<p>All four of those places have outstanding CS. You are reading way too much into the rankings, which, I guess, are mostly based on their graduate program reputations. Even for graduate school, if those were your four choices (and assuming all are good fits), I would very strongly advise choosing the best offer. You can get the best of both worlds by going to Yale and looking for Silicon Valley internships during the summers.</p>
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<p>Really? I’m a CS grad and I never knew Yale has an outstanding CS program. Yale is fantastic school. But let’s face it, it isn’t strong for CS and engineering.</p>
<p>Yale’s 2010 career survey is here:
<a href=“http://oir.yale.edu/node/511/attachment[/url]”>http://oir.yale.edu/node/511/attachment</a></p>
<p>No pay levels are mentioned. CS enrollment is very small at Yale – 15 graduates, plus 2 in the “CS and math” major. Of the 17, 3 went to graduate school, 11 went to work in “industry” (listed as a separate category from “business and finance”), “public service”, or “other”, and 3 did not respond.</p>
<p>I don’t recall encountering any Yale CS graduates around here, but the small size and distant location likely have a lot to do with it (location does matter; in Silicon Valley, it is not uncommon to encounter San Jose State graduates in the computer industry).</p>
<p>Go to Yale. Period! You will not have any shortage of career opportunities. It will open all sorts of doors. It will introduce you to opportunities you don’t know about yet. It is one of the finest undergrad programs in the world, Berkeley is known for grad schools. Don’t miss this opportunity. And it’s cheapest? This is a no brainer. DH owns a software development company, he attended an ivy not ranked highly for CS, he’d tell you Yale hands down for the overall quality of education. You can train an employee in technologies and platforms, but you can’t teach them to think.</p>
<p>I think there’s a reason why Yale’s CS is quite tiny…</p>
<p>I usually agree with everything Waverly posts (almost) but not about this. Yale would not make a true CS student happy, unless they have much broader interests and want to use UG to pursue them. </p>
<p>I’d select between Cal and USC, depending on which is less expensive and taking into account I have a little worry over California’s budget. The Yale name will not get the respect from CS hiring managers that it gets everywhere else. </p>
<p>I speak as the mom of a senior at USC (not CS, but many of his friends are) and there is a feeding frenzy among high tech companies among his classmates. S was heavily recruited by Microsoft, for example. This month there is a lot of stress as grads are sifting offers. This may also be the case with grads at Cal and CMU, I just don’t have insider knowledge there.</p>
<p>Son is in the similar situation as OP now, though it’s not Yale but Brown (Cal, USC and Brown). Still, all your above posts help a no-clue mom a lot! Thanks.</p>
<p>There are lots of visitors from Silicon Valley on Yale campus. Some Yale kids have part time jobs with pays and equities during academic semesters from start-up companies. The kids don’t need to be in CA to work for the companies. Some juniors are already offered full time positions from these Silicon Valley companies after their graduations. You may have to skip an internship experience, but you will have greate opportunities in Yale CS.</p>
<p>Madbean, here’s the thing, getting the broader education at Yale is likely to lead to more expansive interests and opportunities. While most CS grads have lots of offers of typical software development jobs, kids from Yale and other very top schools are more likely to join elite groups where they are groomed for management and technology leadership.</p>
<p>^ While I feel Yale would offer great opportunities, I changed my mind when the OP is quite certain about computer science and work as a software engineer. If those are his/her goals, Berkeley is the best option.</p>
<p>Also, Regents has benefits over regular students.</p>
<p>I know that Berkeley is academically ranked pretty much at the peak for EECS and CS, but can that be elaborated on? What kind of opportunities will I have at Berkeley for EECS that is less likely or not possible at Yale?</p>
<p>RML and I have posted data on job outcomes and on-campus recruiting opportunities at Berkeley for EECS students. I’m not a current EECS student so I can’t comment on research opportunities. I suggest you post some questions in the Berkeley and Yale forums to get more input.</p>
<p>My son is a CMU/SCS grad and I can’t say enough about the place. Lack of FA unfortunately pushes it out of this picture…</p>
<p>to the OP, I’m curious why you applied to Yale for ECE/CS? Are you looking into investment banking ultimately? Son works alongside many ivy grads in NYC financial industry (capital markets software engineering), esp Princeton, Cornell, Columbia and Penn. Did you apply to any of those schools?</p>
<p>momof2happy boys…your son’s situation is different—Brown has a well respected CS department. There, I’d probably go with Brown.</p>
<p>This is easy – go with Yale. For undergrads, the differences in quality of the CS programs between the schools will not outweigh the prestige of going to Yale (plus you will get a great liberal arts education to boot).</p>
<p>@2331clk, I thought both Yale’s and Brown’s CS program are similar in ranking and size, so they must be similar in comparisions, thank you for clarifying the misunderstanding. :)</p>
<p>@2331clk At the time of application, I was not (and still am not) aware of Brown’s strength in CS. As for Princeton, Columbia, and Cornell, I ruled against applying to those for other reasons. I’ve heard about the air of “preppiness” and exclusivity at Princeton and didn’t feel it would fit me. Cornell is in way too isolated an area for me. As for Columbia, I didn’t feel that New York was the right place for me, an additional con against Cornell.</p>
<p>You can still elaborate on CS at CMU! Perhaps my financial appeal with Yale and Berkeley’s package will make it a feasible option.</p>
<p>Also, I’m not looking to work in the investment banking industry that Yale is great at producing undergrads for. I’m looking more to work in the software/tech industry that includes Google, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe among others. More of a programming/software engineering job, initially at least.</p>
<p>^ If you never want to go into finance, I strongly support CMU or Berkeley. Yale will not help you get into Google, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, etc.</p>
<p>I’m also in a conundrum of whether to go to Columbia or CMU for CS.</p>
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<p>Berkeley’s location will likely attract more Silicon Valley recruiters from smaller companies (not just the same well known big companies that every CS major applies to). Plus, large size (over 300 EECS + L&S CS graduates per year) likely makes it more attractive to visiting recruiters looking for CS majors than Yale (17 CS graduates in 2010). You may also have more options of a part time job at a local computer company while in school (which may help defray some of the extra cost).</p>
<p>On the other hand, if you do go to Yale for the lower cost, if you have family in the Silicon Valley area, they may be able to point out smaller companies to apply to that your classmates at Yale may never know exist.</p>
<p>Neither choice is really bad, and there are ways of mitigating each choice’s relative weakness, although there are no guarantees.</p>
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<p>Anecdote: a family friend’s son was recruited by Microsoft from Yale undergrad. He’s in management, had a liberal arts major. </p>
<p>OP, if you’re near enough to Cal to visit, why not ask the Regents (or whatever) office to set things up so you can talk to a few professors there? Ask them what they’d do, given your choices. We do the same thing when contracting out a job, asking people why they’ve given us a higher/lower bid than their competitors.</p>
<p>size + quality of dept (quality of grads) + close location -> lessens cost spent in recruitment by firm/company</p>