I’m currently stuck in the purgatory of choosing where to go for college. As of today, I hold offers from:
University of Washington (Pre-science)
UIUC (Undeclared – General Studies)
UC San Diego (Mathematics-Computer Science)
I’m a US citizen studying in Hong Kong and I’m planning on majoring in Computer Science in college. The original plan was to study in America in a prestigious school, but then I realized that I might have to take out loans to pay for college. Right now, it’s looking at around 40-45k/year for a US school and only around 5k/year for HKUST. I feel that if I study in HKUST, I might not have as good job prospects as I would have in the States. I’m also concerned about losing opportunities that I would have had if I chose to go to stay in Hong Kong instead of going back to the States. However, graduating nearly debt-free is really attractive.
I would be grateful if I could get some input from you guys on the subject (what the choice should be, personal experiences at the school(s), etc.) Thanks a lot!
I don’t have the most in-depth knowledge on this, but i’ll muster a response:
UW, UIUC, and UCSD are all TOP-notch Computer Science programs. Choosing between those you should look at cost, school environment, and what location you would want a career at. Although with a degree from any you could easily get a cs job anywhere. I’m not sure how PreScience/Undeclared/MathCS as a freshman effects getting into CS though.
As for the Hong Kong university, yes there is a bigger obstacle in getting a job if the degree is from a foreign university. UW/UIUC/UCSD will hold much more weight and probably teach you a lot more. But also it comes down to what you eventually know and personal projects you have on GitHub and such.
40k/year is a huge sum, especially when there’s a 5k/year offer. No one can decide that for you. If you graduate in the US and work in silicon valley though, you can potentially be making $120k/yr after 6 years, after time making your college price not as substantial.
For CS, what school you graduate from isn’t usually a big deal. At least on the west coast, a degree from HKUST isn’t going to hurt you. The biggest problem you’ll find after you graduate is that you’ll likely need to come to the US to search for a job.
I have a CS degree, and it’s hard for me to imagine that you’ll learn more at UW/UIUC/UCSD than at HKUST. There probably won’t be big differences in what you learn unless you decide to pursue a particular CS specialty at one of those schools.
If it was me, I’d go to school in Hong Kong for the savings.