Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I'm going to vote for JMU. UVA is an R1 research university and W&M is an R2 research university. Both have many faculty that are focused on RESEARCH. The people who get to interact with those professors are graduate students. JMU is a teaching university - there are more opportunities to interact with faculty, faculty care about teaching as number 1 priority, and there are more opportunities to do undergraduate research.
Yes, CS is a rapidly changing field, but you can look at the core classes offered for the undergraduate majors and see that they're all similar. It's not like the JMU undergrads are being left behind because the professors aren't doing cutting edge research.
I disagree. W&M is ranked 4th for best undergraduate teaching nationally, tied with Princeton. UVA is ranked 44th. JMU is ranked 4th in Southern regional schools.
We know one W&M sophomore--not a Monroe or 1693 scholar-- and they're doing really exciting research on a cutting-edge bio topic.
UVA is ranked 44th in undergraduate teaching? I thought UVA's claim to fame was a great undergraduate education (rather than research prominence like Berkeley, etc.), how does being ranked 44 in undergraduate teaching make sense?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I'm going to vote for JMU. UVA is an R1 research university and W&M is an R2 research university. Both have many faculty that are focused on RESEARCH. The people who get to interact with those professors are graduate students. JMU is a teaching university - there are more opportunities to interact with faculty, faculty care about teaching as number 1 priority, and there are more opportunities to do undergraduate research.
Yes, CS is a rapidly changing field, but you can look at the core classes offered for the undergraduate majors and see that they're all similar. It's not like the JMU undergrads are being left behind because the professors aren't doing cutting edge research.
I disagree. W&M is ranked 4th for best undergraduate teaching nationally, tied with Princeton. UVA is ranked 44th. JMU is ranked 4th in Southern regional schools.
We know one W&M sophomore--not a Monroe or 1693 scholar-- and they're doing really exciting research on a cutting-edge bio topic.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I'm going to vote for JMU. UVA is an R1 research university and W&M is an R2 research university. Both have many faculty that are focused on RESEARCH. The people who get to interact with those professors are graduate students. JMU is a teaching university - there are more opportunities to interact with faculty, faculty care about teaching as number 1 priority, and there are more opportunities to do undergraduate research.
Yes, CS is a rapidly changing field, but you can look at the core classes offered for the undergraduate majors and see that they're all similar. It's not like the JMU undergrads are being left behind because the professors aren't doing cutting edge research.
I disagree. W&M is ranked 4th for best undergraduate teaching nationally, tied with Princeton. UVA is ranked 44th. JMU is ranked 4th in Southern regional schools.
We know one W&M sophomore--not a Monroe or 1693 scholar-- and they're doing really exciting research on a cutting-edge bio topic.
Anonymous wrote:I'm going to vote for JMU. UVA is an R1 research university and W&M is an R2 research university. Both have many faculty that are focused on RESEARCH. The people who get to interact with those professors are graduate students. JMU is a teaching university - there are more opportunities to interact with faculty, faculty care about teaching as number 1 priority, and there are more opportunities to do undergraduate research.
Yes, CS is a rapidly changing field, but you can look at the core classes offered for the undergraduate majors and see that they're all similar. It's not like the JMU undergrads are being left behind because the professors aren't doing cutting edge research.
Anonymous wrote:My son is weighing these three options for computer science. I love JMU, but I think he'd have more job prospects coming out of one of the other two schools. Help me give him some pros/cons or factors to consider to make an informed decision. Thanks!
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:UVA. Highest ranked CS program in VA (same as Tech). There are discussion threads here where people are considering going to UVA over Michigan for CS..
Where are you seeing the CS programs ranked? What are the ranks for each?
US News rankings for undergrad computer science. (Behind paywall)
Rankings:
1. MIT
2. CMU, Stanford, Berkeley
5. Caltech, Cornell, Georgia Tech, Princeton, UIUC, U Wash.
11. Austin
12. Michigan
13. Columbia, Harvard, UCLA
16. UC San Diego, UMD, U Penn, Wisconsin
20. Harvey Mudd, Hopkins, Purdue, Rice, Yale
25. Brown, Duke, Northwestern, UC Irvine, U Chicago, USC
31. UC Boulder, U Mass Amherst, UNC, UVA, Virginia Tech
There is no outcome data whatsoever behind the USNWR CS ranking. It is just a reputation survey. This rating has placement inputs. http://www.ivyachievement.com/computer-science-rankings/
It's a noble undertaking but really no more useful than USNWR. It covers a narrow and arbitrary set of companies and doesn't take into account geographical variations in salary associated with COL, students who go on to graduate school, students who take jobs in something other than computer science, students who start their own gig because they have an idea or don't want to be salary slaves. It also uses Payscale as the source of salary data, so not a good sample.
It shows that some schools that may be highly ranked in USNWR, like Illinois, may not have placements that correspond to that ranking. I don't think the set of companies is arbitrary, they are the most in demand, but I agree it tends to favor California schools and Washington. DC area grads are often more likely to go off and work for other sets of companies.
I would say using actual placement data, if available, is better than simply relying on a ranking.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:UVA. Highest ranked CS program in VA (same as Tech). There are discussion threads here where people are considering going to UVA over Michigan for CS..
