opinions for CS - Wisconsin, UIUC, Purdue, Michigan, UNC or perhaps UVA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Michigan, followed by UIUC, Purdue and Wisconsin.

UIUC is stronger but Michigan has better brand cachet, is better overall and has just as good CS recruitment as UIUC.

Both UNC and UVA have very weak CS departments. They are good options if your son might switch to liberal arts or business though.

I'm not a Tar Heel or UVA booster, although maybe not as strong as the others, I wouldn't call them "weak".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Michigan, followed by UIUC, Purdue and Wisconsin.

UIUC is stronger but Michigan has better brand cachet, is better overall and has just as good CS recruitment as UIUC.

Both UNC and UVA have very weak CS departments. They are good options if your son might switch to liberal arts or business though.

I'm not a Tar Heel or UVA booster, although maybe not as strong as the others, I wouldn't call them "weak".

They are very weak though, from undergraduate, graduate and research perspective.

[Anonymous]

OP. If you get into all of these colleges and money is not an issue, I'd pick in the following order.

UIUC/Michigan (UIUC is ranked higher but the location sucks and the cohort is not as elite as at Michigan but UIUC's CS program is top notch and highly respected in the Bay Area).
Purdue
Wisconsin
UNC
UVA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Michigan, followed by UIUC, Purdue and Wisconsin.

UIUC is stronger but Michigan has better brand cachet, is better overall and has just as good CS recruitment as UIUC.

Both UNC and UVA have very weak CS departments. They are good options if your son might switch to liberal arts or business though.

I'm not a Tar Heel or UVA booster, although maybe not as strong as the others, I wouldn't call them "weak".

They are very weak though, from undergraduate, graduate and research perspective.

They certainly aren’t in the same league as the better Big Ten schools mentioned.

[Anonymous]

I'd add GaTech to the list. GaTech CS is on a par with UIUC, and is the least expensive OOS school in the list.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stats?
My DC from magnet had 4.9 GPA, 1580 SAT, 10+ AP, all 5s. Had something like 62 credits going into college.

CS major, cisgender, white male, zero hooks, - rejected at UIUC, and wait listed at Mich.

CS major is very very competitive even for high stats students. So, unless your DC is a DEI or has some other hook, some of those colleges will be a reach.

Having stated that, I would look at Vtech over UVA. My DC was considering VTech but UVA wasn't even on their radar.

Except that 80% of all students change their major at least once. UVA is by far the better school for that

And honestly the programs are pretty similar in terms of rigor and research opportunities, and the students at UVA will definitely be smarter on average. I do a lot of hiring and there are some really impressive kids coming out of the UVA CS program. I’ve been much less impressed with the VT kids. Wisconsin, UIUC, Michigan are definitely a step up from both though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stats?
My DC from magnet had 4.9 GPA, 1580 SAT, 10+ AP, all 5s. Had something like 62 credits going into college.

CS major, cisgender, white male, zero hooks, - rejected at UIUC, and wait listed at Mich.

CS major is very very competitive even for high stats students. So, unless your DC is a DEI or has some other hook, some of those colleges will be a reach.

Having stated that, I would look at Vtech over UVA. My DC was considering VTech but UVA wasn't even on their radar.

BS


Except that 80% of all students change their major at least once. UVA is by far the better school for that

And honestly the programs are pretty similar in terms of rigor and research opportunities, and the students at UVA will definitely be smarter on average. I do a lot of hiring and there are some really impressive kids coming out of the UVA CS program. I’ve been much less impressed with the VT kids. Wisconsin, UIUC, Michigan are definitely a step up from both though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stats?
My DC from magnet had 4.9 GPA, 1580 SAT, 10+ AP, all 5s. Had something like 62 credits going into college.

CS major, cisgender, white male, zero hooks, - rejected at UIUC, and wait listed at Mich.

CS major is very very competitive even for high stats students. So, unless your DC is a DEI or has some other hook, some of those colleges will be a reach.

Having stated that, I would look at Vtech over UVA. My DC was considering VTech but UVA wasn't even on their radar.

Except that 80% of all students change their major at least once. UVA is by far the better school for that

And honestly the programs are pretty similar in terms of rigor and research opportunities, and the students at UVA will definitely be smarter on average. I do a lot of hiring and there are some really impressive kids coming out of the UVA CS program. I’ve been much less impressed with the VT kids. Wisconsin, UIUC, Michigan are definitely a step up from both though.

BS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stats?
My DC from magnet had 4.9 GPA, 1580 SAT, 10+ AP, all 5s. Had something like 62 credits going into college.

