "Results from the early application rounds at the nation's best technical colleges indicate that it will be another excruciatingly difficult year for high school seniors to get accepted into top-notch undergraduate computer science and engineering programs. Leading tech colleges reported a sharp rise in early applications, prompting them to be more selective in choosing prospective freshmen for the Class of 2017. Many colleges are reporting lower acceptance rates for their binding early decision and non-binding early action admissions programs than in previous years. Here's a roundup of stats from MIT, Stanford and others."
I already got my degree.
Was it worth it?
I have no idea. As I climb the hill I'm seeing all sorts of people with and without degrees at all levels.
ITT Tech accepted me no questions asked.
Part of the perception of low acceptance for these schools is the concept of a "reach" school that counselors push on students. The idea is you apply to schools from different strata: safety, match, and reach. Your safety school are your fallbacks that you'll likely get into with no problem. The match school are those which you exceed or meet the qualifications. And the reach schools you can guess are the dream schools you apply to. You don't meet the acceptance criteria (grades, SAT, extracurriculars too low) but you apply anyway on the off chance you make it in somehow. The thing is, this batch of reach schools is the same for everyone: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT, etc. This is why you see 6000+ applications for MIT, Stanfard, etc.
Take a look at lesser known CMU (and I should know, I went there. When friends and relatives ask me where I attended, it's always followed by "Oh... and where is that?"). They admitted LESS students than MIT, but ended up with double the acceptance rate because 6x as many students applied to MIT, most of them probably completely unqualified because they chose MIT as a "reach" school.
Previously on Slashdot: Could You Pass Harvard's Entrance Exam From 1869?
Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha
For the Ivy League schools, being Asian American is makes it even harder because they implement soft quotas on them (around 20%) in the name of diversity.
If you are a member of an underperforming race, then you stand a better chance, grades and test scores being equal.
Fact.
I don't know what the rest of GA Tech is like, but you've got my respect for your robotics program (my field). I've met some faculty and researchers from GA Tech at conferences and in my travels, and they're top notch.
About 25% acceptance rate when I got into MIT decades ago. But then applying to more than 3-4 colleges was unusual. Computers/Internet make it somewhat easier to churn applications now. So with twice as many people applying to college at three times more college since then increases applications around six-fold.
I know it's in the list, but is Harvard generally considered a tech school? I know personally I never have. Law, medicine, liberal arts and sciences, sure. But I've never considered them up there with MIT, CMU, Cal Tech, GA Tech, and Stanford.
When I hire new graduates, it usually matters little what school you went to, as long as it's a real, accredited program. I look for project involvement like the solar car, co-ops and internships, little side jobs of a technical nature, and so on. Unless you have that, your resume looks just like everyone else's: Name of school, list of classes, GPA. Who cares? Your resume might as well be one line. I know what classes are required for an engineering degree, don't repeat the school catalog to me.
How many of the world's billionaires graduated from one of the aforementioned universities?
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
...it will be another excruciatingly difficult year for high school seniors to get accepted into top-notch undergraduate computer science and engineering programs.
Isn't it supposed to be excruciatingly difficult to get accepted into top-notch programs?
I live ze unknown. I love ze unknown. I am ze unknown.
And yet information is easier to get than ever.
Someone who really puts their mind to their studies will excel more by studying by themselves than someone who only does the bare minimum at MIT.
I've never really understood the allure of going to an ivy league school as opposed to a more obscure state university or smaller private school. This isn't 1960 anymore, the information presented in an MIT, Yale or Harvard lecture is available online to anyone with an internet connection. The technology is the same at a small state school when compared to MIT for all practical intents and purposes. Sure, if your focus is on supercomputers MIT might have hardware that is unavailable at a smaller school, but for most people, the hardware is identical.
About the only advantage I can see going to a larger school would be networking and getting a higher paying or more enjoyable job, something that is defeated by the much, much, much, higher prices of going to a "prestigious" school, where one year of tuition costs as much as 4 years at a different school.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
How do Harvard and Columbia make the list when UIUC, Berkeley, Michigan, Cornell don't?
I have left slashdot and am now on Soylent News. FUCK YOU DICE.