Best VA school for computer science
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Anonymous
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My son wants to study computer science. He has applied to JMU, VCU, GMU, UVA and W&M. Would love it if you guys ranked CS at these schools. I’m honestly not even sure how one measures this? Is there somewhere to look to determine average job placement? Average pay? Are there other factors to consider?
He’s accepted at GMU, VCU and JMU and is waiting on the others. TIA! |
Anonymous
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1) UVA
2) VT 3) GMU (bump GMU if you care about price) |
Anonymous
| GMU has a very strong Computer Science program. It also has a Computer Game Design major. DS graduated and was immediately employed by Bethesda Softworks. |
Anonymous
| GMU may not be ranked the highest, but it will win with job placement every time. |
Anonymous
My husband served on one of the Computer School's advisory boards. The Advisory Board met with the large tech companies in the Dulles corridor and I-270 corridor every month to exchange thoughts - for example, what kind of student and training were the companies seeking and how could the companies help GMU?. It was a very smart approach. Most GMU computer science grads get internships this way and then move to full time jobs after graduation. The chairs of the departments involved, not low level associate prof. - attend these meetings. I was very impressed when it was described to me. Our DS got a job with one of these companies. https://cs.gmu.edu/ Off topic but the GMU Cybersecurity major is the one to take if the topic interests you. The students can pretty well call their own shots for employment coming out of that major and often move up and away very fast. Lots of potential for high career advancement. The local companies say they can't hold onto the GMU Cybersecurity students long enough. |
Anonymous
| +1 mil |
Anonymous
| IT-Cybersecurity or Cyber Engineering majors? |
Anonymous
| My federal agency and others I’m aware of love the GMU CS grads. Based on what I’ve seen, they must get a lot of practical training. |
Anonymous
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I've worked in several Fortune 100 companies as well as a few startups. First of all, he can't go wrong with fit. These schools are different when it comes to culture and atmosphere. He should pick where he feels the happiest.
In terms of your list, here are my thoughts: GMU - Agree with the comments above. Only really well known in the DCUM area though. In other parts of VA, it still has a commuter school rep. VCU - Well known in the Richmond area of course. In other parts of VA, known for being artsy and pre-med. I've known several VCU CS grads and was impressed by what I saw. JMU - I've worked with several CS and business grads. Both were impressive. Great school for boys because of the girl to guy ration  Overall feels like a mix between UVA and VT.
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. UVA - Smaller env than VT which can be beneficial. Obviously it's reputation is top tier. The students we hired from there were very impressive. Some will say that their CS education is more theory based. So, in summary, CS is more about what you do than where you go. He'll need to get involved with an open source community and that would be more impressive than what school he's from. In CS (not Computer Eng), UVA and VT are pretty close with most people saying that UVA would get the edge due to it's undergrad reputation. Honestly though, the 2 schools have such different feels, fit should be the deciding factor. Last thing I'll say, is that school does matter when we look for new hires. As I said before, I've been impressed with grads for all on your list, but there's a different initial reaction when a resume comes from VT or UVA than one from the others. That all goes away quickly, but there's definitely an unconscious bias component. Good luck! |
Anonymous
| 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. |
Anonymous
+1 |
Anonymous
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! |
Anonymous
I would like to know the answer to this as well... |
Anonymous
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1. Once they get responses, the list will be shorter.
2. All of those schools are excellent, so they should go where they (and you) will be happiest. |
Anonymous
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If you have to rank them,
1) UVA, only because the calibre of the students is slightly better in general than VT 2) VT Engineering 3) GMU 4) VCU, JMU |