UMD vs Vt for CS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a CIO and my oldest is a CS major. UMD is by far the better program and things are getting more competitive as you might have heard.

CP is fine, honestly we didnt love the campus but the program is top notch. VA vibe is great, and the alumni network is strong but you will not have the same level of training. Don't flame me on that - Ive been in NOVA tech for 25 years, we hire from UMD not VT. But those kids DO find jobs, I just think they might have to work a bit more to get them. Thats my opinion.

I'm not sure you are giving apples to apples - what happens to the prepay if you dont use it? Do you cash it out with penalties? What is true cost differential?

OP here. Thank you for your input. We can cash out the prepaid. It has a cash value of 40K that we can apply to UMD and will bring down its COA to 36K/year (vs VT which will be 16K/year).

[Anonymous]

PP here - that is a tough decision - does your kid have a favorite? Sorry if you said already. If they are pursing AI or ML tracks I think they may be better off at UMD because I just don’t think VT has the curriculum for it last I looked. General CS maybe you take the 80k in savings. Once you get past your first job no one will care unless it’s MIT-level and neither of these qualifies for that. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP here - that is a tough decision - does your kid have a favorite? Sorry if you said already. If they are pursing AI or ML tracks I think they may be better off at UMD because I just don’t think VT has the curriculum for it last I looked. General CS maybe you take the 80k in savings. Once you get past your first job no one will care unless it’s MIT-level and neither of these qualifies for that. Good luck!

She actually likes both campuses and is not too sure of specialization if any yet. She will be doing a cybersecurity internship this summer and might be leaning toward that if she likes it enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In today's market, where you go matters to some degree (pardon the pun).

UMD has more of a national and global recognition for CS. VT does not.

There's another thread about SLO vs VT for business, and everyone on that thread is saying SLO, hands down. SLO is a regional school (FWIW, I graduated from a CSU like SLO); VT is a national school, yet everyone there is still saying SLO is worth the OOS (SLO is in CA for those who don't know).

Yes, that other thread is about business, not CS, but IMO, it goes to show how even people here in the DC area regard VT.

I am going to repeat it one more time. It does NOT matter where you go to college for fields like CS or Information Technology.

I develop AI software that many recruiting companies use in screening their potential candidates. None of them consider where you go college as a determining factor in the initial screening.

+100

I would say below the top 20 schools it matters less. We asolutely target specific schools for new technical hires and they are all in the top 20. We attend job fairs, we reruit interns from them, we solicit their grads. Its not a passive ATS system when we bring on early career talent. The top CS kids have offers by August of Junior year because there was a strong intern pipeline where these things are locked up.

I am a tech recruiter for AWS, Azure, and Google cloud technologies, and I place candidates for F100 companies. The company I work with is looking for in a recent grads, in this order:

1- Do you have AWS, Azure, or Google cloud certifications? The higher certifications, the better. By certifications, it means you have to pass exams, not just completing the course. Last week, I placed a college junior with ZERO experience at a F100 company because he has the AWS Certified Solutions Architect. He used free AWS account to get it done. The company paid him 140K/yr and he is working fully remote while finishing up his junior year. Those certifications trump internships and the school you attend. Btw, he is a student at GMU.

2- Do you have relevant CS courses that will make you succeed in tech? Problem is that most schools do not teach cloud technologies.

3- Do you have relevance internship experience? I have several candidates from CMU and UCLA looking for internships and when I asked them about cloud, they said that the universities don't teach that but they can learn that on the job. I told them that they should have learned this on their own time but they did not. Sadly, they didn't get those internships.

I talked to other recruiters who recruited candidates for AI/ML, and none of them said that where you go to school "matters".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In today's market, where you go matters to some degree (pardon the pun).

UMD has more of a national and global recognition for CS. VT does not.

There's another thread about SLO vs VT for business, and everyone on that thread is saying SLO, hands down. SLO is a regional school (FWIW, I graduated from a CSU like SLO); VT is a national school, yet everyone there is still saying SLO is worth the OOS (SLO is in CA for those who don't know).

