Computer Science: Cal Poly SLO vs. UCLA vs. Barrett Honors College at Arizona State

<p>Wow, thanks, Celeste. That’s a really helpful tip.</p>

<p><a href=“Interestingly,%20in%20playing%20around%20a%20little%20with%20the%20PayScale%20algorithm,%20putting%20in%20the%20bare%20bones%20for%20a%20software%20engineer%20with%200%20years%20of%20experience%20graduating%20from%20UCLA,%20ASU%20and%20Cal%20Poly%20there%20was%20no%20difference%20at%20all%20in%20predicted%20median%20salary,%20regardless%20of%20college,%20so%20PayScale%20doesn’t%20adjust%20salary%20predictions%20directly%20based%20upon%20university%20attended.%20The%20difference%20is%20actually%20reflected%20in%20the%20location%20of%20employment,%20ranging%20from%20$59K%20in%20Phoenix%20to%20$65K%20in%20LA%20to%20$75K%20in%20San%20Francisco%20given%20the%20same%20level%20of%20experience%20and%20education%20at%20the%20three%20different%20colleges.”>quote=sandydjdm</a>

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<p>Backing up a bit, Payscale’s goal in including only bac-recipient alumni is to try to measure a university’s name in generating salaries for its alumni unaffected and unfiltered through their grad-school lenses because the latter would probably have a greater influence in their (much higher) salaries over their alternatively having received only undergrad educations. What PS ends up doing, perhaps even decently, is showing that tech u’s have greater median salaries than those which are more academically based, and with these latter being geared more towards being grad-school preparatories. These are undoubtedly true observations on a macro scale, even if not true on a micro scale.</p>

<p>The specific problem that PS runs into is it trying to assign correct median salaries (25th, 50th, 75th) to each of the universities for which it claims to have sufficient data, and, also, it doesn’t have a verification process of respondents professions, salaries, alma maters, etc.</p>

<p>Bluebayou compared PS’s survey to ratemyprofessor, and I can see this of course. The respondents to the latter could be disgruntled students who’ve taken a class under a specific professor and received grades they felt should have been higher. If those who are happy with their grades chose not to respond in the same levels as those disgruntled to rmp, this could shade a professor’s ranking towards the negative, when the true consensus could be shaded towards the positive. This is the problem of receiving information rather than seeking it. </p>

<p>And as bluebayou and you stated, PS collects data on this purely passive level. To be more accurate, PS would have to actively collect data based on each of the u’s bac-recipients’ professions – professions mix, general demographics, etc, to receive scientific sample-sizes based on the correct mix of professions of each u – which would probably mean it would need to have access to the u’s’ database of alumni, including those who are un- and underemployed, and figuring in a correct mix of payscale wrt geography of alumni. And no u would release or give access to such data, at least of course, without consent.</p>

<p>So the median salaries that PS purports to be true, are really nothing but garbage, because specific micro-u-based data probably cannot be obtained. And the comedy is PS trying to figure a ROI based of of these u-based median salaries and various-level costs of specific u-education and later ranking the u’s accordingly based on return. They obvioulsy do the above and subsequently try to generate conversation and even some controversy to gain attention and hits to its website. Forbes seem to like to quote PS often, which is unfortunate. </p>

<p>They may do things on a more macro level decently well: things like what salaries for chem engineers would be in the for the choices you listed and in relation to OP’s choices of college and their geographies. And I don’t even try to fault PS by not including all bac-recipient alumni to for it to try to figure a possible name brand. But overall, there are too many flaws for people to say explicitly things based off of PS, “University X’s alumni make more than University Ys, ” when there are omissions of alumni (often large omissions), and when the data collection of PS is flawed.</p>

<p>Sandy, for next year, Vista is very popular and kids having a hard time getting in. However, the shared bedroom option at Vista, which is the very cheapest of any Barrett housing, is not as popular and was available quite awhile after housing renewal opened. I think most kids go for the private bedroom./private bath option. If you are looking to save money, it is doable. </p>

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<p>The other issue is that most Payscale reports are for entire schools, without accounting for majors, or the mix of majors at each school (although there is a “top 20” report for CS majors). Because much or most of the variation in post-graduation pay levels is dependent on one’s major, the Payscale rankings for entire schools tend to show schools with heavy concentrations of in-demand majors (e.g. engineering and CS) doing well. But the difference between a CS major at one school versus a CS major at another school is likely significantly less than the difference that may be seen between some entire schools.</p>

<p>Perhaps the only reason why Payscale gets so much attention here is that the schools themselves mostly do not provide much post-graduation placement data (some do, with varying levels of detail; see <a href=“University Graduate Career Surveys - #69 by ucbalumnus - Career Opportunities & Internships - College Confidential Forums”>University Graduate Career Surveys - #69 by ucbalumnus - Career Opportunities & Internships - College Confidential Forums; ). Even then, one must be careful comparing different schools, since the survey methodology can differ (e.g. do they survey the graduating students at graduation? six months after? a year after? or just put up a web site for graduates to fill in at any time between graduation and a year after? how aggressively do they try to get graduates to fill in the survey? etc.) and reporting can differ (e.g. mean versus median pay levels).</p>

<p>That people have to pay much more attention to financial ROI type issues in choosing college these days indicates a big change from a generation or two ago, when (a) college was much less expensive, and (b) a bachelor’s degree in any major was much more likely to be an upgrade to one’s job and pay prospects back then compared to now.</p>

<p>@MYOS1634 At your request, I would like to let you all know that my son chose to attend Barrett Honors College at ASU. =D> This was by far the most challenging college decision of my three sons, given such excellent options. I appreciate so much everyone’s help, input and encouragement in the process.</p>

<p>Ultimately, for him, UCLA was out solely due to location, but also I think because he has a lot of interests he wants to pursue and felt he wouldn’t have as much flexibility there. That was a tough one for me to let go of due to the prestige and good scholarship, but he was very firm about that decision and I think it was a good call for him personally. A friend shared this interesting Google Talk by Malcolm Gladwell that I found thought provoking about choosing the most prestigious colleges : <a href=“Why Did I Say "Yes" to Speak Here? | Malcolm Gladwell | Google Zeitgeist - YouTube”>Why Did I Say "Yes" to Speak Here? | Malcolm Gladwell | Google Zeitgeist - YouTube;

<p>My sentimental favorite, Cal Poly was tougher for him because it has a great program, great location, great people and he has friends attending. He did get into the honors program, but was disappointed to learn that there were not as many honors courses offered as the website seemed to indicate. With the huge growth and popularity of the college, it is impacted. If priority registration had been part of the honors program, he would have chosen Cal Poly because that ended up being his biggest concern. (I subsequently have had some amazing and favorable e-communication with both the President of Cal Poly and the head of the Honors Program recommending that they incorporate priority registration into their honors program. They were both incredibly kind and responsive - just making me think all the more highly of the university).</p>

<p>For my son, the amazing benefits that Barrett Honors offered (three dedicated advisors, internships even in the freshman year, priority registration, potential for graduate scholarships - not to mention his full tuition scholarship) sealed the deal for ASU. Now if we can just do something about that mascot!</p>

<p>Thank you again, all, for your help and input. May God bless you all in your college decisions and beyond.</p>

<p>Thank you so much for the update. Barrett is a great Honors College: congratulations to you and your son!
Hopefully you can tell us how he’s doing and how reality compares to expectations. </p>

<p>Congratulations!
Would really like to hear some updates in the future as MYOS1634 mentions.</p>

My child is facing a similar decision and I was wondering how your daughter is doing at Barrett. If you can, please post an update. Thanks.