<p>How is the Computer Science program at Penn State? How are the job and internship opportunities? How are the professors?</p>
<p>Ok. Good. Horrible. </p>
<p>I’m a current CS major at PSU-UP and I think the CS program itself is ok. After spending time comparing it to other universities I don’t know if I would personally consider the undergraduate program incredibly spectacular but it covers the basics. Some gripes that I do have is that some of the upper level electives that are listed on the courses bulletin are never actually offered. I’m frustrated because it seems that my options are quite limited. It’s like every semester they only offer the same electives that I truly don’t want to take. </p>
<p>I believe the internship opportunities are quite excellent I don’t recall the exact percentage but a large majority of engineering students do complete at least one internship before graduating and this is something that they pride themselves on. If you can keep your grades up your opportunities will be vast. Personally I have had interview opportunities with several top CS companies some of which I never even applied to but my info got forwarded to them because of my high grades. </p>
<p>The professors in my opinion are absolutely horrible. I recall everyone warning me about this my first semester of freshman year and I kind of shrugged it off. In hindsight this fact alone is enough to make me tell any incoming CS student to run and never look back. From what I have heard there are a few decent professors unfortunately I have yet to have any of them. On the bright side I thought some of my professors for non-CS related course were fantastic!</p>
<p>Let’s just say Penn State isn’t the best for computer science and leave it at that. What are your other options ?</p>
<p>Does it differ much from computer engineering? Or is the above answers pretty much the same?</p>
<p>@DylanK In terms of curriculum I think that CMPEN majors have pretty much the same lower level reqs as CMPSC majors. However, CMPEN majors have to take additional courses in CMPEN, EE, and I believe Chemistry and possibly Math 250/1 (Differential Eqs). CMPEN is apart of the CSE dept. which means we all pretty much have the same professors so that part certainly holds.</p>
<p>I also have admits from the following univ. as a CS major
- Purdue
- Univ. Of Colorado, Boulder
- ASU</p>
<p>I am planning to attend grad school after completing my Bachelor’s. Which of the above Univ will be the best option if I want to do MS.</p>
<p>Is there is price difference between PSU and Purdue ? I would probably go with Purdue.</p>
<p>@Pranesh7 I’m not as familiar with the schools on that list. If I were you I would head over to those forums with your question. For grad school I would say choose the undergrad school where you feel you have the best chance of being successful. From what I know the grad schools are more concerned with how well you did and the experience you gained as an undergrad rather than the name/prestige of the university you graduated from.</p>
<p>@XtremePower are you currently a CS major?</p>
<p>Yupper, you’ve given sage advice for further analysis, examination and decision-making. </p>
<p>Not to speak for XtremePower, but I believe he is an incoming freshman – summer session.</p>
<p>
Just wanted to say that when my son shared that he was taking Econ, I absolutely cringed. He had the great fortune to have an exceptional professor that not only made Econ tolerable, but actually intriguing. One of his favorite classes.</p>
<p>Price for Purdue and Penn State is almost same so that’s not an issue. I know both schools offer good job opportunities. But my plan is to attend graduate school after doing my BS. Though Purdue is ranked higher than Penn State I have heard that Penn State offers better college experience. I am very confused please help me decide.</p>
<p>pilot2012- I was accepted far fall actually and I will be attending University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh. Penn State was just too far. </p>
<p>“Penn State offers better college experience”</p>
<p>I wouldn’t say that. Both are located in a college town and they have similar weather, a little worse at Purdue. Both are pretty big.</p>
<p>Congratulations, XtremePower. I have to tell you that I was extremely impressed with Dean Stricker; in fact, his dry sense of humor really made the honors presentation for me. Good luck!</p>
<p>Pranesh7, Yupper gave you some good advice to query the other forums. You may also want to elaborate here what “college experience” means to you. Maybe others here will chime in.</p>
<p>Currently on the parents forum, there is a post regarding Engineering: Purdue vs Penn State. You may want to look at that thread or consider starting one outlining your options and your struggle/uncertainties/indecision. I wish I could give you some more advice.</p>
<p>pilot2012 Thanks. To be honest, I am still not sure which college to attend. Sometimes I make up my mind about Pitt, then big school and traditional college experience comes to my mind. </p>
<p>Some info for OP
Purdue University Average SAT: 1720
Math 25th percentile 550 75th percentile 690
Read 25th percentile 490 75th percentile 610
Writi 25th percentile 500 75th percentile 610</p>
<p>Penn State University Average SAT: 1780
Math 25th percentile 560 75th percentile 670
Read 25th percentile 530 75th percentile 630
Writi 25th percentile 530 75th percentile 640</p>
<p>Both are similar academically. Penn State has higher graduation rate. University of Colorado is also a good school. Forbes and ARWU both ranked it ahead of Penn State and Purdue.</p>
<p>I have read other threads and they suggest Purdue is very competitive(especially in engineering) whereas Penn State is not that competitive and also graduation rate for Penn State is higher than that of Purdue. Personally I want to go to a college which is not overly competitive but has good academics and I think Penn State will be a better option for me. What do you say?
