I understand that they are very different, one is small private college and another is big public university. That’s why it so difficult for me to compare them. I can’t even find rankings where they are together.
Price of Wooster will be for 2500-3000$ per year higher. That is not critical amount for me.
Do you like small classes and faculty attention?
I asking not for me, but for my son. I apologize that wasn’t clear.
Relating to your question … I think it’s need to tell little bit about my life to clarify what I want for him.
My country already 25 years is under dictatorship. That leads to total degradation of our economic and educational system, absolute majority of people have salary near 200$ or less per month, that killing any abilities for them to give better life for their child.
I managed to break free of it and get job in UAE. That gave me ability to pay for my son’s IB school in Dubai. Than my son manage to reach 42/42 with 4HL/2SL, get 1520 at SAT though English not his native lanquage, get 800/800 for Math and 790/800 for Physics. And now after many years of hard work and risking decisions he has chance that in my country hardly have 1 man from 100000.
And I want him to use this opportunity in the best way possible. To get maximum quality education, that will help him in future to go forward in his adult life. Class size, faculty attention, furniture in campus, shopping around U - all that are very secondary things for me.
Class size and faculty attention can have a direct correlation with quality of education and opportunities. When you are choosing a school, you need to think about your son’s learning style and in which environment he will thrive. In our case, we opted for a smaller, private school because of the smaller classes. An undergraduate can forge better relationships with professors that way. When our exchange student was looking for an opportunity to attend college here in the USA, he had only one viable option (he needed a full ride) and he took it. He went to a small LAC that is not prestigious at all, but he flourished there. He excelled in his classes, started research, and made sure the professors knew who he was… the efforts payed off. He is now pursuing his PhD. Could he have done this in a large University? Maybe. But it is harder to get noticed in a larger environment, the mentorship, and later on, guidance and letters of recommendation that he received from his professors (in particular the one that he researched with) was priceless.
@mardong Big thanks for your responce, it useful. But my son have another life targets. He want to build career in CS rather than reaching PhD. So I’m not confident that approach good for academic grow up will be best one also for career in High-Tech.
What do you consider a “maximum quality education” if class size and faculty attention don’t figure in to it?
What do you consider an education?
For that matter, why would factors that lead to success in pursuing a PhD be divorced from factors that lead to a successful career in CS?
Where is your son eligible to work?
@Alezzz Was your son admitted to the honors program at U of A? The reason I ask is that it is a very large university and Honors students often get priority registration for classes. Therefore, they are less likely to be excluded from important prerequisite classes because they have already filled. As CS is a popular major, this could possibly be an issue.
I know both campuses. U of A is within the city limits of Tucson - it is urban and has warm weather year round. The student population is very large so if your son is used to advocating for himself and working within an educational bureaucracy, it can be a good choice. The CS program will have more faculty and more course offerings than Wooster. Internship opportunities, assuming his visa permits them, are probably fairly accessible in Tucson.
College of Wooster is in a small town in Ohio and 1-2 hours distant from the cities of Cleveland or Columbus. Long, cold, gray winters. It is an excellent small college with good placements for graduate school and has been working on developing business linkages between the college and nearby community. While the classes are likely to be smaller, it also is possible that they might fill up early and there will be fewer classes to choose from as compared to a large university. Also at a small college, if a professor goes on leave for a year or retires, there can be gaps that take awhile to fill. The plus is that he is more likely to get personalized attention and might be brought into a professor’s research whereas a large public university tends to favor graduate students for those positions.
As you seem pragmatically oriented, I would perhaps contact their respective career centers to see how they place their CS students and also try to find out how likely it would be for your child to work directly with faculty on projects.
From an international school in Dubai, initial culture shock might be a little less in Tucson than Wooster. Tucson is more socioeconomically and racially diverse than Wooster, although Wooster has been actively recruiting students beyond the region and has a fair number of international students for a school of its size.
Congratulations on his acceptances! As you say, they are both fine schools that will serve him well. Good luck with your decision.
@PurpleTitan
As quality of education I considering advantages it can give after university. Not how easy or pleasant it will be in process of education.
Factors that lead to success in pursuing an academic degree or to successful career in practical STEM are essentially different. That I can state as engineer in third generation and son of univercity’s docent. Definitelly I don’t know how it is in USA, but I believe that isn’t totally different.
I haven’t any idea where is my son eligible to work. That he must clarify himself if he will manage to get acceptable offer
You should have some idea where your son is eligible to work as you would know his citizenship and where he has permanent residency, etc.
“Advantages after uni” may depend a fair amount on that.
Engineering is different but in CS, the lines between “practical” and “academic” are blurred*. What are AI and algorithms expertise, for instance? Traditionally, they would be considered academic pursuits but these days, top software companies want the experts in those fields for good reason.
- And they blur in CS because nothing in CS is physical and "real".
@Alezzz, regardless of the school your son chooses, he would not be able to work in the USA upon graduation. International students are expected to go back to their country once concluding their education, so looking at where American students have been placed after graduating is irrelevant. I am not sure if for computer science this applies, but for engineering, the one important criterion is that the program has to be ABET certified. I am pretty sure it applies to CS as well. Can someone chime in on this? If that is the case, I would make sure that whichever program he chooses is ABET certified.
@mardong, ABET doesn’t really matter for CS.
Stanford CS isn’t ABET-accredited, for instance.
BTW, @Alezzz, if you are from the country I think you’re from, getting in to a funded PhD program (funded so you don’t have to pay anything) after undergrad may be the best way for him to land a good job in a desirable country.
Did he look in to unis in Canada and the UK?
@mamaedefamilia My heartfelt thanks for that brilliant detailed answer. That kind of information I’m looking for.
Honestly saing now my son admitted only to Wooster. But for Arizona we have time up to 1 April for application, and if they following what is written at their site, for his stats my son will get automatic top scholarship.
Now I trying to understand, have Arizona advantage over Wooster or not. Because if not probably no sence in application. In waiting for Ivy day. I want to be ready for any outcome. One more time Big Thanks!
@PurpleTitan Thank you for your opinion. You have ratio and I agree with you now, that Engineering and CS are not the same.
We are from Belarus, I don’t making secret from it. You are right again, for graduate and PhD study I seen a lot of options in several countries. But he can’t jump over direct to it. And for undergraduate study situation is absolutely different. I looked everywhere but end of day I see for him possibilities only in several U, and most of them are extremly competitive. But he can’t bypass this stage.
My son applied to 25 U in 6 countries. That is our plan A and B and C
@mardong I believe you are right that his abilities to work in USA and in process of study, and after U are very limited. But I don’t see a point in attempt to plan everything for years in advance. Too lot of unpredictable factors will influence at his life. My opinion in that situation more important is to know what you want and have will to move towards your goal, rather then clarify every little detail.
@Alezzz, I understand your philosophy of “will cross that bridge when we get to it”, youvare right, no one knows what the future will bring. However, @PurpleTitan’s advice regarding thinking about pursuing a funded PhD after graduating from CS program, is good. That is what my exchange student is doing. It would provide him with more opportunities, but as with everything else, it requires a little bit more planning for internationals
Again I agree. That was one of main reasons why I encouraged my son to study CS. Because if you imagine that he got lawyer degree even from Harvard or Yale, but after that can’t get work permit in USA, value of his degree will dramatically fall down. But CS have value itself, independent from your surrounding. With CS skills he will be eligible to work anywhere.
Definitely that good advice. For the future. Not now. No any sense to have detailed plan how you will make PhD if you didn’t managed to make undergraduate degree.
Scholarship deadlines may be different from application deadlines.
I know. I checked this as well as I checked that my son is eligible applicant for U of Arizona