<p>In what order would you attend these schools for computer science?</p>
<p>In what order would you attend these schools for CS but with a full scholarship at CMU SCS and a 10k financial aid package for the ivies?</p>
<p>i was accepted into those three schools for CS as well but i eventually chose columbia seas.</p>
<p>clearly cmu scs is the best for cs but it doesn't offer much choice outside of cs. i wanted to study east asian studies as well, and cmu didn't have a very good department in comparison to penn and columbia.</p>
<p>penn was very nice. i liked the dorms brochure they sent along with the acceptance. however, my friends there said that the brochure is nothing like the actual conditions and seas "isn't very good." whatever that meant, my cs friends at penn strongly argued for me not to go there.</p>
<p>eventually, i chose columbia seas out of process of elimination as well as because NYC rocks! columbia has millions of things to offer even outside of engineering just like the city. columbia has a sense of community more than penn because of the tight campus whereas penn did not (this is possibly wrong). also, because i had attended the summer program at columbia before, i was much more comfortable with going there as I knew what to expect.</p>
<p>i guess the financial aid offers and scholarships may sway your decision based on how important they are to you. i'm an only child and my family had been saving up money from a long time ago so money wasn't an issue when i made my decision. i chose exactly where i wanted to go without thinking about money. but not everyone has the luxury of doing so (i was very lucky) so make your own adjustments based on the importance of those offers. good luck!</p>
<p>CMU SCS>>Columbia SEAS>Upenn SEAS. </p>
<p>If you are really keen and focused on computer sciences then CMU is definitely the top choice, especially with the scholarship that you have earned.</p>
<p>If, on the other hand, you are not that focused and feel like you could change majors or that you want explore other areas of academia, then choose between the two ivies.</p>
<p>If you feel like you need to change majors, do not go to Columbia SEAS as you won't be able to get a major from Columbia College...</p>
<p>I would go to Penn SEAS</p>
<p>Is there really any difference about the actual comp sci programs at upenn and columbia? Does anyone know?</p>
<p>I chose columbia seas but, like shostakovich said, i wasnt too happy with the separation between the college and SEAS. Penn seemed to encourage double majoring and transfering between colleges certainly isnt too hard. Hopefully Columbia has other benefits (besides NYC) and hopefully i won't start hating anything engineering related after 2 semesters..</p>
<p>if you're sure you want to major in CS, Columbia is an awesome choice. congrats</p>
<p>Well what do you want to do as a career? Do you want to go to grad school or go directly into industry?</p>
<p>My father is a full research professor II and graduate director at Rutgers University in New Jersey...and as graduate director he basically decides who is admitted into the graduate school. He has repeated basically this same advice to me my entire life...and other teenagers he talks to...</p>
<p>If you want to go to grad/med/law/business school they look at your grades first, then the overall reputation of the school you went to, and then the reputation of the program at the school. (So if two Computer Science students had straight A's...one at Harvard...and the other at Carnegie Mellon...the Harvard student would beat out the Carnegie Mellon student even though CMU's CS program has a much better reputation...assuming that they are even in recommendations, undergraduate research, extracurriculars, etc.)</p>
<p>Industry, on the other hand, really cares about the reputation of the school's program. If you want a job and quit school right after college, a CS degree at CMU may serve you better. (My friend at CMU boasts that almost all (like 95%) CMU CS graduates get a job at a ridiculously high starting salary, regardless of grades.)</p>
<p>Of course, it is much safer to go to graduate school after college, especially in today's messed up economy where people without a Master's or Ph.D are usually the first to be layed off. Also, if you want the career option of being a research professor...you (usually) definitely need a Ph.D...in which case it may be a smarter and easier path to go to a school with a good overall reputation (one of the two ivies) and then go to a graduate school with a good reputation in the specific program you want to study. This is because your most in-depth and advanced knowledge is gained at graduate school, and your undergraduate education is actually really nothing compared to that. Also, the reputation of the school's program (and rankings by US News) is actually really based on how good the research is at the school done by faculty...scientific advances, papers, research grants...and all that cool stuff...not on how good of an undergraduate education they give..and graduate schools know that.</p>
<p>For people like me that are using college as a stepping stone into graduate or med school....it is much smarter to go to a college with a good overall reputation as opposed to a school with a good reputation in a specific program (and then get good grades at that college).</p>
<p>I hope I was pretty clear...</p>
<p>Yeah that was very clear, thanks for the post. Its just when you factor in scholarships and stuff like that then it gets a little tricky. I dont think I'll have enough money to go to grad school right after my undergrad since I chose Columbia. If I had chose CMU and the full ride then grad school wouldnt have been much of a problem. But i guess theres no use bringing up the past..</p>
<p>Actually you'd be surprised about graduate school...a lot of people that go to graduate school (science ones...so not including med/law/business school) go on a full scholarship...not many people want to go to graduate school...and most of the professor's grant money goes to support his or her students (as they are the ones that actually perform research)...so I think with a Columbia undergrad you can definitely go to a good grad school right after...and afford it.</p>
<p>And if you can't...don't worry either...because Columbia undergrads definitely get good jobs after college...and if you want to go to grad school...you can work a few years and save up money to go...grad schools (especially business schools) also look really highly upon this as it shows work experience and promise...so they are guaranteed that they'll graduate someone successful.</p>
<p>You can't go wrong with Columbia. See you around next year!</p>
<p>Lions '09.</p>