(Courtesy of NextGen Summer Camp) The short answer is yes! There are numerous reasons that universities are more inclined to accept high school students that have “computer science” listed somewhere on their application. Whether it is marked as their prospective major, or more importantly that the student shows that they have applied their coding knowledge to an internship and spent time outside of school advancing their programming skills.

To understand why this is, we must first look at this from the college’s perspective. A college is a business and businesses want to show off metrics that symbolize success. Therefore, elite colleges have historically been focused on three main metrics: average graduating salary, graduating class employment rate, and acceptance rate. However, recently colleges have started publicizing a new statistic: the number of students in a STEM-focused major. Acceptance rate aside, this is the reason that colleges are looking to accept prospective STEM majors, primarily computer science majors. This is because of the booming job market, with average starting salaries in New York City around $90,000 and a hire rate of over 90%. Thus, as colleges continue to accept more students who are likely to pursue a degree in computer science, it is almost certain that all their post-graduation metrics will increase exponentially.

So now that we understand the colleges’ motive behind why they want to accept students who are more inclined to study a STEM focused major, the next natural question should be – how do I signal to a college that I am a student not only interested but have a high likelihood that I will graduate with a major in computer science? This is an important point, as computer science majors have an insanely high drop out or major transfer rate. The colleges are trying to combat this, so signaling in your application that you are serious about this major, and you did not just check it off, is vital to the success of your application.

In order to show the colleges that you are serious about pursuing a STEM major or minor, keep in mind that at most top business or liberal arts schools various STEM majors are offered, so this advice is for any student looking to gain a competitive edge in the application process – not just engineering students. A student will need to show that they have taken courses in programming in school, but most importantly show that they have spent summers trying to further advance their knowledge in a coding program, and ultimately taking this programming knowledge and applying it to internships.

This is where, NextGen Bootcamp, comes in as we have tailored coding and design summer programs for eighth graders until gap year students. We have a location in New Jersey and New York City and offer many different coding summer camps: AP Java Bootcamp, Python for Data Science, Artificial Intelligence, Web Development, Graphic Design, App Development and more! 

All of these programs have two main goals. The first is to teach students coding in a collaborative and open environment through hands-on learning. The second is to help students create a portfolio of their work so they can send it to colleges or prospective internships for summers to come. However, it does not stop there, after joining us for a summer we, at NextGen, help students find local programming internships for the following summer.

Come join us this summer to learn some valuable skills, have some fun, and improve your college application. We have all different types of programs for all different levels, interests and ages! Sign up before March 31st to take advantage of our sale!