I plan on majoring in computer science and was admitted to both Rice and Brown. I received a full tuition four year scholarship at rice vs a small amount of need based aid (13k for one year when my brother graduates) at brown, so Rice is clearly much less expensive. However, I’m fortunate enough to be able to attend brown and only graduate with around 30k in debt (assuming paid summer internships), so the money aspect isn’t the most important part of my decision.
After visiting Brown its clear that they have a fantastic cs department, but I don’t know too much about Rice’s department. I really like Rice’s weather, residential college system, and campus, but my primary concern is how Rice’s lesser prestige and worse reputation (compared to Brown) could affect my job and internship opportunities, especially in silicon valley.
Does anyone have any insight in to the quality of cs education and job/internship opportunities at either or these schools.
I would take the scholarship. I don’t think Rice reputation will be any problem whatsoever. Do not make the mistake that you won’t be very well prepared at Rice and attractive for jobs. Brown CS is extremely good and the jobs outlook very good. I don’t think you will have the slightest problem getting a job from Rice though I don’t know much about the CS specifically. 30k is manageable student debt but the overall cost to your family is huge though. If you love Brown then it seems very possible for you but you sound like you are deciding for the wrong reasons and have a ‘primary concern’ that is not logical. Use google and linkedin to see for yourself.
Getting a job in SV is about trying to get one there and making a job seeking plan there. Even if you take a first job elsewhere you can still go there. My dd took a job elsewhere and then was able to get offers in SV and Seattle.
Here is some recent career survey info for CS. Don’t be surprised in Rice has more Houston or Dallas placements because they likely recruit heavily there or is is just easier and students often do what is easier. But no one is tied to employers who recruit on campus. Right now it is just not hard to get a job in CS. Things change though. http://www.brown.edu/campus-life/support/careerlab/post_grad_data/concentration/COMP
The question posted by OP has more to do with viewing education as an investment, and what the return on investment would be. All other things being equal, the less expensive school is the right choice, from this purely economic point of view. But the question is really whether all other things are equal. I don’t know the answer to that question, but that is what I think was asked, and I think that is a valid question. The question was not about someone thinking about going to Brown just because it was more prestigious. It was about whether someone who could afford either school should, as an investment, choose Brown or Rice. BrownParent is more to the point, and I assume is correct that CS majors are readily employable, but the real question is whether the economic consequences of going to Brown justify the additional expense. If it truly didn’t matter where you got your CS degree then it wouldn’t make economic sense for ANYONE to go to Brown unless they got a great deal of aid – you would just go to your state’s public university. But the implicit assumption or, perhaps, explicit statement that it doesn’t matter where you go if you major in CS seems fairly dubious. Really, OP doesn’t seem to be thinking that his/her choice should be guided by which is more ‘prestigious’ from a personal point of view, but, rather, from the point of view of potential employers. I think OP is wise to consider his/her education an investment and to analyze the decision from that perspective, among others. My own non-scientific view, and I know nothing about Rice, is that a Brown degree in CS offers the potential for a top-tier (pay) job right off the bat. If you consider salary trajectory, etc. in the long term, as I’ve said before, neither the $30k in loans nor the family contribution seem as large or prohibitive as if viewed in a vacuum.