My son received his acceptance letters from both, and is trying to decide where to go study Computer Science:
Cornell will cost about $28K(with Fin aid), UT will cost $22K(no aid)
Cornell is ranked #10, UT is ranked #7 in Comp. Science
Cornell has name recognition as Ivy, we are unsure about UT-Austin name recognition outside of midwest region.
If he intends to eventually work in Silicon Valley, which school would be better?
He also wants to attend an elite MBA program eventually, will Cornell give him an edge over UT for Wharton/Harvard/MIT MBA admissions down the road?
Not sure where found your rankings. For example, there’s this ranking of CS grad schools (couldn’t find any specific undergrad CS rankings). https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/computer-science-rankings
My understanding (based on my college roommate - not at Cornell - who is the head of a CS department at a university) is that there are the big 4 of CS (MIT, CMU, Berkeley and Stanford) and a handful of other schools which all like to claim that they are #5.
For work in Silicon Valley, either school will be fine. With the current huge demand for CS majors there, doing well at any school that is “good enough” (which both Cornell and UT easily are) will enable a student who knows their CS to get a Silicon Valley job.
For top B schools, my opinion is that Cornell will give a clear edge over UT.
I was looking at the Undergrad Computer Engineering rankings on usnews.com, the Grad CS rankings you posted link to are probably a better indicator of Undergrad CS though. We are discovering that UT is, in fact, more than adequate to get you into silicon valley, as is Cornell, with the difference being cost & weather/environment.
Computer engineering is quite different than computer science!
Moreover, usnwr undergrad engineering rankings are quite questionable. It is based purely on peer surveys, and other departments’ chairs know a lot more about research than undergrad education.
Cornell might have a bit of advantage in terms of class sizes and access to professors. It is also somewhat more selective and probably has more challenging academics.