Best VA school for computer science

[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.

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...

W&M is not known for CS, but if a student loves the school and decides that's the best fit for him/her, then it's perfectly fine. For CS, unless you're talking about MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, CMU, or Cal Tech (and possibly GT and Cornell), it doesn't really matter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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...

W&M is not known for CS, but if a student loves the school and decides that's the best fit for him/her, then it's perfectly fine. For CS, unless you're talking about MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, CMU, or Cal Tech (and possibly GT and Cornell), it doesn't really matter.

What school you go to does matter in CS in terms of recruitment from firms. If you go to some middle-tier LAC that's mediocre in CS, it's not going to get recruitment from firms like Google or Microsoft. Getting in from college fairs is much easier than getting in from online applications.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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...

W&M is not known for CS, but if a student loves the school and decides that's the best fit for him/her, then it's perfectly fine. For CS, unless you're talking about MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, CMU, or Cal Tech (and possibly GT and Cornell), it doesn't really matter.

What school you go to does matter in CS in terms of recruitment from firms. If you go to some middle-tier LAC that's mediocre in CS, it's not going to get recruitment from firms like Google or Microsoft. Getting in from college fairs is much easier than getting in from online applications.

That's fair; it is easier and may make a difference in the first job. But, good CS employees are in high demand. I know fantastic software engineers from VCU, JMU, Radford, and Roanoke College. Experience like internships are extremely valuable. A decent undergrad school attracts many companies and schools like UVA and W&M while not known for CS attract many opportunities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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...

W&M is not known for CS, but if a student loves the school and decides that's the best fit for him/her, then it's perfectly fine. For CS, unless you're talking about MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, CMU, or Cal Tech (and possibly GT and Cornell), it doesn't really matter.

What school you go to does matter in CS in terms of recruitment from firms. If you go to some middle-tier LAC that's mediocre in CS, it's not going to get recruitment from firms like Google or Microsoft. Getting in from college fairs is much easier than getting in from online applications.

That's fair; it is easier and may make a difference in the first job. But, good CS employees are in high demand. I know fantastic software engineers from VCU, JMU, Radford, and Roanoke College. Experience like internships are extremely valuable. A decent undergrad school attracts many companies and schools like UVA and W&M while not known for CS attract many opportunities.

Agree, CS career opportunities abound in the NoVA area for new graduates. DD graduated last year and DS graduating CS this year from UVA, both got/gets multiple offers in the low 100k. Many of those companies also offer 3rd-4th year summer internship as their recruitment process.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

I'd like to agree with this. When I am recruiting coders - I tend to care less where they went to school - I want to see if they can solve the problems I throw at them in the interview. I want to see samples of their code in GitHub. I want to make sure they can think on their feet and really like to code. I have even hired coders with no degree.

That said, one more thing to think about - if you kid changes their mind about CS - will the school still make them happy? I was a CS major at UVa and I chose it over other schools because I didn't want to go to a pure tech college. I would agree with the comments on here that UVa is more theory but I did my minor in MIS in the Commerce school and at the time it was the more useful coding. Used that all in my first job.

[Anonymous]

W&M has very strong CS department. Is more academic and has strong theoretical component. For someone who is planning PHD or MS it's the best chose.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:W&M has very strong CS department. Is more academic and has strong theoretical component. For someone who is planning PHD or MS it's the best chose.

+1 I think people need to compare apples to apples. Engineering tends to be more practical (focus on solving problems) while a liberal arts focus on how/why things work. I would think that there are benefits to both, and certain employers that prefer one to the other. William and Mary offers CS only as a BS program. V-Tech offers only CS in a very structured engineering program for (you can take computational modeling in the College of Science or Information Tech. in the College of Business). UVA, VCU, GMU, etc. offer CS in both BS and engineering programs.

[Anonymous]

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

+2


It's *sort of* like thinking Harvard and MIT are the same for CS. They are not.

[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

+2


It's *sort of* like thinking Harvard and MIT are the same for CS. They are not.

V-Tech is just known for engineering. It doesn't mean their CS is better than UVA CS. Also, the national reputation for CS is actually better with UVA. 
There are so many different fields to pursue with a CS degree. Depends on what you are looking for, you can find a better fit for each school. 
Most importantly, your skills matter more than school.

[Anonymous]

The people who get ahead in high tech tend to move more to the business side over time. That requires good communication and analytic skills. I'd recommend getting a balanced education.