<p>How well do rankings approximate the strength of various CS programs? I always hear things along the lines of "X college is ranked 6 while Y college is 25, you should go to X," but are there significant differences in course breadth and depth and/or research opportunities?</p>
<p>For example, USNWR lists MIT as tied for #1 for CS(graduate), but how does the undergraduate program compare to Harvard (#17)? Is it always right to choose MIT- Or can you truly get an equivalent education at another college- are all 'top X' colleges great? Does it matter for undergraduate studies?</p>
<p>Also, should the size of the department matter? Berkeley's(#1) program is surely much larger than Yale's(#20).</p>
<p>Finally, I hear that some programs are more "theory-focused": should this be of concern if one is looking to become, say, a software engineer?</p>
<p>Please support your claims.</p>
<p>Thanks,</p>
<p>A potential CS major </p>
<p>PS. I figured not everyone reads College Search & Selection, so posting here as well.</p>
<p>No. You can take the additional theory courses if you want to and you have technical or free elective space in your schedule, but at any decent school, you should have plenty of schedule space to take the courses that are most useful for industry software development jobs and careers.</p>
<p>At the top schools, there may be some additional theory embedded in courses like operating systems, databases, and networks based on expectations of student learning ability, but such courses typically involve “practical” / “applied” programming assignments and projects as well.</p>
<p>For industry software development jobs, the CS courses whose concepts are most likely to be useful are:</p>
<p>Software Engineering
Algorithms and Complexity
Operating Systems
Networks
Databases
Security
User Interfaces</p>
<p>You have to understand that college rankings really come into play when there is a lot of competition for certain job industries and specific jobs. In an area like software development, there are certain skills that employers just cannot find easily therefore rankings do not matter as much.</p>
<p>With the elective courses that UCBAlumnus mentioned, I cannot see too many CS grads from the TOP-50 schools not getting hired right out of school.</p>
<p>Hell, I was asked to sit in on a couple of interviews this week to evaluate the “database skills” of a couple of candidates from the “powerhouse institutions” of Towson University (in Maryland) and Univ of Delaware.</p>
<p>BTW…I work for a recognizable defense contractor who does work for NSA.</p>
<p>Rankings may matter in which out of area university career centers an employer will visit. If you are at a low ranked university that is not local to employers of your field, you will have to be more aggressive in finding companies to apply to for jobs, rather than watching them come to recruit you at your university’s career center.</p>
<p>For example, a “Silicon Valley” company may recruit at San Jose State because it is local and easy to recruit at. But if it sends recruiters out of area, it is going to target higher ranked universities – e.g. Georgia Tech instead of Georgia State, UCLA and USC instead of CSULA, Cal Poly SLO instead of CSU Fresno, MIT instead of Wentworth, UT Austin instead of UTEP, etc…</p>
<p>Thank you for your insights, ucbalumnus and GLOBALTRAVELER.</p>
<p>Regarding the computer science education at, say, top-20 schools, is it fair to say that undergraduate programs are close to equal? Or would it be the case that a CMU software engineer is ‘stronger’ than one from Harvard? (example)</p>
<p>I want to have the best CS education possible… but other factors are important to me as well. Above–would it be reasonable to pick Harvard? Or would there be significant differences in the quality of CS available?</p>
<p>Well in CMU’s case, they are the owners/founders of the Software Engineering Institute. That is CMU’s “thing”…software engineering and the standards, practices and new trends.</p>
<p>How much money do you have at your disposal?</p>
<p>Look at the number of faculty, age of faculty and publications.</p>
<p>Harvard is in a cost squeeze. They traditionally have not been strong in engineering and sciences. Costs a lot of $ to attract and fund outstanding professors and classrooms-labs vs just liberal arts classrooms.</p>
<p>DS was CMU-HCI (school of CS) as undergrad, entreneuer focus . Toronto-HCI, MS (school of CS), hardware focus. U of Washington, job, robotics (CS). He says that they are different not necessarily good or bad. </p>
<p>I’d say the rankings are fairly accurate but not perfect. You, the student, is probably a better determinate of outcome.</p>
<p>So Harvard has been spending money. But so has other schools and they were also ahead in this game. When you got your name on the building or the CS school has your name, that University sure isn’t going to field a second class program.</p>
<p>@#9 >Harvard has been putting more funds and effort in expanding their Engineering in the last few years. <</p>
<p>And they will eventually get better. </p>
<p>Look, you asked, I supplied you with an answer of a son who attended 3 prominent CS schools and did an internship at a fourth.</p>
<p>I have also said that son thinks that his high cost education could have been just as well served from less well known schools. Its the quality people who have the desire and ability.</p>
<p>I always looks at the whole school prestige/career issue as a major sports season. College is the regular season and the career is the playoffs. Once you are in the playoffs…anyone can win. Some teams may start off seeded higher.</p>
<p>LongPrime: I’m curious, what did your son think of the robotics program at UW? I might be heading towards that direction (or related areas), myself.</p>
<p>sumzup, I have no idea other than 1) Udub CS is currently not lacking for money. 2) He says that he is associated with a lot of smart people at Udub and who do not have the education pedigree as he does. I am convinced that DS’s successs is not based on where he got his education but on his vision and talent. </p>
<p>DS is an odd duck. He is support staff to the grad students and to projects. His focus is not robotics but Human-Computer Interaction, BS, MS. He’s associated with the MacArthur Fellow, who was his adopted undergrad, mech-eng advisor at CMU. He was this prof’s gofer for 3 years . He also has an BS Mechanical Eng. His contraptions has been on NPR (his invention under this prof), NOVA (the mechanic for this prof’s claim to fame), Seattle’s newspaper and a popular tech magazine for his hobby. </p>
<p>The BIG factor is that he has the talent and time and location to enjoy what he likes to do. How long this last, is unknown. We appreciate him being close to home.</p>