Homestar Runner Wiki Forum

So, it's gonna be my Senior year in high school and I still haven't found a college to go to. Now, I've been looking around, but I wondered if y'all had any suggestions as to which colleges to check out.
Specifically, I think I want to major in computer science, but any college with a good computer department is fine.
Also, inside the US is nice, specifically, Texas.
Thanks for the help!

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How about Oklahoma State University? I'm not sure it has an awesome computer department, but has a good engineering department.

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Jitka makes Cornell (in Ithaca, New York, I think) sound real nice. Perfect if you're a klepto.

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I'm not sure about your school, but my school had college research materials.

2 things to keep in mind:

$$

and

Unless you're going to a specialty school (like a tech school) where you'll be doing nothing but your intended field of study, you'll spend a good portion of at least your first year during core courses at about any college you choose. Community Colleges can be good for this, but I actually encountered that the local university here is cheaper. Social Setting is a good idea too. I went to a satellite campus of my university the first semester and my experience was that it was great for classes but pretty dead socially. In my experience, most people who went to Satellite Campuses and Community Colleges tend to go part time due to other responsibilities and tended to be older than the just out of High School.

My advice, if possible, unless you have a LOT of money for college purposes, spend the first semester or two at a college close enough to your parent's house that you can commute. Apartments/dorms aren't cheap.

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I'll have to look around for those. They would be VERY useful.
Also, my current location is the exact middle of nowhere, on a hill, with four gates and a cattle guard to a paved road from which I can drive ten minutes to get to a highway. ATM, I think we're spending more on gas than it would be to get a cheap apartment. Besides, most of the colleges I've looked at have at least a one year residency requirement.

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YES YES ONE MILLION TIMES YES

Here's a link to Cornell's CS department, if you're interested. Also, see the "Do you pirate music" thread for the real reason you should go there.

If you're looking to stay in Texas, how about Rice? Don't know much about them other than the name, but I've heard it's pretty much Texas' most prestigious school, so you can't really go wrong with something like that, can you?

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beep beep I'm a Jeep

A&M, all the way.

Note, the following post was not inspired by my graduate adviser (Aggie) in any way. They use their CS dept to supplement their engineering and atmospheric science departments (among other departments).

The University of Alabama in Huntsville has a fantastic computer science department, which, like the atmospheric science department, you've never heard of because of their engineering department.

The best part about UAH is that you're in a "brain town" and there are plenty of groups there looking for CS people.

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If you can't fix it with a hammer, you have an electrical problem.

Valencia Community College.

Because I need friends.

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One thought: You'll probably want to look at in-state schools because CS isn't an exotic major that'll get you in-state tuition via "Academic Common Market".

Apply to plenty of schools; In-state, out of state... Get your FAFSA (is it FASFA?) filled out as soon as your folks get their taxes done (in fact, have them get their taxes done as soon as they get their W-2s. explain that earlier FAFSA = better shot at $$$). Make sure you look at financial aid at the various schools when you apply, and apply for that, too.

Look at the various offers (of financial aid) and see what you like.

Also, make sure you apply to any and every scholarship/fellowship/grant you are even remotely eligible for; even if it's a one-time grant for $50. A kid I went to high school with got almost no offers of financial aid for his freshman year. He paid for his whole freshman year (room and board included) with $50, $100, and $200 one-time awards.

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If you can't fix it with a hammer, you have an electrical problem.

It would be excellent if you could get into Texas Tech or A&M. But those are D-1 schools, so getting into them would be a major accomplishment.

What I would do is go to a two-year college, JC, or community college (say Austin Community College, perhaps?), and given the chance, transfer to Tech or A&M. Just make sure you can afford it, and be completely positive that whatever subjects you're in are transferable.

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Jitka mentioned Rice.
My sister went there for her college degree. She double majored in Biochemistry and German, which isn't exactly what you have in mind. However, you should give it some thought, because not only is it one of Texas' most prestigious schools, it's also set in a very beautiful campus, with very many fun, student-oriented activities always going on. Rice also has a very very well-known and strong Architectural program.
However, I'm not so sure about the Computer Engineering. You could look into that yourself, if you are interested.

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I would be ashamed of myself if I didn't bring up my college, the lovely Grove City College. We've got a pretty good CS department that has a great name for itself in the professional community, and that is growing. I got my job largely in part because the guy looked at my resume and saw GCC on it, didn't even look at my grades (heh, fortunately ^^;; ). Their currently expanding the department, adding new classes and tweaking the ones they already have, so it's exciting times over here.

