All are outstanding universities! Congratulations on having a great set of options where you can’t really make a wrong choice.
We have a friend who was a computer science major at Brown who graduated last spring. He loved Brown. He is working for Microsoft now, which came out of a summer internship there that he completed while at Brown.
Another friend is a junior majoring in computer science at Cornell who landed an internship at Amazon for this summer. He has been happy with Cornell as well.
If you have a specific area of computer science that interests you, you can look at which courses are offered, but otherwise you might pick by the overall culture and “feel” of the college. Where will you be happiest for four years?
Taking breaks from the intensity of Cornell by hiking the gorges and waterfalls of the incomparably beautiful Ithaca, and moving off campus after two years to live in the quaint college town or at a fraternity?
Enjoying being in the active city of Providence while benefitting from the freedom of a completely open curriculum and the option to take courses pass-fail?
Cheering on the winning sports teams and enjoying the more southern climate of Duke?
Cornell is regarded as being academically intense. The town of Ithaca has plenty of shopping and dining, and there are many lovely places to hike and visit nearby. Beautiful campus. Big variety of students and quite diverse. Brown will be more relaxed and have perhaps more creative types. Also very diverse. Lots of shopping and dining in the area. Easy access to East Coast cities. Duke, I am not so familiar with. Probably feels sportier and maybe a little more conservative. I’d go with whichever has the vibe you fell connected to.
If your goal is to become a typical software engineer after you graduate, any of these three will do. However, if you want to dive deeper into a CS specialty, especially a more mathematical/theorectical area in CS, Cornell will be the best choice academically. I visited all three schools a few years ago with my S (and twice to Cornell including both its engineering and A&S divisions). The only concern we had about Cornell CS was the prioritization/waitlisting for some of its CS classes. We also ran into a CS graduate student at Princeton who graduated from Duke, when we were visiting Princeton. We talked extensively and he wasn’t very complimentary about his alma mater relative to Princeton in CS.
Will add that Brown’s emphasis on undergraduates and tiny graduate school offers lots of opportunities for undergrads to get involved in research and in TAing classes—sophomore daughter who is a combined CS-Econ major had a chance to do research in a lab after her first semester on campus and has been TAing since first semester sophomore year. On the internship opportunities she interviewed with three of the top four tech companies as a sophomore and is interning for one this summer. Many of her friends in CS had offers post junior-year internship for full time jobs. There is also the opportunity for the truly ambitious to do a four-year combined SCB and Masters degree in CS for no additional cost.
Congrats on your acceptances! Another aspect you might want to consider is political climate if that’s something that is important to you. Cornell and Duke are more conservative (though likely with pockets of all kinds of beliefs) compared to Brown which is super liberal. There is an expectation at Brown that students will be very self-aware of diversity and difference in their daily interactions. That could be a pro or con for your consideration.
Duke isn’t known for CS, but still places kids pretty well. I wouldn’t even consider Brown unless you’re fairly liberal and want that as part of your college experience. To me it’s a Cornell vs Duke decision, and it comes down to whether you want a more intensive experience where CS is a top program at the school (Cornell) or a more balanced experience where CS isn’t the best program the school has to offer but has a more relaxed / traditional experience (Duke). Having taken a bunch of CS courses and getting one away from a CS minor, can tell you it’s a much more laid back department than almost all the others at the school. The kids in it are really into it though, and get great jobs (Microsoft, Google, etc.). But if you’re an intense person that wants intensity, go Cornell
So, Brown is being ruled out because it’s “fairly liberal”? The OP applied and was accepted to Brown. And the OP didn’t mention anything about political leanings or considerations being a factor in their decision.
Personally, if I’m advising my own kid, then I’d say Cornell for CS ranking/curriculum and intensity, as long as they understand the atmosphere going in, or Brown for the laid back, sampling/flexible curriculum.
My own D18 attends Michigan, which I think strikes a balance between the academic and social environments.
Ok. As usual, I’m probably speaking out of turn, but I known Brown CS department is respected at my kid’s super-intense public STEM school in NYC so I think it can compete with Cornell. The thing you’ve correctly identified is the culture. Brown will give you enough rope to build the most awesome rope bridge to the future or hang yourself. If CS is a real passion, I feel like Brown would be amazing. They will not keep you on the straight and narrow, but that can be a great thing for the right kid.
If CS is a real passion - any in-state school would be amazing to be fair
But going back to OP’s question - he should select on fit - these are all great programs
(and Duke CS grads do amazingly well)
You are correct. I don’t mean to discount state schools. The best state schools have some of the most brilliant minds in any field. However, their primary job is to create new knowlegdge and “publish.” Their secondary job is to train grad students. Undergrads are job three. What I like about Brown is it is not top heavy in that sense but you also have access to the most brilliant minds who are actually creating new knowledge. This is not to say that a really driven student could not make it happen at U Michigan or wherever, it’s just going to take a combination of talent and extroversion.
I get the point, but I will just reiterate my view that for the kid who knows what they want and is passionate about their chosen subject mater (regardless of political affiliations) Brown offers opportunities not easily found elsewhere.
To clarify the earlier point, it’s about what type of experience you want. Not trying to knock Brown, but was getting at the idea that if you are only focused on CS and all other factors are irrelevant, the answer is Cornell. My view (and again, am biased) is that I would personally choose Duke over Brown for all the reasons that have been highlighted in this thread (weather, sports, more traditional college experience, freshman-only first-year campus, etc.). I think the factors that push you to Duke or Brown are entirely dependent on your personality and what you are looking for. Ultimately they’re a push from a CS perspective. However, as a biased individual (that went through a similar decision years back), it was a no brainer from my standpoint where I preferred between the two. But I think the first question is where do you force rank the importance of an intense CS department. If it’s #1, go to Cornell. If it’s not and/or it’s a more holistic decision, I’d go with Duke (again, unless your personality fits better at Brown, then by all means go to Brown)
