Syracuse vs. UMASS vs. UCONN
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Anonymous
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We're new to the college search and these are some of the schools that DS's GC suggested as matches/safeties (we're from the NYC metro area, CT).
Syracuse seems like a pretty good school, maybe on par with GW and SMU (I went to GW). However, my DS is not a partier, that's for sure. UMASS seems similar to Syracuse, just a public school. Amherst seems like a nice town. UCONN is definitely more isolated, but the UCONN grads I worked with seem pretty smart. We're also looking at Lehigh, Fairfield, and RPI. Information Science Major. |
Anonymous
| Syracuse given costs are the same |
Anonymous
| Syracuse has an excellent I School. |
Anonymous
| UMass hands down |
Anonymous
Why??? |
Anonymous
| Why are you looking at out-of-state flagships and not at any SUNY’s? |
Anonymous
The OP indicated they are from Connecticut. |
Anonymous
| Syracuse is a step down from SMU and GW |
Anonymous
That doesn't matter - it's about fit and where kid will be happy. Unless you're talking Ivies (which aren't necessarily better, but have the connections aspect), some US News ranking that says one school is better than the other is meaningless. |
Anonymous
| Hi! I am from Westport! Graduated from Syracuse, and HIGHLY recommend!! |
Anonymous
The numbers say otherwise. Neither SMU or GW have any elite academic programs. |
Anonymous
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Look at the IS departments. I recall UConn was building a strong one decades ago when I graduated in the 1980s-- some of my classmates were among the first employees at places like Apple and Cisco and are now giving back, so I suspect (you should check) that they are punching above their weight (in those days, these kids were called electrical engineering majors with subspecialties in computers). Also, if your child is eligible check out UConn's honors program. Even when I was there, it afforded kids opportunities found more often at smaller liberal arts colleges (smaller classes earlier in college years) . I understand it has improved dramatically since. Storrs is now a cute college town -- much better than 20 years ago - but not particularly necessary. It is a feel of a city unto itself (yes, there are community programs in other towns but that's not the primary vibe). That's a certain type of college experience very different than going to school in a city, although they had (at least pre-covid) semester programs in DC and maybe other cities too. I loved it. The Dairy Bar makes the best ice cream made with help from cows in Agriculture School.
If your DS was interested in journalism/communications, then I'd say Syracuse which has a special well regarded school, and they may have other particularly strong departments. I don't know anyone from Conn who went to UMass unless they didn't get into UConn, and I have friends whose children recently did a year at UMass and then transferred to UConn for that reason. |
Anonymous
| I believe the OP indicated the prospective major was information science, not computer science. |
Anonymous
Agree ranking are meaningless, but the argument is rendered even more ridiculous by the fact that Syracuse is ranked higher than both of those schools, so it is a false point from either position. |
Anonymous
Yes, but it's a related field and my point was only that UConn's early investments there are spinning reinvestments which I would expect likely permeate other aspects of IS. IS is a broad term that encompasses everything from CS to library science to psych. But the heart of it seems to me to be the ability of organizations to amass and utilize large amounts of data -- which was only made possible via CS. |