CS major, cisgender, white male, zero hooks, - rejected at UIUC, and wait listed at Mich.

CS major is very very competitive even for high stats students. So, unless your DC is a DEI or has some other hook, some of those colleges will be a reach.

Having stated that, I would look at Vtech over UVA. My DC was considering VTech but UVA wasn't even on their radar.

Except that 80% of all students change their major at least once. UVA is by far the better school for that

ok, but a CS major is most likely not going to go into public policy. They will stay within a STEM major, most likely, and VTech is still better for most STEM majors than UVA.

We don't live in VA.

Virginia Tech students take buses to a strip mall to teach themselves calculus at kiosks. That’s the intro math program there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you mean U of I? No one says UIUC.

- Chicagoan

They’re DCUM, they don’t know

It's Urbana Champaign, not Chicago. We know.

DCUM thinks Chicago is nearby tho

I think UIUC is a new thing. I'm an old-timer Chicagoan and it was NEVER called UIUC. It was always U of I.

My nephew from Silicon Valley went there for CS and graduated a few years ago. When he told me he had gotten into UIUC I had no idea what he was talking about. He said everyone calls it UIUC now. I think it's an OOS thing.

My old friend received BS in CS from UICS about 30 years ago and I asked. It was and is UIUC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Michigan, followed by UIUC, Purdue and Wisconsin.

UIUC is stronger but Michigan has better brand cachet, is better overall and has just as good CS recruitment as UIUC.

Both UNC and UVA have very weak CS departments. They are good options if your son might switch to liberal arts or business though.

I'm not a Tar Heel or UVA booster, although maybe not as strong as the others, I wouldn't call them "weak".

I wouldn't call them "weak", I would call them "very weak" just like PP.

[Anonymous]

Virginia Tech students take buses to a strip mall to teach themselves calculus at kiosks. That’s the intro math program there.

Not the engineers. They take calculus in a classroom. What you’re talking about is for non-engineering.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, I understand that your DS doesn't want to go to a school that's < 10mi from your home. My DS felt the same, but UMD also offered merit, and so it was a no brainer. DS is in UH, and their dorms are nice.

We just visited over the weekend. I asked DS, "Are you happy here?". Answer: yes. DS said there are some super "cracked" kids there -- I take that to mean super smart. Likes the classes so far, and the food (very important to him). We ate at the new dining hall, and omg, it was good, and so much variety.

It's a large enough campus where you can meet new people from not MoCo. And your DS doesn't have to come home at all if they want to.

Bonus: moving in was super easy. No logistical issues, and you can take your time to move in because you are so close. And visiting is easy, too.

I understand the desire to not go to " 13th grade", but UMD for CS is T20 (some list shows T15), and it's a bargain for what you get.

My DS applied to some of the schools on your list, but in the end, financially, it did not make any sense to spend so much for OOS on schools that were about the same caliber as UMD.

OP- my high stat terp went due to covid (2020) and merit (1/2BK) over Northwestern and Michigan. We bought him a brand new car to have on campus (entered school as a sophomore). Best decision ever. Is graduating with a job offer, a paid off car and money for graduate school. They studied abroad and traveled. Met lots of new people and it was not 13th grade for them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Michigan, followed by UIUC, Purdue and Wisconsin.

UIUC is stronger but Michigan has better brand cachet, is better overall and has just as good CS recruitment as UIUC.

Both UNC and UVA have very weak CS departments. They are good options if your son might switch to liberal arts or business though.

I'm not a Tar Heel or UVA booster, although maybe not as strong as the others, I wouldn't call them "weak".

I wouldn't call them "weak", I would call them "very weak" just like PP.

That seems to be a strange opinion to me. Aren't they ranked relatively highly for their CS programs in US News? So VA Tech and RPI and Case Western and others further down the list are "very, very, very weak"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Michigan, followed by UIUC, Purdue and Wisconsin.

UIUC is stronger but Michigan has better brand cachet, is better overall and has just as good CS recruitment as UIUC.

Both UNC and UVA have very weak CS departments. They are good options if your son might switch to liberal arts or business though.

I'm not a Tar Heel or UVA booster, although maybe not as strong as the others, I wouldn't call them "weak".

I wouldn't call them "weak", I would call them "very weak" just like PP.

That seems to be a strange opinion to me. Aren't they ranked relatively highly for their CS programs in US News? So VA Tech and RPI and Case Western and others further down the list are "very, very, very weak"?

You’re exaggerating. They’re just very, very weak.