Thanks so much for this post 8Fill! That's really encouraging news for us whose kids may not be going the elite route for UG.

After a quick search for best schools with AI programs I found this: 18. Purdue University B.S. in Computer Science: Machine Intelligence TrackUndergraduate Program How many schools do you know that offer a degree in Machine Intelligence – for undergraduates?! If you’ve heard of Purdue University, then you know at least one. This program, which is available as a concentration in the B.S. in Computer Science, offers coursework in artificial intelligence, data mining, machine learning, and robotics, among others. In fact, the variety of coursework available makes Purdue one of the best artificial intelligence schools for baccalaureate students. But that’s not to say that graduate students can’t get in on the action. The university’s research area in Machine Learning and Information Retrieval offers interdisciplinary research opportunities that span the fields of cognitive science, economics, statistics, robotics, and even cybersecurity. 10. Indiana University B.S. in Intelligent Systems Engineering; M.S. in Human-Computer Interaction Design Graduate Program Undergraduate Program Indiana University is the only school in this ranking to offer a full-fledged, standalone undergraduate degree in AI that is not simply a concentration within the general computer science program. The new BS in Intelligent Systems Engineering is “all about going small to make a big impactâ€, which means that students focus on “small-scale, networked, and mobile technology.†Concentrations within this program include Bioengineering, Computer Engineering/Cyber-physical Systems, and Molecular and Nanoscale Engineering. As for grad students, the MS in HCI Design merges technology and creativity in a program that’s solution-oriented and project based. This graduate degree is also available as a track within the Ph.D. in Informatics and includes numerous research opportunities in artificial intelligence. http://www.computersciencedegreehub.com/best/artificial-intelligence-engineering-schools/

I'll give you yet another perspective from the fortune 500 tech company I work for as a senior software engineer on the hiring team. Our group cares very little about pedigree and much more about the work/internships done while in school. Experience is king in the industry. Pedigree and things like ABET mean less than relevant experiences. In fact, we hire other STEM majors such as math, physics, etc... with programming courses and good experience over someone without those experiences all the time. I do realize some companies still target a limited group of schools or look for certs. But from what I've seen that is becoming less common and basically N/A once the software engineer has a couple years of experience under their belt. If they get that experience while in school its N/A right from the get go. Here's an example of how Google has evolved after their own research proved their hiring bias was wrong: http://money.cnn.com/2015/04/09/technology/google-people-laszlo-bock/index.html AI and machine learning are such specialty areas that I would look more at which schools offer more of those courses and research opportunities. At the undergraduate level most standard CS programs will go very little into AI. The student may take a class or two just scraping the surface. So a student might want to augment their major with outside courses or a dual major/minor in cognitive science as Luuknam mentioned. Some schools might have a strong robotics program including an AI component. Schools have robotic competitions which can be really fun. I would look for a program which provides opportunities to feed his passion more than other factors including pedigree. Then the rest will works it way out as he gets to do the things he really enjoys.

I've heard the calculators are *very* rough when compared to what the school 'actually' ends up offering in terms of merit aid. They don't really include special scholarships or other aid which may be offered because the school needs x number of type y students that particular year, for example. So, to find out the real numbers students need to apply which can also be very time consuming and expensive. But its obviously worth it if they receive unexpected aid.

We're actually considering moving out of state during these quickly approaching college years for similar reasons. The high COL is hitting us from all sides more than ever. We're probably not the only parents with multiple kids approaching college considering similar things. But I realize its harder for some than others to pull up tent stakes and move somewhere new. One of the things we really like about WA are their good public U's which are not as impacted as CA such as UW-Bothell, UW-Tacoma and WWU. While our son could probably find good merit aid in another state far, far away, he strongly desires to stay on or near the West Coast. Some place like AZ 'may' be acceptable to him. Otherwise, he pretty much wants to remain local nearer the coast. So if in CA, its looking like it will end up being public U's such as Cal Poly SLO, San Jose State, UC Davis, etc... The other factor we're considering is where will they want to live not only during school but upon graduation? Coastal CA is so expensive for young ppl especially in the Bay area. Its really hard to launch a career and eventually have a young family here. KWIM?

Yes, that sounds pretty consistent with what I've heard. They don't offer much unfortunately when compared to other expensive privates. 10k is pretty low when considering the high overall cost and the student's high stats in this case.

We're in a similar boat and looking at that same approach if we stay in CA. Question since you're in CA. Have you looked at some of the good privates here in terms of merit aid? I'm talking about schools like Santa Clara, Loyola Marymount, etc..? We also have friends in CA whose kids go to school in the PNW and like their schools (public and private). We've heard some of these out of state privates are more generous with merit aid. So we've thought about those well.

Hi GoodGrief, I'm glad to hear your daughter's experience at UW was wonderful. Would you mind sharing a bit more about what she liked and what made it wonderful? Did she enter as a freshman from out of state? If out of state, why did she choose it over other local options? I'm assuming your daughter went to the main Seattle campus. At least in the past, I've heard students had to get accepted twice for engineering, once to the main school and second to the school of engineering. That's actually fairly common here in CA as well. But not knowing acceptance to the later would be difficult indeed. It sounds like they are changing that part based on Janet's post. The thing that's different about UW is that they have satellites which are less impacted such as UW Bothell and UW Tacoma. In addition, the students have a smaller campus with better student/teacher ratios yet still receive a quality UW education.