And also I would like to know about the social scene in engineering. How many people party?,etc.</p>
<p>"Purdue is very competitive(especially in engineering) whereas Penn State is not that competitive "</p>
<p>Its competitive to get into Purdue’s engineering program than Penn State’s engineering but after you get in, both should be pretty much the same. Partier’s and non-partier’s will be everywhere. So, that can’t be a big factor to base your decision on.</p>
<p>@Pilot2012 Thanks!</p>
<p>@Pranesh7
It kind of seems like you want someone to make the decision for you. </p>
<p>The social life is pretty much what you make of it. I definitely would not say that Penn State is for everyone. It is certainly a party school so that’s not something that will be hard to find if that’s what you’re into. Depending on who you are you may be able to find a balance between your social and academic life but the engineering students often spend a great deal of time studying if they want to keep high grades so don’t expect it to be all fun all the time. </p>
<p>Based on your line of questioning I would assume you’re looking for a school where you can breeze on by academically (non-competitive) while having a fun time. If this is the case then to be perfectly honest, I do NOT recommend PSU at least not for CS. I can not speak for the other schools.</p>
<p>@yupper : I get why you said that but I’m not looking for an “easy” school.
My problem with Purdue is :-
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/engineering-majors/929679-purdue-freshman-retention-rate-3.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/engineering-majors/929679-purdue-freshman-retention-rate-3.html</a>
In the above link see “aglages” post. According to which -<br>
Graduation Rates:
Engineering 4 yrs 24.32%
5 yrs 49.97%
6 yrs 58.04%</p>
<p>Purdue has 24% 4 year graduation rate but it is ranked in the top 10 in engineering.
So I was wondering whether I should give more importance to prestige of Purdue engineering or go to a school where I have more chance to be successful so i can get into better grad school.
It will be helpful if you can provide some information about how difficult the program is,4 year graduation rate for engineering ,etc</p>
<p>And also which companies come for recruiting CS grads for jobs and internships?</p>
<p>I’m not sure what the statistics are perhaps someone else may know and post or you can try to search the PSU website. </p>
<p>Oh, ok I see where your coming from. My opinion is to not even take the “prestige” into consideration. When considering grad schools I would say go for the school where you will be the most successful. Similarly to undergrad, there are specific criteria that grad schools consider when evaluating an application. If the GPA cut off is around 3.5 going to Harvard vs [No Name University] is not going to hold much significance if your GPA is a 2.8. With that being said, I would actually suggest not attending PSU or Purdue. Both universities are academically challenging and i’m not convinced that the curriculum offers anything above the rest to justify the extensive amount of effort you have to put into it to come out with adequate grades. Some schools make things far more difficult almost as if to maintain their reputation as a “tough school”. If you have a bunch of professors who don’t actually teach then its obvious that it will be much harder to learn. </p>
<p>If you think you may change your mind and enter the workforce after graduating then my advice would be the reverse. Top companies like to recruit at big name universities. Graduating from a well regarded school with a large alumni network could give you a huge advantage in the job market. </p>
<p>We usually have two career fairs a year some employers will only come to one. Some of the companies are: Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Boeing, eBay, IBM, Intel, GE, Raytheon, Qualcomm, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, HP etc.</p>
<p>Hope that helps!</p>
<p>@yupper : Thanks! I have few more questions.
How difficult are your classes? What is the most difficult part?
As you said in one of your posts that the professors are not that good.
Are all the professors like that? Are they helpful when you have doubts?</p>