Best VA school for computer science

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:V Tech over UVa. It's an engineering school. It's engineering and CS programs have a good national reputation. UVA is okay, but it's not at the level of V Tech.

+1

OP here- thanks for all responses so far! Keep them coming as I’d really like as much perspective as possible! A few things:

-he didn’t actually apply to VT 😉 He just didn’t really like the feel of the school. Personal preference I suppose. I thought it was great!

-he also applied to Carnegie Mellon- but it’s a reach, so I didn’t mention it earlier. So competitive!

-he got scholarship $$ to VCU and he thinks that it doesn’t matter where he gets a CS degree from, he will be marketable and he is heavily considering VCU since they offered him $. I guess I’m trying to figure out if there’s any truth to that thinking.

Thanks!

I have a friend that did the same thing, went to VCU for free in CS. He now works at Capital One in Richmond.

I have another friend that went to TJ, then to CMU. He didn't like CMU, then transferred to UVA and loved it. Just his experience, so take it for what it's worth. I'm a Hokie myself and loved my engineering experience there.

[Anonymous]

It really depends on what your kid's goals are. I would think that if your kid wanted to code, almost any program will prepare him/her for that job. If your kid wanted to go to business school and manage an IT team, UVa might provide advantages in terms of pedigree.

As an aside, the engineering programs in the public Virginia colleges are substantially uniform in terms of requirements and curriculum.

[Anonymous]

If you are interested in what the current students and recent grads think, I'd look at Reddit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1) UVA
2) VT
3) GMU (bump GMU if you care about price)

+1

[Anonymous]

While not insignificant, the rank of the school matters less in CS because most job interviews are skill based. They want to see you code. They want to see you problem solve. Your applied skills matter much more than in something like business or humanities where they are considering the general philosophy and caliber of education at your institution. It’s more like being an artist. You have to show them what YOU can do, and as long as you have a solid education from a reputable school, your own problem solving abilities have to take you the rest of the way.

[Anonymous]

"VT - Best eng rep in the state. Well known and the eng students you'll find there are top notch. Sense of community and pride that you'll only understand if you're an alum."

My friend's children both graduated and were hired straight out of school in their field with six figures. Computer Science.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"VT - Best eng rep in the state. Well known and the eng students you'll find there are top notch. Sense of community and pride that you'll only understand if you're an alum."

My friend's children both graduated and were hired straight out of school in their field with six figures. Computer Science.

That statement pretty much describes any comp sci graduate from any school in the recent job market

[Anonymous]

As others have said, UVA, VT, and GMU is accurate

UVA - flagship, most prominent, better students overall, department rank is highest although not high enough to be significant. The cons are that its a business/humanities-focused school, not a science/engineering focused one. The culture of the school can certainly affect the opportunities outside of the classroom i.e. robotics clubs, social groups, events, etc. The academic work is going to be similar enough to VT, probably less rigorous because engineering courses are not required. Higher than VT only because of name recognition and overall student quality

VT - Best engineering school in the state. CS is in their engineering college which means very technical focused curriculum. Being a large technical-focused school means a large number of CS-focused activities outside of class. Only below UVA because name recognition and overall student quality

GMU - Location in DC area, great internship opportunities, huge school meaning plenty of opportunities for activities.

[Anonymous]

Sorry OP I know you didn't mention it, but is anyone familiar with CS at W&M? Unlike most liberal arts schools, they offer a B.S. as opposed to a B.A. Also offer a degree in Data Science. If its like rest of their academics, I would imagine rigorous coursework.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sorry OP I know you didn't mention it, but is anyone familiar with CS at W&M? Unlike most liberal arts schools, they offer a B.S. as opposed to a B.A. Also offer a degree in Data Science. If its like rest of their academics, I would imagine rigorous coursework.

My son is interested in data science so we looked at the W&M program but he preferred VT's computational modeling and data analytics program. It seems to be very strong in connections with industry for internships and projects.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sorry OP I know you didn't mention it, but is anyone familiar with CS at W&M? Unlike most liberal arts schools, they offer a B.S. as opposed to a B.A. Also offer a degree in Data Science. If its like rest of their academics, I would imagine rigorous coursework.

I believe they have pretty strong placement and have been investing in growing the program. It will be smaller than VT, UVA, and GMU, obviously, which probably has some advantages and disadvantages. If you like other aspects of the school, and given over half of the classes you take will be outside of CS, it is worth considering.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sorry OP I know you didn't mention it, but is anyone familiar with CS at W&M? Unlike most liberal arts schools, they offer a B.S. as opposed to a B.A. Also offer a degree in Data Science. If its like rest of their academics, I would imagine rigorous coursework.

UVA has a new data science school. https://news.virginia.edu/content/uva-plans-new-school-data-science-120-million-gift-largest-university-history

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IT-Cybersecurity or Cyber Engineering majors?

I would like to know the answer to this as well...

GMU has the lead for cybersecurity majors. The students are hired before they graduate. https://volgenau.gmu.edu/expertise/cybersecurity

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry OP I know you didn't mention it, but is anyone familiar with CS at W&M? Unlike most liberal arts schools, they offer a B.S. as opposed to a B.A. Also offer a degree in Data Science. If its like rest of their academics, I would imagine rigorous coursework.

UVA has a new data science school. https://news.virginia.edu/content/uva-plans-new-school-data-science-120-million-gift-largest-university-history

It's only a grad school, although they did just add a minor for undergrads

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sorry OP I know you didn't mention it, but is anyone familiar with CS at W&M? Unlike most liberal arts schools, they offer a B.S. as opposed to a B.A. Also offer a degree in Data Science. If its like rest of their academics, I would imagine rigorous coursework.

OP here- I actually did list W&M as a school he applied to and is actually very interested in, but no one had addressed CS there in this thread- so thanks for bringing it up! Hope to hear more...