Best graduate school for CS/MBA (business)?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>(<em>) Columbia University - Average cs department?
Dartmouth - Some sources suggest Dartmouth has a good cs department, while others suggest that its cs department is not even comparable to the top 30 cs schools?
(</em>) Harvard - Average cs department?
(<em>) MIT - Impossible to get into (of course, the other schools listed are just as hard to get into)
(</em>) Stanford - Not a big fan of them palm trees and more into the urban campuses. Plus Stanford is even harder than MIT I suppose?
(<em>) Berkeley
(</em>) UCLA
U. Penn - Decent cs department?
(*) USC - I hear that USC is overrated, and that it focuses mainly on undergraduates?
Yale - Below average cs department?</p>

<p>I'm going to UW undergrad, and hope to go to one of those schools for graduate school. The ones with the asterick (*) next to them are my top choices. Also, does anyone know if I have to study an extra four years to get a MBA degree? I was hoping that I get my bachelor's of science in CS from UW, then go on to get my Master's, and then my MBA. Does this mean I have to start over and get a bachelor's in business or something before I want a MBA degree?</p>

2

<p>I also forgot U Chicago!!</p>

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<p>And Rice University.... sorry guys....</p>

4

<p>Bumperoogins anyone?</p>

5

<p>Northwestern University</p>

6

<p><a href="">quote</a> MIT - Impossible to get into (of course, the other schools listed are just as hard to get into)
() Stanford - Not a big fan of them palm trees and more into the urban campuses. Plus Stanford is even harder than MIT I suppose?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>For admission to business school, Stanford is significantly more difficult than MIT. On the other hand it's much more difficult to get into MIT EECS than Stanford CS.</p>

7

<p>
[quote]
Columbia University - Average cs department?...Harvard - Average cs department?...Yale - Below average cs department?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Well, look. ALL of these schools have computer science departments that are far above average. Think of it this way. There are literally hundreds and hundreds of CS programs out there, most of them being no-name programs. All of the schools you mentioned have CS departments that are far better than any of those no-name schools. Put another way, I would far prefer to go to Yale for CS than to go to, say, San Francisco State. </p>

<p>
[quote]
Also, does anyone know if I have to study an extra four years to get a MBA degree?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>MBA's take 2 years full-time, about 3 if done part-time.</p>

<p>
[quote]
I was hoping that I get my bachelor's of science in CS from UW, then go on to get my Master's, and then my MBA.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>You could do that. There are some programs that actually let you combine both the MS and the MBA at the same time. The most notable program is probably the LFM program at MIT, which basically gets you both degrees in 2 years. Of course, you should only consider LFM if you have a genuine interest in manufacturing and operations management. After all, LFM stands for Leaders for Manufacturing, and so you will be expected to have significant knowledge and experience in manufacturing and operations. </p>

<p><a href="http://lfm.mit.edu/index.php?cat=academic&fileName=academic.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://lfm.mit.edu/index.php?cat=academic&fileName=academic.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Other schools will also let you combine the 2 degrees, but you will probably end up having to spend an extra year in school. </p>

<p>
[quote]
Does this mean I have to start over and get a bachelor's in business or something before I want a MBA degree?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Absolutely not. The vast majority of MBA students do not have undergrad business degrees. In fact, at many of the top B-schools, there are actually more students coming in with undergrad eng degrees than undergrad biz degrees. At MITSloan, for example, I believe the number of incoming engineers to the MBA program is something like 40%. For LFM, it's well over 90%. </p>

<p>But the truth is, once you get an MBA, especially from an elite program, it's not going to matter where you got your CS degrees from. Your MBA will be your "main" degree. That's because after getting an elite MBA, you won't WANT to go back to being an engineer. Seriously, with an MBA from any of the B-schools that you mentioned, you should be able to land yourself a quite nice business-type job, i.e. consulting, banking, corporate finance, marketing, business strategy/development etc. You won't WANT to go back, as you will almost certainly feel like it's a big step down.</p>

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<p>Stanford, MIT, and CMU are the three schools I think of that have both top-notch computer science grad program and top-notch MBA program.</p>

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<p>Gatorade, no UCBerkeley?</p>