Where are you seeing the CS programs ranked? What are the ranks for each?
US News rankings for undergrad computer science. (Behind paywall)
Rankings:
1. MIT
2. CMU, Stanford, Berkeley
5. Caltech, Cornell, Georgia Tech, Princeton, UIUC, U Wash.
11. Austin
12. Michigan
13. Columbia, Harvard, UCLA
16. UC San Diego, UMD, U Penn, Wisconsin
20. Harvey Mudd, Hopkins, Purdue, Rice, Yale
25. Brown, Duke, Northwestern, UC Irvine, U Chicago, USC
31. UC Boulder, U Mass Amherst, UNC, UVA, Virginia Tech
There is no outcome data whatsoever behind the USNWR CS ranking. It is just a reputation survey. This rating has placement inputs. http://www.ivyachievement.com/computer-science-rankings/
It's a noble undertaking but really no more useful than USNWR. It covers a narrow and arbitrary set of companies and doesn't take into account geographical variations in salary associated with COL, students who go on to graduate school, students who take jobs in something other than computer science, students who start their own gig because they have an idea or don't want to be salary slaves. It also uses Payscale as the source of salary data, so not a good sample.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:UVA. Highest ranked CS program in VA (same as Tech). There are discussion threads here where people are considering going to UVA over Michigan for CS..
Where are you seeing the CS programs ranked? What are the ranks for each?
US News rankings for undergrad computer science. (Behind paywall)
Rankings:
1. MIT
2. CMU, Stanford, Berkeley
5. Caltech, Cornell, Georgia Tech, Princeton, UIUC, U Wash.
11. Austin
12. Michigan
13. Columbia, Harvard, UCLA
16. UC San Diego, UMD, U Penn, Wisconsin
20. Harvey Mudd, Hopkins, Purdue, Rice, Yale
25. Brown, Duke, Northwestern, UC Irvine, U Chicago, USC
31. UC Boulder, U Mass Amherst, UNC, UVA, Virginia Tech
There is no outcome data whatsoever behind the USNWR CS ranking. It is just a reputation survey. This rating has placement inputs. http://www.ivyachievement.com/computer-science-rankings/
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:UVA. Highest ranked CS program in VA (same as Tech). There are discussion threads here where people are considering going to UVA over Michigan for CS..
Where are you seeing the CS programs ranked? What are the ranks for each?
US News rankings for undergrad computer science. (Behind paywall)
Rankings:
1. MIT
2. CMU, Stanford, Berkeley
5. Caltech, Cornell, Georgia Tech, Princeton, UIUC, U Wash.
11. Austin
12. Michigan
13. Columbia, Harvard, UCLA
16. UC San Diego, UMD, U Penn, Wisconsin
20. Harvey Mudd, Hopkins, Purdue, Rice, Yale
25. Brown, Duke, Northwestern, UC Irvine, U Chicago, USC
31. UC Boulder, U Mass Amherst, UNC, UVA, Virginia Tech
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:UVA. Highest ranked CS program in VA (same as Tech). There are discussion threads here where people are considering going to UVA over Michigan for CS..
Where are you seeing the CS programs ranked? What are the ranks for each?
Anonymous wrote:UVA. Highest ranked CS program in VA (same as Tech). There are discussion threads here where people are considering going to UVA over Michigan for CS..
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:strange to be leaning towards the weakest of the options. Tech is the undisputed star for CS in VA but that's not one of your options so the next best would be UVA.
Undisputed star. Funny. It is not.
Well I know someone at Tech right now on this major who looked into transferring to UVA and after a lot of research he decided it was not a better program, though probably easier.
It’s my understanding that they are very closely ranked.
I know a student currently in Vatech senior year, frustrated with the quality of choices available for jobs. Sure, many kids will go to big name, but you should evaluate based on options available to avg student.
Well the kid I know has a FAANG internship this summer so hmm I guess you’re right that others may not be so fortunate.
Regardless, Tech is not being considered here so UVA it is as far as I can see out of these options.
Unfortunately, most of the attention is grabbed by top students and their achievements. My opinion is to evaluate based on avg student opportunities/achievement. Many TJ parents become unintended victim of this phenomenon. 10% kid from there do phenomenally well, but avg kid does poorly in college options if they had stayed at base school. Going off track, but just giving an example of evaluating based on the performance of star kids.
DP. So are you saying that non-superstars would do better as smaller schools?
No, I am not saying that. Go by opportunities available to avg student. That is like 50-60% of student body. Based on my research living near a big job hub increases the opportunities available to avg students. UVA is a great university and so close to DC and New York. UVA is a well known full university and attracts technology as well as non technology companies. Forget about FANG and big names, the opportunities available beside that are immense.
Do you know that GMU CS has a good recruitment scene for a decent student? U know the reason?? Because it is right in Nova. Recruiter doesn't have to travel to meet a candidate. And if a person is half decent, they will take him/her.
Do you know that Google and Apple has disproportionate number of employees from subpar California colleges? The reason is simple, they are closeby and for most of the CS jobs you need an avg IQ person.