The school's up in a little town in Northwestern Pennsylvania and has a gorgeous campus. Campus life is different than a bunch of the schools I visited, but there's a really great community spirit there, everyone definitely have a grover spirit about them. As for price, the school is a wizard at it's monies and manages to keep tuition pretty far down, instate and out of state are the same, I think somewhere in the neighborhood of 16 or 17 grand. The big trick with money at the grove is that our school doesn't take a cent of federal funding because we want to run the school our own way instead of by the regulations that come with government cash. So with that, the Fafsa is no good there, but I'd still fill it out just in case you go elsewhere.

Heh, oh yeah, and everything Jitka says about Pirating music goes for us to. We have the exact same system that he does. That and a deal with napster where for $25 A YEAR you get unlimited downloads

So yeah, all in all a great school with a great program, you should totally check it out. *chuckle* It'd be great to get another forumer up there =p

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You have DC++ too? Isn't it a thing of beauty?

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beep beep I'm a Jeep

A-yup yup.

One of my hallmates after Christmas brought in his desktop, emptied the hard drive, and spent a full five days download the entire contents of our DC++. It was pretty amazing.

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Holy crap. If yours has anywhere near the amount of stuff ours has, that's like 40 terabytes.

After Christmas I assume most of the hub members were home, though.

Over my first two semesters I downloaded 316 gigabytes of various things, and uploaded 696 gigabytes to the hub. I love that program so much.

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beep beep I'm a Jeep

Well I know where I'm going to college.

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Wow, thanks for the info. Sorry if I'm a bit slow to respond, it's a lot of stuff to look through. Rest assured I'll check these (and more) out!
As far as ACC goes, I'm already taking a C++ class there, and I'll probably take a few classes there this coming school year to supplement our school's lax computer department. They should count as college credits, but I'll have to make sure on that one.
Also, this DC++ thing sounds bloody awesome.

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Big, big second on this one. Do your FAFSA on January 1st, as soon as you can. Make sure to start at least in the December of your Senior year. There are thousands of dollars of free money availiable based on your doing this.

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Don't go to college, like me! Instead learn a skilled trade (in my case bartending).

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Whoa I'm going into Senior year too and I need to get on the ball with colleges.

I'm looking at Northeastern University in MA, myself. Good, technical school. Beautiful and great reputation. It's not as high class as say Ivy League. I could probably get into an Ivy League school, but I want to go somewhere that will give me scholarships and stuff, so I'd gladly take a "second tier" school which is impressive as well.

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COME TO CORNELL

I WILL TAKE YOU UNDER MY WING

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beep beep I'm a Jeep

I WILL APPLY TO CORNELL

NO GUARANTEES OF WHETHER I GET IN / END UP GOING THERE, THOUGH

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YOU GUYS ARE SO OLD!

OH YOU'LL GET IN / GO THERE

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beep beep I'm a Jeep

IS THIS A THREAT OR A CALM REASSURANCE OF MY SKILLS AS A STUDENT COMING FROM A GOOD FRIEND OF MANY YEARS


NUHH UHH YOU'RE JUST TOO YOUNG

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YES



YOU ARE YOUNG, YET WISE BEYOND YOUR YEARS

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beep beep I'm a Jeep

A-Am not...

;_;

YES YOU ARE TOO YOUNG WHAT ARE YOU DOING UP THIS LATE IT'S PAST YOUR BEDTIME MISSY

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♪ At Northern Virginia,
Community College,
You can get the power!
You can get the knowledge!

Today's dreams are tomorrow's realities,
NOVA knowledge now! ♪


I'll be going there for two years. I'm not sure what I'm going to do after that, though.

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Good call. It's way cheaper, and get good grades there and you'll definitely be able to find a decent VA university that will take you for 2 more years. It's what I did to get into UVA

I always recommend a gap year or two tho, just so you can get some perspective before college.

As for UVA: it's a beautiful campus and the profs are pretty good. The students are nice, but very culturally different from me. Everyone's waaaaaaaay prepped out. I can't relate to them at all, even tho I grew up among them. You could always do Mason and continue the not-having-to-pay-for-a-dorm strategy, plus the students are more normal people.

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