<p>My son, high school junior with good stats, will major in CS. Cost is an issue. Cal Poly is a good fit but student body is near 20,000. I am more concerned with things like quality of degree, time to finish degree, faculty, internships, and class size, than I am with reputation. We will require financial aid for these private schools, but our high school has placed kids at USF and UofP that got good aid. We are not religious but my son is easygoing and curious. </p>
<p>Considering only west coast non-huge institutions for now, Stanford and Mudd are "reach", everything else pretty much "fit" or "safety". I really like what I have learned about these Catholic schools. We live in Northern CA but son and I are really attracted to Portland.</p>
<p>Can anyone talk about experience at these schools, or compare and contrast their CS programs? Thank you.</p>
<p>In 2007 our oldest son was accepted to UCSD, UCSB, UCD, Cal Poly SLO, Santa Clara, USD, and USF (rejected by Mudd and Stanford). A generous scholarship offer, the prospect of a smaller school and the location convinced him to attend USF where he majored in CS.
He knew his professors well, benefited from smaller classes and graduated in four years. He is now employed in SF as a software engineer making as much as his father who has been a high school teacher for thirty-five years (maybe that says something about teachers’ salaries, but that’s another discussion).
So I’d say, yes, the CS department at USF seems to have prepared him very well. He said he had no regrets going to USF and that he thoroughly enjoyed his time there.
I think it would be very helpful if you and your son could make an appointment with the CS department chairperson and talk directly with them. Good luck!</p>
<p>Sarsfield, thanks for the reply, that is precisely the type of info I seek. Interesting that your son chose USF for, among other reasons, location. Obviously SF is a world-class city. My kids have grown up in rural CA far from and with little exposure to city life. My son is rather nonchalant at this time. My intuition says he’d be “comfortable” in SLO, but “stimulated” in SF or Portland. We gotta make a few visits. </p>
<p>Congratulations to your son for graduating in four years - and out-earning pop! That’s very encouraging. I can only hope …</p>
<p>Some options will be clarified after SAT this Saturday. In the meantime, does anyone have info about the other schools I mentioned? Or more about USF? Thanks in advance.</p>