<p>For Computer Science, which college is best: the University of Illinois Urbana-Champagin or the University of Wisconsin Madison</p>
<p>Please give me your opinion and the reasons behind it.</p>
<p>(I was also accepted to University of Connecticut Storrs and University of Massachusetts Amherst with the Chancellor's Scholarship if you feel that either of these are better)</p>
<p>Illinois. Illinois is a top, top CS program. Also, in my experience, the truly elite companies hire way more from Illinois than Wisconsin.</p>
<p>For the 1,000,001st time…especially if going into software engineering…</p>
<p>The ability to keep up-to-date with the latest technology is NUMBER 1 most important attribute to be hired by the so-called best companies.</p>
<p>If you have a chance to get a CS degree from U-Mass FREE…You take that over U-Illinois or Wisconsin…and my graduate degree is from U-Wisconsin.</p>
<p>I think I need to put this in CAPS.</p>
<p>US SENIOR SOFTWARE ENGINEERS (and I have 20+ years) WHO INTERVIEW CANDIDATES CARE MUCH MORE ABOUT CAN YOU DEVELOP SOLUTIONS IN JAVA, ORACLE, SQL SERVER, HADOOP, C++, C# THAN WHICH SCHOOL YOU ATTENDED!!</p>
<p>@googOrMsoft Thanks, that’s what I’ve been thinking. Just so nervous about choosing the right school for me.</p>
<p>@GLOBALTRAVELER Scholarship from UMASS is 7,500/year, which makes it cost about the same as UCONN. If it was free I’d definitely go, but since it isn’t I’m more interested in schools with better computer science programs. I visited UMASS and it was not too impressive and the school atmosphere didn’t suit me too well. Also, I feel like those technologies you listed alone aren’t the most modern, but that might be because I’m more of a web technologies guy than a software engineer. Statistically speaking, for Computer Science undergrads they receive the highest starting salaries and middle salaries than any other public university, which is impressive. </p>
<p>You certainly make a good point, but ultimately the part does not represent the whole, and software engineering might not be my future anyways.</p>
<p>Companies have a range for all new grads, so a CS grad from a Top-10 school will start off no higher than $10,000-$15,000 more than the lower-ranked school.</p>
<p>A couple of job hops later with the right “hot technology of the week” and that difference is nullified after about 5-7 years. Too many employers with too many needs with too many difference technologies to think that the difference in pay will be linear and career-lasting.</p>
<p>Just stating a statistic, I understand your point fully. I both respect your experience and advice. I just want the question I posted this thread about answered.</p>
<p>If you wanna look at rankings only…</p>
<p>Illinois #5 (overall)
Wisconsin #11 (overall)</p>
<p>In CS systems research
Illinois #6
Wisconsin #7</p>
<p>In CS programming language research
Illinois #9
Wisconsin #10</p>
<p>In CS artificial intelligence research
Illinois #7
Wisconsin > #20</p>
<p>In CS theory
Illinois #11
Wisconsin #12</p>
<p>U-Illinois by a hair as far as rankings.</p>
<p>I would say Wisconsin because that is my grad school alma-mater :-)</p>
<p>Those are graduate program rankings though. Still, just a slight edge to Illinois</p>
<p>Can’t really lose with either. Illinois is slightly better.</p>
<p>UMass actually has a very strong department. Not quite as good as Illinois/Wisconsin, but not a bad choice at all.</p>
<p>BasicDan “I’m more of a web technologies guy than a software engineer. Statistically speaking, for Computer Science undergrads they receive the highest starting salaries and middle salaries than any other public university, which is impressive.”</p>
<p>Going strictly on the rankings that GlobalTraveler provided it looks like Illinois only has a measurable advantage in artificial intelligence. Since that doesn’t appear to be your interest either school should suffice. Have you visited both schools yet? Ask some detailed questions on classes that will benefit you in web technology and then go with your gut feel of the one that’s best for you.</p>
<p>I understand it’s difficult when there’s no clear cut choice.</p>
<p>The best school you name is UIUC, probably by more than the rankings and earlier opinions suggest. Research, funding, prestige, and associated benefits will trickle down to undergraduates there in tangible ways.</p>
<p>You should consider more than the brand name: do these schools offer any special programs (honors program, interdisciplinary programs, undergraduate research opportunities, etc.), unique courses or concentrations, good location (near tech recruiters or with a track record of selling students to companies you’re interested in), etc.</p>
<p>All other things being equal, I’d go with UIUC. But if you look hard, I’m sure you’ll find that there are meaningful differences which make this question a lot harder. If not, only a sucker would say anything besides UIUC, and don’t listen to anybody who says different.</p>
<p>What would be your net cost to attend each of them?</p>
<p>UIUC, Wisconsin, and UM Amherst all have high reputations in computer science, so it would not be unreasonable to choose the least expensive one of these three.</p>
<p>I agree with ucbalumnus. If you live in Illinois, go for UIUC.
my dad won’t let me go to UIUC unless i get a huge scholarship and get rejected from all the UCs 
I applied CivilE.</p>
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<p>This is irrelevant.
