I can’t imagine tech companies would discriminate agst a CS grad from Brown …
In general - once it’s a top tier school (which Brown most certainly is), given the demand, I don’t think it would matter …
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It’s not about discrimination - anyone who passes the initial technical screening will be considered. Tech firms don’t discriminate against schools the way Wall Street firms do.
U-Dub has a location advantage and grads do very well with Silicon Valley placement. Cornell grads also do well because they produce strong candidates. Brown somehow just doesn’t carry as much weight on the West coast. My friends and colleagues who are senior tech leaders at MANGA and other firms there have this view. It is what it is. Not saying Brown is a bad school - I’m just speaking in relative terms if OP is looking to work in Silicon Valley.
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Interesting … Brown’s program is also much smaller - we don’t see Brown grads that often.
U-dub neither … we see MIT, Cornell, CMU, Columbia …
But lately we’ve pivoted to Oxbridge guys - they are superb (and much cheaper)
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I’m glad you’re visiting. My opinion on the two campuses and locations don’t matter for your decision. But I’d be surprised to hear that they didn’t matter to you…
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Brown has a good program, but I agree with @DadOfJerseyGirl that the other two choices are significantly better. Remember OP is interested in ML/AI, not just some generic software development jobs.
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I imagine this is true at UW, but I only know about Cornell where you should be able to obtain the MS with only one additional semester on campus.
M.Eng < M.S, and, naturally it’s a function of taking more courses earlier on (which they made more difficult these days)
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My info is a few years out of date at this point. One friend’s D pursued the MS in CS, but you are correct that the others obtained M. Eng in the additional semester.
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I think for CS, Washington and Cornell have an edge over Brown. That being said, Brown does offer a quality CS program. And Brown has the open curriculum, so you could more easily design an academic path that suits your interests. Some need and even prefer the structure of distribution requirements, while others prefer the open curriculum of a Brown or an Amherst.
These schools comprise different environments and vibes.
Do you have plans for grad school?
What is the COA for each school, and would large cost discrepancies burden you and your family?
Would you prefer an urban, small city, or rural/small town environment?
Would you be okay with the relative anonymity at Washington, or would you benefit from greater academic and career support like you’d find at Cornell and Brown?
How much would access to major D1 sports scene enhance your experience? You can be a fan at any of these schools, but it’s a bigger thing at Wash.
Does the difference in curricular formats matter to you?
These are some things to consider. You have three outstanding options – congrats.
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OP, you have great choices, and have done a nice job trying to quantify which is objectively the “best” for your interests…but you are completely overlooking the variable which will have the strongest impact on your choices after you graduate: you. How you actually do in the program, develop your network, hustle for internships, etc. will matter much more than any of the other factors you have identified. So when you go on your visits do something that may actually be harder for you than researching grad school placement stats: focus on how you fit into the place. All of it, not just whether you have an instant rapport with a prof (nice, but not a reliable indicator of how things will go), but also how you like the place - the geography, the feel of the campus, whether you can see yourself fitting in there, etc.
In other words: which place feels more like your place!
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I have nothing of substance to add to the discussion about which are the better programs. But if I were choosing where to spend 4 years and the programs were close in quality, I’d pick UW and Brown over Cornell without hesitation. But if this truly were me, and again the programs were close in quality, I’d probably pick Cornell or Brown in case I changed my mind about CS. I still think the names matter.
I’ll qualify my comment to say I take you at your word that financials shouldn’t be a problem. But if anyone is going to have to suffer financially for you to attend Cornell or Brown, then in-state at UW is a no-brainer, particularly if you stay with CS.
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Hi everyone – back with an update.
So I visited Cornell… and honestly, I didn’t like it all that much. In any event, I don’t think it’s worth paying some 200k more than UW for.
I also liked the vibe at UW a lot more. I still haven’t committed, but I’m probably going UW. Thanks everyone for all your help and advice <3 
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Makes sense - as much as I love Cornell … U-dub program is amazing, so is the campus … and After-tax $200k is freakin awesome.
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