<p>I know this has probably been asked hundreds of times but I am still not getting a clear answer. I am going to the University of Alabama, which I believe is accredited. I know that some large companies hire from there but I don't know if many tech companies do. I would probably end up moving back to California (my home state) if I cannot find a career in Alabama, but I am scared that some companies may not think much about my degree vs. someone who went to a school with a highly ranked program or a school with a lot of prestige. </p>
<p>I am basically asking if prestige/ranking of the university someone goes to will help or hinder them in the long run.</p>
You start getting clear answers around here, let the mods know, we don’t want that kind of behavior around here.</p>
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They are accredited by ABET-CAC, as of 1990.</p>
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By the numbers, most college hires at large international companies come from schools at which those companies don’t actively recruit. Of course, your odds may improve by going to a school recruiters visit… but it’s not a deal-breaker, or really all that big of a deal at all.</p>
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Any particular reason for going to Alabama? Full ride? If so, that’s a good reason.</p>
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Your degree is ABET-CAC accredited, Alabama is regionally accredited, they have an ACM chapter in good standing, professors actively publish research in CS, etc., etc. If you demonstrate that you’re smarter than the average bear, you have nothing to worry about. In fact, if you’re better than the average CS student they admit, then you’ll have comparatively better opportunities there to shine. If you’re worse than the average student there, you’d probably be in even worse shape at a place with better students. Graduates from Alabama get jobs at any (tech) company you can name. Seriously.</p>
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It very well may make a difference for your first job. The odds of this decrease drastically if you’re talking about only tech companies for jobs writing software. The odds go down further if you already have internship/co-op experience and/or have interesting projects on your resume. Between work, undergraduate research, open-source projects and blowing the curriculum out of the water, you can write your own ticket in the industry (right now… things may be different in years to come).</p>
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Consult the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook. In short: excellent, and they show no signs of becoming bad anytime soon.</p>
<p>Than you guys! I didn’t want to sound like an idiot asking that but I really wanted to know. Again, thank you so much! That takes a lot of weight off my shoulders. And by not getting clear answers, I meant all over the internet, not just on CC. Sorry :)</p>
<p>If this helps, my B.S. degree is in Computational Mathematics (not even fully a CS major) from Michigan State and my M.S. in Engineering is from University of Wisconsin and I am year 24 in software engineering. I have primarily done database development, but I also done systems engineering, project management and C++ development (in my former life…lol).</p>
<p>Yes, obviously it would be easier to get an internship or job in your local geographic area, but there are CS jobs everywhere. If you really want to work in Silicon Valley, though, it might have been easier to go to a California school. If you were a California resident, why didn’t you consider the state flagships there like Berkeley, LA, and San Diego?</p>
<p>Because part of the reason I am going out of state is because my dad really wants to. I don’t want to disappoint him by telling him that I don’t want to go. I somewhat want to get out of California too, and I didn’t know I wanted to major in Computer Science until about a month or so ago, but I was accepted into Alabama back in September. And there was probably no way I could possibly get into the UC’s</p>
<p>Alabama won’t be considered bad or anything like that.</p>
<p>But, realistically, Silicon Valley computer companies are much more likely to recruit conveniently at San Jose State than they are to travel to Alabama to recruit. You may need to be more aggressive at finding and applying to companies (particularly smaller ones) for internships and first job out of school.</p>
<p>It might sound somewhat strange, if not unorthodox, but here’s what I believe and saw happened. A CS job is largely based on one’s coding ability. To this extent, this degree is completely different from other Eng/BS degrees.</p>
<p>I know a boy who studied CSE at a Bangladeshi university, to be specific-SUST. He was infact of an odd personality. All he did was developed new apps/softwares. His GPA was sort of 2.8~3.00. But He was eventually recruited by Microsoft. He wasn’t even done with bachelors. Two years after his graduation date, a professor of CS department made him return from the US and complete his bachelors. Once that teacher asked him, ‘Don’t they (Microsoft) ask about your degree/GPA?’ He replied,‘No, lest I should resign.’</p>
<p>Granted, everyone is not a genious like this guy. But my point is: a CS job does not depend on the prestige of your college/department, unlike most other jobs. Similiarly, if you hold a degree from a prestigious school, for example, Carnegie Melon, but have limited coding ability, you’d get fired from even a nameless recruiter.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for your replies! I am not sure that I would want to work for one of the big tech companies, if I even could, but I wouldn’t rule it out. The company that I do want to work for I believe is located in San Francisco, though.</p>
<p>wontgetin (optimist)
I have to disagree with some of the posters. My daughter went to school in upstate NY and had a hard time proving and convincing employers that her engineering degree was just as good/valid as the UC degrees out here in California. During interviews they would question why she didn’t go to school in California. After 6 months of interviews, sequestration holds, and other issues she finally got a job and they are very happy with her work.</p>
<p>One company, Qualcomm, has a recruiting office on the campus of UCSD and that’s where they wanted to hire from, so you couldn’t really get into their online job apps unless you went through that office.</p>
<p>My advice would be to try to get into a UC school or a well-known Cal State (SDSU) and then recruit out of that school for the Bay area position.</p>
<p>Qualcomm has major operations in San Diego; it would not be surprising if UCSD and SDSU were favorite targets simply because of convenience.</p>
<p>For bay area jobs, the most convenient schools to recruit at are Stanford, Berkeley, SJSU, UCSC, SCU, and perhaps UCD. SFSU and CSUEB are also nearby, though they have less emphasis on CS and engineering and may not be as attractive due to too few students to recruit.</p>
<p>It would be a little nice to go to school in state, but a big reason why I am going out of state is because my dad doesn’t want to live in California anymore. I really don’t want to disappoint him and tell him that I am staying here. And the application period for California schools I am assuming is over.</p>
<p>And aunt bea, congrats to your daughter on getting a job.
I hope I didn’t make a mistake in choosing a college, although now I am starting to believe I did. I wish I had known more about wanting to major in computer science before the application deadlines. Pretty much every school’s deadline has passed (besides rolling admissions).</p>
<p>I guess the best thing for me to do is just permanently reside in Alabama after graduating.</p>
Roll tide.</p>