Yes, that other thread is about business, not CS, but IMO, it goes to show how even people here in the DC area regard VT.

I am going to repeat it one more time. It does NOT matter where you go to college for fields like CS or Information Technology.

I develop AI software that many recruiting companies use in screening their potential candidates. None of them consider where you go college as a determining factor in the initial screening.

+100

I would say below the top 20 schools it matters less. We asolutely target specific schools for new technical hires and they are all in the top 20. We attend job fairs, we reruit interns from them, we solicit their grads. Its not a passive ATS system when we bring on early career talent. The top CS kids have offers by August of Junior year because there was a strong intern pipeline where these things are locked up.

I am a tech recruiter for AWS, Azure, and Google cloud technologies, and I place candidates for F100 companies. The company I work with is looking for in a recent grads, in this order:

1- Do you have AWS, Azure, or Google cloud certifications? The higher certifications, the better. By certifications, it means you have to pass exams, not just completing the course. Last week, I placed a college junior with ZERO experience at a F100 company because he has the AWS Certified Solutions Architect. He used free AWS account to get it done. The company paid him 140K/yr and he is working fully remote while finishing up his junior year. Those certifications trump internships and the school you attend. Btw, he is a student at GMU.

2- Do you have relevant CS courses that will make you succeed in tech? Problem is that most schools do not teach cloud technologies.

3- Do you have relevance internship experience? I have several candidates from CMU and UCLA looking for internships and when I asked them about cloud, they said that the universities don't teach that but they can learn that on the job. I told them that they should have learned this on their own time but they did not. Sadly, they didn't get those internships.

I talked to other recruiters who recruited candidates for AI/ML, and none of them said that where you go to school "matters".

Excuse my ignorance, I'm not in the tech field at all. How do you recruit students? Do you go to the college career fairs? Or do kids apply online? Basically, how do students connect with you? Thanks

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP here - that is a tough decision - does your kid have a favorite? Sorry if you said already. If they are pursing AI or ML tracks I think they may be better off at UMD because I just don’t think VT has the curriculum for it last I looked. General CS maybe you take the 80k in savings. Once you get past your first job no one will care unless it’s MIT-level and neither of these qualifies for that. Good luck!

She actually likes both campuses and is not too sure of specialization if any yet. She will be doing a cybersecurity internship this summer and might be leaning toward that if she likes it enough.

I work for a government contractor as a bid/proposal manager, and cybersecurity is in high demand right now. Primary thing we are looking for are people with the right certifications. Where they graduate doesn't matter! Now if your kid was a business major and you're asking between VT and UMD, then I would say UMD of course.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In today's market, where you go matters to some degree (pardon the pun).

UMD has more of a national and global recognition for CS. VT does not.

There's another thread about SLO vs VT for business, and everyone on that thread is saying SLO, hands down. SLO is a regional school (FWIW, I graduated from a CSU like SLO); VT is a national school, yet everyone there is still saying SLO is worth the OOS (SLO is in CA for those who don't know).

Yes, that other thread is about business, not CS, but IMO, it goes to show how even people here in the DC area regard VT.

I am going to repeat it one more time. It does NOT matter where you go to college for fields like CS or Information Technology.

I develop AI software that many recruiting companies use in screening their potential candidates. None of them consider where you go college as a determining factor in the initial screening.

+100

+1000

How many times do we have to say this!

Agreed with above, I work in AI also and no one cares where I went to school!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In today's market, where you go matters to some degree (pardon the pun).

UMD has more of a national and global recognition for CS. VT does not.

There's another thread about SLO vs VT for business, and everyone on that thread is saying SLO, hands down. SLO is a regional school (FWIW, I graduated from a CSU like SLO); VT is a national school, yet everyone there is still saying SLO is worth the OOS (SLO is in CA for those who don't know).

Yes, that other thread is about business, not CS, but IMO, it goes to show how even people here in the DC area regard VT.

I am going to repeat it one more time. It does NOT matter where you go to college for fields like CS or Information Technology.

I develop AI software that many recruiting companies use in screening their potential candidates. None of them consider where you go college as a determining factor in the initial screening.

