<p>I've been admitted to:
Columbia Engineering (C.P. Davis Scholar)
Carnegie Mellon SCS
Cornell Engineering
UC Berkeley EECS</p>
<p>Major: Computer Science (not changing)</p>
<p>I want to either start my own company or use my technical skills in a finance related industry. I may intern at companies like Google, Amazon, but I do not want to work there.</p>
<p>Right now, NYC, alumni network, scholarship, weekly internship opportunities make Columbia look like the best option. New York's Silicon Alley is fast growing and there are lots of startups coming up. However, the CS program is ranked around 20ish (but people claim that this does not reflect the actual department's strength because most grads go to Wall Street) I also heard that rankings hardly matter for undergrad CS programs because it's unlikely you will exhaust the school's offerings.</p>
<p>My second choice is Carnegie Mellon (#1 CS school in the world). I would have ties with Silicon Valley but it would be difficult to break into finance from CMU without a Masters degree in Computational Finance or something. People tell me to take this option only if I want to work for top tech companies - like Google, Facebook - which I don't.</p>
<p>Berkeley is too big for my liking and Cornell is similar to CMU.</p>
<p>Since money isn’t an issue and all choices will provide excellent educations for undergrad CS, choose for the environment you like best. The campus environments are very different.</p>
<p>Personally, I’m less concerned about department rankings than some (in large part because unless I know what the criteria for ranking and buy in, I’m not sure what they mean). </p>
<p>With your list – I would probably put Cornell over CMU in general (fair warning, I’m a Cornell alum and loved the place), based on general reputation. However, you won’t go wrong with any of the four choices you have.</p>
<p>There will be local advantages in recruiting for internships and jobs at graduation from smaller companies who may be less prone to traveling to do college recruiting (GAFM will fly recruiters to any decent school, but the people at the 10 person startup may not want to take that much time off to travel to recruit). Also, if you are within commuting distance of a company, you may be more able to continue with the company as a part timer or contractor when you go back to school.</p>
<p>If I were completely decided about cs, I would probably pick CMU over Columbia. When you’re on campus you can sense the ranking. It isn’t like other cs programs. It envelops the whole campus and they give access to tons of resources. One of my brother’s friends who majored in cs and math at a top LAC and now works for a Palo Alto start-up told him he envies cs majors from Berkeley, Stanford, MIT, and CMU because they all seem to have a considerably superior level of proficiency with all sorts of technical issues. I don’t really know about Berkeley, Stanford, or MIT, but CMU cs is pretty fantastic. The connections they have with Google, Facebook, MSFT, etc. are very strong. Pretty much everyone in the program can get a good job. I think CMU might be the largest single source for Google and Facebook. They gave me some numbers while I was there. The mean cs grad starting salary is $80,000 and starting salaries have been increasing consistently and significantly in recent years. They also gave out degree statistics when I visited. You’re required to have a minor there. Out of something like 130-160 cs graduates, 16 had a minor in business, 10 in computational finance, and 3 in economics; 1 had a double major in business and 1 in statistics; 2 had dual degrees in computational finance. To address one of your concerns, people do not exhaust CMU’s program.</p>
<p>I honestly can’t say I would definitely (or will) pick CMU over Columbia. Columbia is really nice and has lots of good programs and good people. NY is great and Columbia obviously has good prospects. If you feel that you have any useful info relevant to either school, please tell me. The decision is not easy.</p>
<p>If you can afford Berkeley then go there. It has a fantastic resources, great CS program, superb students, unbelievable professors, near Silicon Valley, enormous network in the tech world globally and has a world-wide name recognition.</p>
<p>Berkeley is big because it has many programs across all major fields. But CS/EECS students never complain about their size. Many are involved in cutting-edge projects. May are working way before they’ve graduated, as many boutiques are located nearby. Tons and tons of job offers wit huge salary offers. When it comes to CS, Berkeley is unparalleled. CMU comes just right behind. Columbia is still far away. So, if you can’t attend Berkeley because you can’t afford it, CMU is the next best thing for CS.</p>