<p>If I go to GT, will I be missing out on any opportunities that a school like CMU would offer? Would the kind of programmer I come out of the college be more dependent on the school or what I do at the school? Also, kind of an off topic question, but what should a CS student do to come as good as he can? Obviously doing well in school is one thing as well as interning. However, should he also join programming clubs and program on his free time?</p>
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You’ll certainly have different opportunities, and some may be better or worse than what you might have had otherwise. For the most part, major opportunities will be just as available whether you go to MIT or your state flagship; and GT is much better than most schools.</p>
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Whatever you go to school for, what you do while you’re at school tends to matter a lot more than where you went - with some possible exceptions, of which CS is definitely not one. You will not be disadvantaged in any way by going to GT for CS: anything somebody from MIT could do, you could do just as well, if you’re willing to put in the effort - and possibly more effort than your peers or instructors expect of you.</p>
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Have an interest in what you do. This might manifest in lots of ways, but some things to think about:
- Experience - summer jobs, internships, co-op, volunteer work, tutoring, on-campus employment during the year
- Research - get in good with a professor in the CS or some other technical department and get your hands dirty doing some technology/programming-intensive activity. Research is academically rewarding and looks better than coursework (or playing video games)
- Hobbies - become a contributing member on StackExchange sites of (technical/professional) interest; possibilities include StackOverflow, Programmers.SE, ComputerScience.SE, CSTheory.SE, ServerFault.SE, etc. Get involved in an open-source project or two, even if it’s just reading the code. Follow a few tech blogs; maybe even organize a campus organization to discuss tech blogs or topics… like a book club. Opportunities abound.
- Challenge yourself - find courses being taught by tough professors in difficult subject areas. Get outside your comfort zone, branch out and look for opportunities to apply what you’re learning. Take as many interesting courses as you can - unless/until you go back to school, this will be the last chance you get to learn about something in such a structured environment, where learning is relatively straightforward.</p>
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Obviously those are good; however, neither is particularly necessary depending on your employment goals after graduation. If you can keep your GPA above 3.0 from anything close to GT, you won’t even really need any internship experience to graduate with offers.</p>
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Presumably, you like CS, so you should find some way to cultivate your interest outside of class, yes. This will add to your skills and knowledge, deepen your interest and give you something fun to do as well. Programming, as I’m sure you know, can be an immensely fun activity in its own right. Learn knew languages and paradigms. Try Project Euler (just search it) for a bunch of fun problems, particularly if you have a mathematical bent.</p>
<p>Wow, that was a really great answer! Thanks, I will keep your tips in mind.</p>
<p>All of the schools (GT included) are attractive for non-local companies to come and recruit at, but realize that some (mainly smaller) companies do not have the resources to do non-local recruiting. GT may have an advantage in terms of recruiting by Atlanta-area companies, although it may not be as advantageous for CS recruiting as Berkeley’s and Stanford’s location near Silicon Valley. If you go to GT, you may have to be more aggressive at looking for and applying to smaller Silicon Valley companies if that is your goal.</p>
<p>Still, it is unlikely that large amounts of extra cost or debt for any of the others over GT would be worth it.</p>
<p>My main goal is to go to a top tier grad school for my master’s and then work for a large company in Silicon Valley like Google or Microsoft.</p>
<p>^ If you’re going to grad school, where you go for undergrad matters a lot less; even GT is probably overkill in that case. Top students from Podunk U can get into Stanford for graduate school, if they apply themselves.</p>
<p>I mean, I went to a school in the southeast basically eclipsed by GT, and ended up staying there for my master’s. I had an offer at Amazon a year before I graduated, with interest from Microsoft and Facebook as well. Your mileage may vary, but I can’t imagine going to GT would hurt your chances of getting industry employment at top companies, provided that you - as an individual - are the kind of potential hire those companies are looking for. All the better if you go somewhere that makes applying yourself easier (better opportunities, better classmates, better instructors, etc.)</p>
<p>The big companies recruit more widely (and almost certainly have GT on their recruiting list). Plus, you already know who they are, so you can apply to them anyway.</p>