+100

I would say below the top 20 schools it matters less. We asolutely target specific schools for new technical hires and they are all in the top 20. We attend job fairs, we reruit interns from them, we solicit their grads. Its not a passive ATS system when we bring on early career talent. The top CS kids have offers by August of Junior year because there was a strong intern pipeline where these things are locked up.

UMD is top 20 for CS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In today's market, where you go matters to some degree (pardon the pun).

UMD has more of a national and global recognition for CS. VT does not.

There's another thread about SLO vs VT for business, and everyone on that thread is saying SLO, hands down. SLO is a regional school (FWIW, I graduated from a CSU like SLO); VT is a national school, yet everyone there is still saying SLO is worth the OOS (SLO is in CA for those who don't know).

Yes, that other thread is about business, not CS, but IMO, it goes to show how even people here in the DC area regard VT.

I am going to repeat it one more time. It does NOT matter where you go to college for fields like CS or Information Technology.

I develop AI software that many recruiting companies use in screening their potential candidates. None of them consider where you go college as a determining factor in the initial screening.

+100

I would say below the top 20 schools it matters less. We asolutely target specific schools for new technical hires and they are all in the top 20. We attend job fairs, we reruit interns from them, we solicit their grads. Its not a passive ATS system when we bring on early career talent. The top CS kids have offers by August of Junior year because there was a strong intern pipeline where these things are locked up.

I am a tech recruiter for AWS, Azure, and Google cloud technologies, and I place candidates for F100 companies. The company I work with is looking for in a recent grads, in this order:

1- Do you have AWS, Azure, or Google cloud certifications? The higher certifications, the better. By certifications, it means you have to pass exams, not just completing the course. Last week, I placed a college junior with ZERO experience at a F100 company because he has the AWS Certified Solutions Architect. He used free AWS account to get it done. The company paid him 140K/yr and he is working fully remote while finishing up his junior year. Those certifications trump internships and the school you attend. Btw, he is a student at GMU.

2- Do you have relevant CS courses that will make you succeed in tech? Problem is that most schools do not teach cloud technologies.

3- Do you have relevance internship experience? I have several candidates from CMU and UCLA looking for internships and when I asked them about cloud, they said that the universities don't teach that but they can learn that on the job. I told them that they should have learned this on their own time but they did not. Sadly, they didn't get those internships.

I talked to other recruiters who recruited candidates for AI/ML, and none of them said that where you go to school "matters".

Not every CS student is interested in cloud. Clearly, you are focused on cloud technologies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP here - that is a tough decision - does your kid have a favorite? Sorry if you said already. If they are pursing AI or ML tracks I think they may be better off at UMD because I just don’t think VT has the curriculum for it last I looked. General CS maybe you take the 80k in savings. Once you get past your first job no one will care unless it’s MIT-level and neither of these qualifies for that. Good luck!

She actually likes both campuses and is not too sure of specialization if any yet. She will be doing a cybersecurity internship this summer and might be leaning toward that if she likes it enough.

I work for a government contractor as a bid/proposal manager, and cybersecurity is in high demand right now. Primary thing we are looking for are people with the right certifications. Where they graduate doesn't matter! Now if your kid was a business major and you're asking between VT and UMD, then I would say UMD of course.

What kind of certifications are you looking for? Thanks

[Anonymous]

VT grad that now lives in MD with dS going to UMD.

I thought VT had less options for computer students. Say if you decide it's too difficult or you're not interested in the major, then there are other options at UMD.

My DS will be going in with a different major. If you're not a computer person, then you may not realize that you don't need to do CS to do computer work. Actually, there's a glut of CS workers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In today's market, where you go matters to some degree (pardon the pun).

UMD has more of a national and global recognition for CS. VT does not.

There's another thread about SLO vs VT for business, and everyone on that thread is saying SLO, hands down. SLO is a regional school (FWIW, I graduated from a CSU like SLO); VT is a national school, yet everyone there is still saying SLO is worth the OOS (SLO is in CA for those who don't know).

Yes, that other thread is about business, not CS, but IMO, it goes to show how even people here in the DC area regard VT.