Hi Janet, Thanks for sharing your kids experiences in WA. Yes, I've heard about some of the problems and realize its not all roses. UW is 'highly' competitive and also more crowded than most schools in the PNW as the major flagship U. Its probably the closest thing to our impacted public CA flagships such as UCLA, UC Berkeley, UCSD, etc... That's also why we haven't been considering it at least at the main campus. That said, there are still some good opportunities such as UW Bothell which is actually the fastest growing U in the state. I've heard great things about that program including working closely with companies in the area for internships and jobs later for grads. Lots of activity going on in Everett as well at the WSU branch. I've been warned about WSU Pullman being a party school. Since we're looking to stay in Western WA we're not really looking there. We also haven't been looking at WWU for computer science. Rather, we're considering it for our younger girls who are interested in other areas such as environmental science. But they are still not sure what they'll major in. So time will tell. The private U's also tend to be more generous when it comes to scholarships than those in CA. Lastly, Running Start seems to be a well recognized program for high school students wanting to obtain college credit. We are doing something similar in CA under dual enrollment. However, it's more organized and widely adopted in WA. Its interesting to see what they are doing at some of the CCs like offering certain 4 year degrees. I hadn't heard about the robotics program at Edmonds.

That's a really good list, Jazzy. I saw another list on CC also here with some overlap: https://talk.collegeconfidential.com/hispanic-students/1962590-national-hispanic-recognition-program-class-of-2018-p4.html I only wish there were more of these on the west coast since this is where our son wants to attend college. Though I it was nice to see CSU Long Beach. I'm not sure if those lists were based upon the research the folks have in the areas they've looked, letters mailed to students or a combination of both? I'll do some more west coast digging.

Jazzy, Its hard to complain about automatic money toward school especially since we're one of the donut hole families financially. We don't qualify for any need based aid and the EFC is a bad joke in most cases. In all other ways we seem to be on the short end of the stick especially for our son - middle class, white (mostly), male.

Thanks, Lanny. After our initial reaction and joking around a bit, we thought there may actually be something to it. So instead of just deleting the email we might consider submitting the requested documentation as you suggest. :thumbup:

Hi all, I am curious if any here is familiar with the National Hispanic Recognition Program (NHRP). Our son just received an email from the College Board saying: "Congratulations! You scored in the top 2.5% on the PSAT/NMSQT ® among all Hispanic and Latino high school junior test-takers in your region. As a result of your test performance, the College Board is pleased to invite you to participate in the National Hispanic Recognition Program (NHRP)." This is interesting though we've never heard of it before. Here's the funny part we just had a good laugh over. Our kids are 'primarily' Caucasian, mostly of German decent with blue eyes and fairly light complected. However, they are also 1/4 Spanish (from Spain). Well, after looking up the criteria Spain is the 'only' European country qualified for this recognition. So it appears they 'technically' qualify, meeting the minimum set of criteria. I'm just not sure it is something worth pursuing. If he were to actually get a scholarship based on ethnicity he certainly doesn't look the part nor does he have any sense of Hispanic culture, pride, Latino connectedness, etc... Although we do have a Spanish surname, he's learning the language and he loves Mexican food! :thumbup: I've heard colleges offering scholarships can ask things like 'what does it feel like to be a top Hispanic scholar? Or what does that mean to you?' To which his answers and general appearance would seem somewhat... odd. :blush: What do you think?

Arcadia, Those sound like some good reasons and a excellent plan. We love the SLO area and if we could afford to buy there we would do it! That's a very nice school as well. Right now we are also considering moving to an area nearer nice, affordable public schools. WA is one option we're considering. Most of the public U's are not impacted like in CA inlcluding UW, WWU, WSU, etc... In addition, they have satellite campuses like UW-Bothell which is highly regarded for its computer science program among others.

Madteaparty, See the post I just updated regarding Clear Creek's review of Unlock Math. In addition, here's a little more on their Geometry course: 1. Have your kids actually used their help services? If so, what is the response time like when asking a question? 2. How do they handle Proofs for the Geometry course? Are they addressed throughout the course or more limited to a section? And how are these be graded when they can have more than one correct answer? I'm having a hard time imagining auto grading proofs. 3. How have your kids responded to it? What were you using with them before as a means for comparison? 4. What are your thoughts on its rigor, lets say on a scale from super easy to super challenging? I know that's somewhat subjective. But its really hard to gauge from the outside. 5. Automatic grading: does this mean the student doesn't need to write out their steps and there is no partial credit? Is the 'final answer' all that matters?

