Computer Science: Emory vs. Purdue vs. Cal Poly SLO vs. Northeastern

College Search & Selection
1

Hello!

I have spent the last seven hours researching, and yet still can’t quite come to a decision. Hoping someone here could give me some more information on each of the schools in the title.

Things that matter to me:
*Location (Clearly Cal Poly imo)
*Ability to get a job after graduation. Cal Poly is reputed as preparing you the best for a job right after college, but I think Purdue has a much better reputation everywhere but the West coast and even internationally. Will I have trouble finding a job on the east coast if I go to Poly? Emory has the best reputation overall, but its engineering department: not so much. NE is in the middle.
*Ability to get into grad school (I want to get an MBA)- not sure about which one is better for this
*Ability to graduate in 4 years: I’ve heard at NE it’s next to impossible to graduate in 4 years because of co-op. Cal Poly is an impacted school.
*Difficulty- I will work hard and believe I am smart enough to get an okay GPA at most schools. However I also do not want to be up till 1am on Friday nights studying.
*Fun (Wayyy less important than everything else above, but still holds some value)
*Money is not an issue

I really like Cal Poly’s learn by doing philosophy and smaller class sizes, however all the other schools on this list have a better reputation outside of Cali. Most people at my parents’ jobs and my friends don’t even know what Poly is (I live in NJ).

Thanks!

2

You will be up all night trying to get programs to run no matter where you go to school. That’s just the nature of the CS major.

Have you been accepted to Cal Poly? It’s a very difficult school to get into for CS. If you wanted to live in California, that would be the place to go, but you are correct in that it’s not well known outside of the state.

3

Yes, I was accepted for computer science into all four schools. And to clarify, I know and accept that Comp Sci will be difficult, but was wondering whether any of these programs could be considered tooo hard.

4

I got into CS in Cal Poly too! In a similar situation as you are in right now! HMU?