what universities would be in the different tiers for Computer Science (Tier 1,2 and 3)
Here’s a discussion on the top tier schools: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/2005527-what-are-the-top-tier-schools-for-computer-science.html
For 2 and 3 it will vary a lot by opinion and in the end, the differences are minimal. CS is an area where reputation matters very little. As long as there are enough classes offered often enough with good requirements in terms of CS classes, you can do well just about anywhere.
Rugg’s Recommendations gives a full Tier 1-3 list with over a hundred schools, which gives a very crude starting point and feel if needed, but you’d have to buy the PDF online for $25 or so. I’m guessing you don’t need that.
What’s the goal of the question here? If it’s for building a list for yourself, posting your stats, preferences and financial constraints would allow people to suggest schools for you.
@PengsPhils Thank you for the Link and response!
The main goal of the questions was to build a list for myself so I can look at them and see which ones I would want to apply to.
In that case, the tiers won’t be nearly as helpful as giving that info above - stats, preferences you have (in terms of size, social environment, location, etc), and most importantly your financial limitations. Try making a thread in this forum (or College Search and Selection) with that information and people will be able to help you get some good schools to look at! I’d be happy to suggest schools there as well once you post that info.
Any reputable school is more or less tier 1 in Computer Science.
No one in the industry cares enough to differentiate (right after undergrad) the difference between the quality of students in Rice and the quality of the students in Stanford (because they are considered more or less the same) although I would argue the students in Rice probably know more about CS in average than the students in Stanford.
I would argue majority of top 25 schools in the US are considered tier 1 in Computer Science. Outside those would be places like UIUC, UWashington, etc…
Seriously though, I would consider the following all tier 1 regardless for undergrad:
Princeton, Harvard, UChicago (if you LOVEEEE functional programming from first semester of college), Yale, Columbia, MIT, Duke, UPenn, Johns Hopkins Univ, Dartmouth, CalTech, Northwestern, Brown, Cornell, Rice, Vanderbilt, UCB, USC, CMU, UCLA, UVa, UMich, UNC, Georgia Tech, RPI, UCI, UCSD, UIUC, UW-Madison, UWashington, UT-Austin, UMD, Purdue
AND
Williams, Swathmore, Carleton, Harvey Mudd
That said, to be quite frank from majority of my friends’ opinions working in the industry (and I included), the vast majority of whom I know claim that it is better to get into the best school one can get into for undergrad than look at the trivial rankings of grad programs. Honestly, a student from a place like Rice or Brown or Vanderbilt will have had a far more rigorous coursework for Computer Science in average than a student from UW-Madison. And before the hate, I have indeed compared the difficulty of the workload of some of the “top CS state schools” and I was quite disappointed with them for undergrad (for grad though, they are top notch).
Grad program ranking != Undergrad program ranking.
The average Computer Science person in a place like Harvard would most likely be better in Computer Science than an average Computer Science person in a place like UT-Austin.
Plus, the chance of most aspiring CS majors sticking to CS is quite low. And many from what I know do find even after completion of CS degree realize that the programming industry is quite dull and boring many times and are thinking of switching over after some time (in which then college name will matter more in long run as some schools (rather rightly or not) do indeed carry some sort of halo effect).
Stats and money. If you like the vibe, and can get admitted to: Stanford, MIT, Berkeley, or CMU you will be off to a great start. How’s that for a tier 1 (to your original question)? Is there a qualitative difference? I believe so, and there are many other threads that have discussed this. Will having MIT on your resume catch an interviewer’s eye? You bet.
I will not deny that it is ingrained in the CS community that when listing the “tier 1”, it is Stanford, MIT, CMU, Berkeley .
That said, as for “catching the interviewer’s eye”, the top 25 USNews school all do to a certain extent (and certainly the top 10).
Like I have said previously:
If you can get into these schools (including places like Princeton, Harvard, Columbia, Yale, Duke, CalTech, Harvey Mudd, Williams, UPenn, Cornell, Brown, etc.), then by all means do.
Prestige no matter how much one wants to deny does exist in the real world and certain brand names have a sort of a halo effect. But these are few and far between and I don’t think the prestige is worth obsessing over.
That said, if you can get into a top school, then by all means go. For undergrad, it is the peers not the classes that shape you. And as much as I hate to admit, I do believe that top privates have advantage in the starting careers over top publics even in a very egalitarian field like CS.
Honestly, who gives a crap.
I feel like most people overstate the prestige of a school in that it matters when going for interviews. The most fundamental question is “Are you good at this or not?” You need to have the skills that back your resume up that you’re asserting you have when you give it to them. Demonstrable skill. I’ve seen people come in with great pedigree to my company that were terrible developers and I’ve seen people who did not have a degree but were wonderful developers. People have had less than five minutes interviews when they come in with a bunch of BS on their resume they can’t backup.
If you’re good, people will take note and you will get jobs. And if you’re good, you will get promoted. A good school is just icing on the cake. If the person from Cal State Northridge is better candidate than you, they’re not going to select you just because of your school having a better reputation. It’s a business decision that they have to live with someone who they see either that has less potential or less skill.
- Software Engineer, 3+ years
There is a significant difference between students who come from a top-tier undergraduate college, vs a lower-tier undergraduate college.
My company usually hires from the former. Recently it hired some from the latter, and is finding that a lot of them required “remedial” on-the-job training to get up-to-speed. Even then, truly inspired performance tends to come from some (not all) the students from the top-tier schools.
And yes, grad CS ranking is not a good a guide as general undergrad ranking.
Having worked in the software industry for over 30 years, I’ve found that where you’ve gone to school has very little correlation with your preparedness or productivity on the job.
Have to say I agree with @4thfloor , my 30+ years experience (along with my wife’s 30+ years) indicates there is a difference, sometime significant.