I am going to repeat it one more time. It does NOT matter where you go to college for fields like CS or Information Technology.

I develop AI software that many recruiting companies use in screening their potential candidates. None of them consider where you go college as a determining factor in the initial screening.

+100

I would say below the top 20 schools it matters less. We asolutely target specific schools for new technical hires and they are all in the top 20. We attend job fairs, we reruit interns from them, we solicit their grads. Its not a passive ATS system when we bring on early career talent. The top CS kids have offers by August of Junior year because there was a strong intern pipeline where these things are locked up.

I am a tech recruiter for AWS, Azure, and Google cloud technologies, and I place candidates for F100 companies. The company I work with is looking for in a recent grads, in this order:

1- Do you have AWS, Azure, or Google cloud certifications? The higher certifications, the better. By certifications, it means you have to pass exams, not just completing the course. Last week, I placed a college junior with ZERO experience at a F100 company because he has the AWS Certified Solutions Architect. He used free AWS account to get it done. The company paid him 140K/yr and he is working fully remote while finishing up his junior year. Those certifications trump internships and the school you attend. Btw, he is a student at GMU.

2- Do you have relevant CS courses that will make you succeed in tech? Problem is that most schools do not teach cloud technologies.

3- Do you have relevance internship experience? I have several candidates from CMU and UCLA looking for internships and when I asked them about cloud, they said that the universities don't teach that but they can learn that on the job. I told them that they should have learned this on their own time but they did not. Sadly, they didn't get those internships.

I talked to other recruiters who recruited candidates for AI/ML, and none of them said that where you go to school "matters".

This is the vocational and trade school approach. Yes, anyone doing these would get jobs because they are taught specific technologies that are currently in demand. Nothing wrong with this approach, but these students skills would be outdated quickly and as long as they catch up to new technologies they can extend their career for a little longer.

Students at CMU or any college where they are taking heavy theoretical computer science courses are the ones who are going to be working on core engineering problems at FAANG and starting/joining other startups. These skills are going to last their lifetime.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP here - that is a tough decision - does your kid have a favorite? Sorry if you said already. If they are pursing AI or ML tracks I think they may be better off at UMD because I just don’t think VT has the curriculum for it last I looked. General CS maybe you take the 80k in savings. Once you get past your first job no one will care unless it’s MIT-level and neither of these qualifies for that. Good luck!

She actually likes both campuses and is not too sure of specialization if any yet. She will be doing a cybersecurity internship this summer and might be leaning toward that if she likes it enough.

I work for a government contractor as a bid/proposal manager, and cybersecurity is in high demand right now. Primary thing we are looking for are people with the right certifications. Where they graduate doesn't matter! Now if your kid was a business major and you're asking between VT and UMD, then I would say UMD of course.

What kind of certifications are you looking for? Thanks

It's going to be role-dependent, but some of the big ones across the board are Security+ (great starter), CEH (for ethical hacking), CISSP (for leadership roles), and anything cloud-related like AWS Security or the Google Cybersecurity cert. If just getting started, I'd say Security+ and any of the cloud ones.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In today's market, where you go matters to some degree (pardon the pun).

UMD has more of a national and global recognition for CS. VT does not.

There's another thread about SLO vs VT for business, and everyone on that thread is saying SLO, hands down. SLO is a regional school (FWIW, I graduated from a CSU like SLO); VT is a national school, yet everyone there is still saying SLO is worth the OOS (SLO is in CA for those who don't know).

Yes, that other thread is about business, not CS, but IMO, it goes to show how even people here in the DC area regard VT.

I am going to repeat it one more time. It does NOT matter where you go to college for fields like CS or Information Technology.

I develop AI software that many recruiting companies use in screening their potential candidates. None of them consider where you go college as a determining factor in the initial screening.

+100

I would say below the top 20 schools it matters less. We asolutely target specific schools for new technical hires and they are all in the top 20. We attend job fairs, we reruit interns from them, we solicit their grads. Its not a passive ATS system when we bring on early career talent. The top CS kids have offers by August of Junior year because there was a strong intern pipeline where these things are locked up.

