<p>How well know is UMD for computer science? Can I get a good job after graduation? Am I better off with Northeastern or RIT (not interested in gaming)? How about Rutgers or Drexel? Out of state for all schools. Can't rely on rankings on websites. Please help!</p>
<p>Maryland is very well known for having a top-notch computer science program. Getting a good job after graduation depends on you/your performance of course, but is not a problem for Maryland graduates!!! Maryland provides the resources and tools, offers great networking opportunities, career fairs and career prep/support galore to make that possible. The location/proximity to DC should not be underestimated in this regard.</p>
<p>From my perspective, you have two categories of schools: Maryland and Rutgers are comparable as more traditional college experiences and then the other category is Northeastern, RIT and Drexel, which are comparable as more tech/coop based college experiences. So, I think you need to decide which is the better fit for you personally. Which type of environment you are “better off with” is something that only you can decide. </p>
<p>So, as a general rule, the coop type of school gives you shorter semesters and more “real-world” experience early on with planned coops throughout your education, but stretches out your overall school time frame from start to finish, in most cases with shorter semesters/trimesters/quarters. There is no rah - rah school spirit, and because students go off campus for coops, they are less connected at those times. There is also a more limited opportunity of majors to change to if you decide you don’t like your original major. On the plus side, they have solid resumes by the time they graduate and sometimes get jobs directly as a result of coops. Alternately, coops can help you realize that a change of major may be in order because the real world experience is not what you imagined it would be and it’s not a good fit after all. Therefore, you make a change before you are too far along in your education.</p>
<p>On the other hand, a more traditional school gives you that classic best four years of your life experience. There are more clubs, activities, experiences and opportunities in general. There is a more diverse student population because there tends to be a larger variety of majors offered, so while you may be going to class with your stereotype tech-types, you will meet more artsy types or business types or psych students or journalists, etc at a more traditional school. That also means that for your elective classes, you will have more options of classes to take just for your own edification - things you may be interested in but never really had time to explore in high school because it wasn’t an option. Internships/coops tend to be arranged during the summer months only, but also lead to jobs as well. The traditional 2 term semester allows you have breaks with friends at other colleges and pace out your class work/learning/tests at a less frenetic pace since you are not trying to squeeze it in a shorter time frame. It also makes it easier to study abroad.</p>
<p>You need to visit each type of school and talk to students there to see what appeals to you most. If you decide on the traditional college experience, then hands down, Maryland over Rutgers. </p>
<p>Here’s the fall video message from the school president - at around 2 minutes you will see the new Iribe center for virtual reality they are going to build for computer science students…
<a href=“Iribe Center Featured in President Loh's Fall 2014 Message | UMD Department of Computer Science”>https://www.cs.umd.edu/article/2014/10/iribe-center-featured-president-lohs-fall-2014-message</a></p>
<p>Thank you so much. That info was very helpful.</p>
<p>No problem. I wish I had more specifics about the compsci program though…I am the mom of an engineering student and I have a lot of info about that, of course. Compsci and engineering are close cousins, of course, so I understand the dance of deciding between the two types of schools. My son is VERY happy that he went with Maryland. There are so many unique opportunities and experiences that just would not have been possible elsewhere. </p>
<p>What steered my son away from the coop school/type was the economy and potential for wasting time if coops were not available due to the job market. A friend had a bad experience and if his dad didn’t have personal connections in the field, he would have been s.o.l. one semester sophomore year (because preference is def given to upperclassmen). That is something the schools cannot control and there was not a satisfactory safety net/alternative for that coop time slot if things went awry.</p>
<p>One thing that you might be interested to know about is that Maryland has a lot of entrepreneurship programs which you might not initially think is something you are interested in, but if you are creative and designing programs all the time, you really do want to know how to take advantage of capitalizing off your own work…You can do a minor in Technology Entrepreneurship, simply take a few courses, or take advantage of more formal programs like the Hinman CEO’s, or the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program through honors college, just to name a few. These are ways of getting a taste of the start-up world without bogging you down with classes like economics and accounting that would typically deter most tech-types…</p>
<p>My favorite story to tell about “why you should choose Maryland” comes from my friend. She has four sons, all equally brilliant. Three went to ivy league schools, one went to Maryland. When I told her my son was applying to Maryland, she said of all the schools, Maryland was her favorite and my son should look no further. Yes, her ivy league sons did well, but they did not have nearly the experiences nor opportunities that her Terp did. He had more and better job offers than her ivy league sons did…</p>
