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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:UIUC has one of the best CS programs in the nation (undergraduate and graduate degrees).

If you plan to study CS seriously, go to UIUC.

If you want to get an everyday CS job, UVA is just fine.

One of my kids is studying CS at UVA, and I can tell that UIUC is comfortably at another level.

UIUC is also way better than Wisconsin, Purdue, Michigan, UNC, or Maryland.

Champaign-Urbana is probably the worst college town in the B1G, except for maybe College Park. If you want a top program and a fun, lively campus, then Michigan and Wisconsin are way better as is Purdue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are going OOS anyways, pay little more and go to a private.

Why? With the exception of CMU, Caltech, Stanford, MIT the privates are generally not as good for CS, especially if the undergrad wants research opportunities.

I understand the power of the brand name of a T20 private, but CS programs at typical T75 privates aren't as strong.

'

Research opportunities for undergrads at the huge state schools with 30K+ students?
You are better off at LACs if research is an important factor for you.

Research with whom? Most LACs don't have strong faculty in the CS department.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:On a pure rankings basis, for CS departments, UIUC is clearly at the top of the stack (out of the colleges in this post) but department rankings don't always track with undergrad education.

In addition, while UIUC general admission isn't terribly competitive, the CS major is very competitive.

DC would consider UMD, but he doesn't want to go to school <10 miles from home.

UMD is a good school, no doubt. But you are uninformed.

UVA offers a BA in CS, a BS in CS, and BS in Computer Engineering. Take your pick. Your classmates at UVA will be better than your classmates at UMD. Smart Virginia kids that can’t get into UVA or Virginia Tech go to UMD. The Maryland kids that can’t get into UMD do not enroll at UVA or VT.

UVA has a strong student body but CS there is meh. It's also a party school.

UMD is among the best CS departments in the county.

UUIC may be one of these schools like UVA that makes CS students study engineering. This is mostly unnecessary and just makes undergrad more painful. It's also in the middle of nowhere.

[Anonymous]

Always wonder why CS kids and engineering kids are the biggest prestige whores. These are vocational majors. Could get the same jobs by attending a 10-week coding camp in a strip mall next to Zaxby’s.

[Anonymous]

CS is not coding. Many MIT CS professors are very poor programmers.

Anonymous wrote:Always wonder why CS kids and engineering kids are the biggest prestige whores. These are vocational majors. Could get the same jobs by attending a 10-week coding camp in a strip mall next to Zaxby’s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Always wonder why CS kids and engineering kids are the biggest prestige whores. These are vocational majors. Could get the same jobs by attending a 10-week coding camp in a strip mall next to Zaxby’s.

Engineering is the most difficult curriculum at most schools. If you think the demands of a high ranked engineer school are the same as Radford, you don’t get it.

[Anonymous]

I know but it’s just a very practical discipline. Nothing wrong with that but except for two schools any engineering training is as good as any other. Yet engineering students debate prestige endlessly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Always wonder why CS kids and engineering kids are the biggest prestige whores. These are vocational majors. Could get the same jobs by attending a 10-week coding camp in a strip mall next to Zaxby’s.

Only a coding camp graduate would say something like that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know but it’s just a very practical discipline. Nothing wrong with that but except for two schools any engineering training is as good as any other. Yet engineering students debate prestige endlessly.

This is false. The caliber of your peers, coop and research opportunities, and strength of the curriculum are vastly different. GMU is not GA Tech, Michigan, or Purdue. Most employers understand this and they recruit from the better schools. Engineering isn’t beauty school. The training matters - probably more so than in liberal arts were anyone can knock out a paper at the end of the term and get an A

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are going OOS anyways, pay little more and go to a private.

Why? With the exception of CMU, Caltech, Stanford, MIT the privates are generally not as good for CS, especially if the undergrad wants research opportunities.

I understand the power of the brand name of a T20 private, but CS programs at typical T75 privates aren't as strong.

'

Research opportunities for undergrads at the huge state schools with 30K+ students?
You are better off at LACs if research is an important factor for you.

Research with whom? Most LACs don't have strong faculty in the CS department.

The better LACs have profs who publish, just not to the degree that research profs do as their primary mission is undergraduate education. Their research is encouraged as long as it furthers their primary mission, ie, by involving undergrads. The research at LACs tends not to be impactful/cited, but the role the undergrad has in an LAC research project tends to be more significant and independent than they would have if shadowing at an R1 university. The undergrad effectively assumes the role of a grad student in an LAC project.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You don't need a luxury name brand for CS. BTW, I work in IT and my DH is at a FAANG. Not a chance in hell we are reccomending our son who is a senior in high school do major in CS. The market is insanely over saturated right now and with so so so many in college right now for CS it's not getting any better. My company in particular really is hot on the Applied Mathematics kids with MBAs.

CS majors will be just fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:On a pure rankings basis, for CS departments, UIUC is clearly at the top of the stack (out of the colleges in this post) but department rankings don't always track with undergrad education.

In addition, while UIUC general admission isn't terribly competitive, the CS major is very competitive.

DC would consider UMD, but he doesn't want to go to school <10 miles from home.

UVA has a strong student body but CS there is meh. It's also a party school.

UMD is among the best CS departments in the county.

UUIC may be one of these schools like UVA that makes CS students study engineering. This is mostly unnecessary and just makes undergrad more painful. It's also in the middle of nowhere.

+1 other than for financial reasons, choosing UVA over UMD for CS would be a dumb move, especially for UMD in state tuition.

Where does this oft-repeated UMD CS superiority manifest itself in the workplace? UMD is not listed among the top 20 public universities for pay in either software or technology sectors in the WSJ.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/top-colleges-high-paying-jobs-tech-58b1588c
https://www.wsj.com/articles/top-colleges-high-paying-jobs-software-5ce461f8

Paywall

https://csrankings.org/

US news (DCUM gold standard😃)

https://www.cs.umd.edu/article/2023/06/umd-computer-science-students-earn-silver-medal-international-collegiate-programming

None of those are about the market and what employers actually pay. UMD is not on top pay lists.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:On a pure rankings basis, for CS departments, UIUC is clearly at the top of the stack (out of the colleges in this post) but department rankings don't always track with undergrad education.

In addition, while UIUC general admission isn't terribly competitive, the CS major is very competitive.

DC would consider UMD, but he doesn't want to go to school <10 miles from home.

UVA has a strong student body but CS there is meh. It's also a party school.

UMD is among the best CS departments in the county.

UUIC may be one of these schools like UVA that makes CS students study engineering. This is mostly unnecessary and just makes undergrad more painful. It's also in the middle of nowhere.

+1 other than for financial reasons, choosing UVA over UMD for CS would be a dumb move, especially for UMD in state tuition.

Where does this oft-repeated UMD CS superiority manifest itself in the workplace? UMD is not listed among the top 20 public universities for pay in either software or technology sectors in the WSJ.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/top-colleges-high-paying-jobs-tech-58b1588c
https://www.wsj.com/articles/top-colleges-high-paying-jobs-software-5ce461f8

Paywall

https://csrankings.org/

US news (DCUM gold standard😃)

https://www.cs.umd.edu/article/2023/06/umd-computer-science-students-earn-silver-medal-international-collegiate-programming

None of those are about the market and what employers actually pay. UMD is not on top pay lists.

Self reported salary data is probably super accurate so that definite a great way to figure out a good school

[Anonymous]

Uiuc is like public school cmu

The good and the bad

[Anonymous]

Many CS researchers are not really that strong in coding. This especially is common in the theoretical research areas (e.g., formal methods, computation theory).