The fact of the matter is that top companies only recruit from a handful of schools and everyone else gets stuck at IBM type places.
Go to the best school you can get into. It will open many more doors later on.</p>
<p>Also, looking at grad program rankings is irrelevant if you’re not applying to graduate programs. The strength of a school’s grad program is not a relevant indicator of how great their undergrad program is.
An example:
Yale’s mba program is terrible. UChicago’s MBA program is fantastic, but you would still choose econ at Yale over Chicago for undergrad if you wanted to work in finance.</p>
<p>Ummm…</p>
<p>Maybe it is different outside of the Washington DC area, but both the actual employees of places like the No Such Agency and the leeching contractors (like myself) have the positions, titles, and responsibilities that do not correlate to one’s school. There are CEO’s, top agency officials, and other world-renown engineers from the University of Wyomings of the worlds as well as some grads of the U-Illinois and U-Wisconsins who will just have less-meaningful tasks.</p>
<p>A lot of folks thinking that their school will win out over experience or knowledge of what is the latest or how to “schmooze” folks who fund your contract will have a rude awakening.</p>
<p>Listen to GlobalTraveler. Sound advice. </p>
<p>At one time, Wisconsin was pretty good- Cray.
My cousin, worked on the Cray-1 as a field engineer programming- and on every succeeding supercomputer. I told him recently that’s been very impressive. He graduated from Oregon State, BS.</p>
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<p>Since your example later on involves finance and MBA, your claim may be more based on the more-school-prestige-conscious finance industry. The computer industry is much less so. Indeed, while many computer companies are selective in which schools they will travel to, they will also recruit locally at no-name universities, and will not refuse to interview a candidate who applies who looks good generally even with a no-name university degree on his/her resume.</p>
<p>Obviously it applies more to finance or consulting than cs, but it still matters for cs, to a much larger degree than people let on. </p>
<p>Look at Cornell’s placement report versus Umass Amherst.
They are world’s apart.</p>
<p>[Placement</a> Report](<a href=“http://www.cs.cornell.edu/ugrad/cscareers/PlacementReport/index.htm]Placement”>Placement Report | Department of Computer Science)
<a href=“https://www.cs.umass.edu/degrees[/url]”>https://www.cs.umass.edu/degrees</a></p>
<p>Out of the entire cs department in 2010, not a single undergrad from umass amherst was got a job from google, facebook or apple, arguably the top companies. That should tell you something.</p>
<p>Prestige matters to some extent in getting the best jobs in any field. However, it’s still a question of tradeoffs, and prestige isn’t the only factor. If going to a less prestigious school means you’ll have less or no debt (or will have made money), will have published more papers or been more actively involved in professional organizations, will have gained more valuable work experience, etc… There could be a strong argument for going to the less prestigious school.</p>
<p>Again, all other things being equal, go to the more prestigious school. Prestige can only help in the long run. Since not all things are likely to be equal, it becomes a question of cost and benefit. If you think of it that way, you’ll make a better decision.</p>
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<p>Of course, there are a lot more than three good computer companies to work at. And people from CSUs that you may not have heard about get jobs right out of school at those places also. Also, even if the companies don’t come to your school’s career center to recruit your for your first job, having a CS degree from a lesser known school won’t prevent you from being hired for your next job.</p>
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<p>Who says they are the best companies? Where can I buy that gallon of Kool-Aid?</p>
<p>Do they pay the most?
Does one have to beat out 1,000 people to move up each step?
Do they have basically GUARANTEED money (like defense and national security) to not worry about funding?</p>
<p>A CS grad for a lower-ranked school can “job hop” 2 or 3 places and be making the same (or more money) than the Apple/Google/Facebook worker who is busy competing against 1,000 others for the next-level position…just to SAY “Hey, I work at Google”.</p>
<p>AMEX doesn’t care if one works are Google or Jones Security Solutions in Fort Meade, MD. The salary and debt-to-income ratio is what AMEX cares about, SMH.</p>