<p>Of course, being an alum, I can’t say that I’m not just a little bit proud to hear that, ha ha. However, when comparing apples to apples (seriously, looking directly at the exact courses required for graduation and those offered as electives), Maryland really stood out as being the best. At least for engineering (obviously didn’t look at compsci, sorry), it really offered the most cross-disciplinary education of all the schools and provided lots of hands-on experiences, not just straight theoretical. </p>
<p>Maryland students are very diverse in so many ways, have lots of energy, are very friendly and basically are happy as a whole. When you visit Maryland, you will note that. You can stop any student randomly and ask.:). </p>
<p>It’s not a cut-throat environment at Maryland, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a competitive spirit! As a compsci student, you will be interested to note that Maryland took first place among all colleges last fall for the hackathon season <a href=“UMD Wins First Place in Hackathon Season | A. James Clark School of Engineering, University of Maryland”>UMD Wins First Place in Hackathon Season | A. James Clark School of Engineering, University of Maryland;
<p>Not to mention, Maryland happens to be one of the most beautiful campuses. It’s located right outside of DC, close to Baltimore, Annapolis…lots to do!</p>
<p>So, @joshthemackid, hope this gives a better answer to the other part of your post when you say “convince me to go to UM”…</p>
<p>And gee, don’t know how I could have forgotten…if you are compsci, you will def be interested in the ACES program for cybersecurityhttp://<a href=“http://www.honors.umd.edu/ACES-facts.pdf”>www.honors.umd.edu/ACES-facts.pdf</a> and <a href=“http://www.aces.umd.edu/”>http://www.aces.umd.edu/</a></p>
<p>@maryversity 's being helpful, like always.</p>
<p>If you’re a good CS major you literally have your pick of the litter at UMD career fairs. It’s not even funny, I’m an Aerospace major and The Aerospace Corporation said they were looking for CS majors, not Aerospace :-/</p>
<p>I’m currently a senior CS major. From my experience, whether one school ranks higher than another doesn’t make too much of a difference in terms of jobs after graduation (when you’re talking about these top ranked school that is). UMD has a quality CS program; I can certainly attest to that. Those other schools that you mentioned probably have really good programs too. However, what’s more important than that is how much effort you decide to put in to your classes. In my opinion, that’s really what dictates how much you learn.</p>
<p>CS is a hot career field right now. I’m sure you won’t have trouble finding jobs after graduation at any of those schools (assuming a GPA > 3.0 and some internship experience). I’ve had friends who have interned at Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and others. They all have full-time job offers to go back.</p>
<p>UMD is a great school for CS. If you decide not to go here, fine, but just make sure it isn’t over something as trivial as how its CS program ranks compared to other colleges’ CS program.</p>
<p>Feel free to PM me if you have more questions.</p>
Update: I am going to UMD and am so psyched. I got into all the schools I applied to except for Georgia Tech. Going to accepted students day April 10th. Would love to meet up with a current CS student. If anyone able to do that—let me know. Thanks.
@joshthemackid
We just returned from the UMD admitted day open house on Apr 3. You will have plenty of opportunity to meet CS students during the second part of the CMNS orientation which breaks by department. My son will be a CS major as well and is also considering UIUC and Cornell for CS in their College of Engineering. We haven’t visited Cornell yet but he was very impressed with UMD. One thing that helped him a lot was emailing a couple of profs to ask for permission to sit in on CS courses (we did that the day before the OH). One of the those profs then took him for lunch to Stamp student union and chatted about the research opportunities; the other prof spent an hour after class ended to talk to him about why UMD 
I’ve been doing software and systems engineering work in the DC area for decades. If you do well in your classes at UMD, you won’t have any trouble getting a good job. And if you don’t do well, it really doesn’t matter where you go. I went to Drexel ages ago. My D was accepted at Drexel last year with significant merit scholarships. She is a freshman at UMD now, with my hearty endorsement. But, she is not in CompSci. Good luck with your decision.
I just sent an email to the department to ask if I can sit in on a class either on Thursday or Friday. I hope they reply back.
Thanks SoofDad.
@joshthemackid Check out their spring 2015 course schedule here http://www.cs.umd.edu/class/
and see which class you might want to sit in and then just email the prof directly.
According to the Princeton Review : students study the least, UMD ranks 14th. What are students doing? Can I have a good environment to study? I’ve recept an computer eng offer from umd. Thanks!
LOL… the Princeton Review must be looking at some other UMD. My D is Freshman (Honors College) and she studies. So do her friends. Believe me, as a computer engineer, you will study or you won’t be there very long.
As SoofDad said (and my kid is a comp sci major)…trust me…you will study or you will flunk out. Sure, CMSC131 was a breeze for him, but Calc is no joke, and the comp sci courses get quite challenging as you move into Soph and junior year. For CompE I imagine the workload is actually even tougher if you are dealing with Physics, etc.
From a recent article in the Washington Post: [Wallace D. Loh, president of U-Md]… “What about expanding faculty in computer science? Loh, worried that class sizes are nearing “intolerable” levels, said he would be more inclined to give that a green light.” Anyone want to comment on “intolerable class sizes” in CS at UMD?
I was wondering about that because during admitted student day they said there are 2,000 computer science students. I was thinking about going to Umass Amherst because the class size is so much smaller but I loved the campus at UMD so much better so I committed to UMD.
My son will be graduating in a year with a degree in CS, and he’s sad he won’t be around for this amazing new CS building:
https://cmns.umd.edu/news-events/features/2466