<p>My son is interested in computer science. We visited Case Western and Carnegie Mellon over spring break. Liked both schools, but Carnegie's CS Dept is better. CMU is his first choice but since the SCS is so competitive, he needs a couple other schools to consider. He's concerned that Case's CS program is not as highly ranked or regarded. We both feel he'd get an excellent education at Case, but wonder about the quality of the CS Dept. Is it more important to go to the school with the better program in your major? We've discussed RPI and Ohio State too.</p>
<p>is grad school in the plan? many ug cs programs focus on preparing their students for graduate work</p>
<p>or is work after grad in the plans? if so, what industry? what location, what type of work? for example, if I wanted to work for microsoft I might want to go to school near Seattle. if I wanted to work in finance then nyc makes sense.</p>
<p>If you are looking on the East Coast, the University of Maryland has a highly ranked CS department. Microsoft, Google, etc. go to many of the top CS schools these days to recruit -- you don't have to be in CA or WA to get hired. One of the founders of Google is a UMD grad, and Google also set up an office at/near CMU in the past couple of years. The University of Illinois is also big in CS. Folks looking at RPI also tend to look at WPI and RIT, if you are looking for smaller programs.</p>
<p>Edit: If your S has good grades/stats and you are looking for $$, Case is pretty generous with merit aid, and folks we know who applied there heard early on about those packages.</p>