I am a tech recruiter for AWS, Azure, and Google cloud technologies, and I place candidates for F100 companies. The company I work with is looking for in a recent grads, in this order:

1- Do you have AWS, Azure, or Google cloud certifications? The higher certifications, the better. By certifications, it means you have to pass exams, not just completing the course. Last week, I placed a college junior with ZERO experience at a F100 company because he has the AWS Certified Solutions Architect. He used free AWS account to get it done. The company paid him 140K/yr and he is working fully remote while finishing up his junior year. Those certifications trump internships and the school you attend. Btw, he is a student at GMU.

2- Do you have relevant CS courses that will make you succeed in tech? Problem is that most schools do not teach cloud technologies.

3- Do you have relevance internship experience? I have several candidates from CMU and UCLA looking for internships and when I asked them about cloud, they said that the universities don't teach that but they can learn that on the job. I told them that they should have learned this on their own time but they did not. Sadly, they didn't get those internships.

I talked to other recruiters who recruited candidates for AI/ML, and none of them said that where you go to school "matters".

This is the vocational and trade school approach. Yes, anyone doing these would get jobs because they are taught specific technologies that are currently in demand. Nothing wrong with this approach, but these students skills would be outdated quickly and as long as they catch up to new technologies they can extend their career for a little longer.

Students at CMU or any college where they are taking heavy theoretical computer science courses are the ones who are going to be working on core engineering problems at FAANG and starting/joining other startups. These skills are going to last their lifetime.

Continuing from abvoe, if you want to do what you are proposing, students dont even need to go to college. They can learn this stuff on their own and get jobs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In today's market, where you go matters to some degree (pardon the pun).

UMD has more of a national and global recognition for CS. VT does not.

There's another thread about SLO vs VT for business, and everyone on that thread is saying SLO, hands down. SLO is a regional school (FWIW, I graduated from a CSU like SLO); VT is a national school, yet everyone there is still saying SLO is worth the OOS (SLO is in CA for those who don't know).

Yes, that other thread is about business, not CS, but IMO, it goes to show how even people here in the DC area regard VT.

I am going to repeat it one more time. It does NOT matter where you go to college for fields like CS or Information Technology.

I develop AI software that many recruiting companies use in screening their potential candidates. None of them consider where you go college as a determining factor in the initial screening.

+100

I would say below the top 20 schools it matters less. We asolutely target specific schools for new technical hires and they are all in the top 20. We attend job fairs, we reruit interns from them, we solicit their grads. Its not a passive ATS system when we bring on early career talent. The top CS kids have offers by August of Junior year because there was a strong intern pipeline where these things are locked up.

I am a tech recruiter for AWS, Azure, and Google cloud technologies, and I place candidates for F100 companies. The company I work with is looking for in a recent grads, in this order:

1- Do you have AWS, Azure, or Google cloud certifications? The higher certifications, the better. By certifications, it means you have to pass exams, not just completing the course. Last week, I placed a college junior with ZERO experience at a F100 company because he has the AWS Certified Solutions Architect. He used free AWS account to get it done. The company paid him 140K/yr and he is working fully remote while finishing up his junior year. Those certifications trump internships and the school you attend. Btw, he is a student at GMU.

2- Do you have relevant CS courses that will make you succeed in tech? Problem is that most schools do not teach cloud technologies.

3- Do you have relevance internship experience? I have several candidates from CMU and UCLA looking for internships and when I asked them about cloud, they said that the universities don't teach that but they can learn that on the job. I told them that they should have learned this on their own time but they did not. Sadly, they didn't get those internships.

I talked to other recruiters who recruited candidates for AI/ML, and none of them said that where you go to school "matters".

This is the vocational and trade school approach. Yes, anyone doing these would get jobs because they are taught specific technologies that are currently in demand. Nothing wrong with this approach, but these students skills would be outdated quickly and as long as they catch up to new technologies they can extend their career for a little longer.

Students at CMU or any college where they are taking heavy theoretical computer science courses are the ones who are going to be working on core engineering problems at FAANG and starting/joining other startups. These skills are going to last their lifetime.

Exactly, thank you.