Hi All, With permission from Clear Creek, I will share her feedback including the pros/cons of this program which her kids are currently using. Its sounds like one worth exploring further based upon her input. The vendor sounds very responsive and engaged with the students even though it is asynchronous in nature. "Yes, my oldest (who gets math easily) is using their geometry, and my middle (who has always struggled with math) is using their pre-algebra. This is our first year using Unlock math, but I plan to stick with them long-term for all three of my children. Pros: extremely detailed worked solutions to every single problem, the student can contact the instructor through the chat box or email at any time for help, the videos explain the concepts well, highly adaptive to the student - they can work as many problem sets as they need to grasp the concept with new problems every time, the units/lessons can be worked out of order if the student only needs to cover a few topics in a course, students can re-take exams (with all new problems) for a higher score, the parent portal is very user-friendly and allows the parent to see exactly what the student has worked on and how long they spent on it, and there is a warm up and review section in every single lesson so students can't forget previous material. Oh, and their customer service can't be beat...they strive to be friendly and helpful and give personal attention to every single customer. Cons: expensive (although they offer a 50% sibling discount, which is awesome), there is a bit of a learning curve when figuring out how to properly input answers using their software and getting an answer incorrect because it wasn't in the proper format can be a bit frustrating, the instructor uses Canadian pronunciation (so zed instead of zee for the last letter of our alphabet), and the courses are still relatively new so there is still the potential for a mistake in a course (my oldest found a lesson that had the incorrect video; I emailed them and they had the correct video up in less than five minutes and called me as well to let me know the video was up and to give my daughter kudos for catching the mistake). " Btw, she is from Canada. So Canadian the pronunciation was more tongue in cheek. Thanks again, Clear Creek!!! :D :)

That's good to hear, TarynB. I have heard of others like your son not have a bad experience. Can you tell me how your son normally does with math overall? Does it come naturally to him, does he struggle more than most kids, or..? I am a bit wary as you were after reading the problems. This is more compounded in this case for our middle dd who struggles quite a bit more with math. I need the program to be very clear and relatively easy for her to follow conceptually after putting in the work. So DO has been great for the most part. But yes, Jacobs 3rd edition may just not fit her learning style along with others.

I highly recommend WHA and Derek Owens (except geometry) for high school math. Our oldest ds has used WHA for math from Geometry through AP Calculus (in it currently). They've provided excellent instruction and a great overall experience. The only thing it doesn't work for is those students who want/need an asynchronous program. DO courses are excellent for that use case. WHA also tends be more on the rigorous side of the spectrum. So a struggling math student may have a harder time in keeping up. I've heard of several such cases.

Sure, its based upon prior Hive members who have taken that specific DO course and had problems with it even though they enjoy all his other courses. There are some old threads on this topic from forum members whose opinions I respect. As with all courses and vendors, its a bit of a gamble since there is no one size fits all. I prefer to stack the cards in our favor as much as possible when selecting and take very seriously critical reviews. That's not to say there haven't been good reports as well. However, with this dd in particular I need to be very careful about math programs. Better to be safe than sorry later. kwim?

I did find some free samples of the lessons for those who may be interested in UnLock Math: https://www.unlockmath.com/unlock-math-videos We'll be exploring several options for our middle dd's Geometry course next fall including TabletClass, Jann in TX and others which may be a good fit. This dd really struggles with math in general. The past 1.5 years with DO have actually been great for her overall, though still a challenge. We're looking for another vendor for Geometry.

This looks like an interesting 'new' option, at least new to me. I couldn't find any hive member reviews yet.

Yes, thanks for the update. Its really interesting to watch their journeys as they grow, struggle, waffle and discover their interests. Not every young student knows what they want to do nor necessarily has the passion to pursue those studies in a generic sort of way. It can take time to find one's niche.

Creekland, I am hoping this will be the case for our middle dd who is also under older brother's shadow. She struggles so much more with school in general including general motivation. If she can find her niche like she did with sports, I think it will increase her overall enthusiasm. Regardless, we will continue to support and encourage her. We certainly don't expect her to be a super star or anything. I just hope she doesn't feel that way or look down on herself if somehow not measuring up in her own eyes.

I love this!!! Especially the last part in which you described yourself. Sorry, I'm on a cell on a trip and not used to posting this way. I wish I could underline the sentence 'I just wanted a peaceful, happy life full of family, pets, the outdoors and books.' You sound just like my dds!!! And I'm perfectly fine with that. I just have to help them get there in their own time and way.

Wow, lots of great lRL stories which I find very encouraging since we have such a wide spectrum of academic abilities in our own family. While our oldest isn't necessarily a superstar, he is much more naturally gifted and driven than our younger dds. For our middle dd who struggles most, she is already sensing living underneath his shadow. It's hard for us when she asks about her trajectory in subjects like math when she's several years behind him. She's seriously struggled with math her entire life. However, in the past 1.5 years she's also grown so much in working with Derek Owens. She finally doesn't feel 'stupid' (her words) anymore. Yet she's also realized there will be no catching big bro. We're really trying to tailor her education to her natural abilities. However, I never want her to feel 'less than' or like a second class citizen. She is very strong in other areas including music and sports. I just want her to know it's fine being the best student 'she' can be apart from her siblings. Younger dd may be catching up with her soon in math which could be another blow to her rather fragile self-esteem. A bit of self confession, I have always been a big math guy and they know this. I was also an only child and so I never had anyone to really compare myself with. Yet with close siblings I can that it's hard to avoid it in some cases.