<p>I am an International Student currently studying at Michigan State University. I have a perfect technical GPA so far, three semesters in. But lately, I have been thinking whether transferring to a better school (U-M, Georgia Tech, etc.) will help me get a better job down the road in the computer science field. I mean if it is all revolved around computers and programming, will transferring to big name school really make a difference?</p>
<p>Your ability with programming languages would matter more. If you had grad A from Georgia Tech who had the usual suite of languages and grad B from Michigan State with the usual suite plus one or two useful extras, I’d employ grad B.</p>
<p>You can be very successful in the IT field without a college degree- if you know your programming languages.</p>
<p>If you like where you are socially and in terms of the teaching, I’d stay put. Save yourself time and money and work on giving yourself the most employable set of skills you can before graduation. </p>
<p>If you’re not happy where you are, then move but be aware of the above.</p>
<p>The big name school can only affect your FIRST job. After that, everything is pretty much based on your professional knowledge and experience and your school takes a back seat. Now don’t get me wrong, there will be a few hiring managers who like to base their decisions more on “lifetime academic achievement”, but those managers are few and far between and frankly, there are far too many software development positions available for hiring managers to “college name-brand picky”.</p>
<p>Just for the record, I am a MSU grad (Computational Mathematics) and work in software engineering.</p>
<p>I am Recruiter for a Tier 1 consulting firm, where you graduate from with a BS will count more towards your first job. The Big 4, IBM, HP and even Microsoft tend to recruit from certain Tier 1 and some Tier 2 schools as they are consider feeder schools and we hire candidate for all majors not just CS or Engineering. GPA counts more.</p>
<p>After college, it is your experience and technical skill sets will make the most difference in getting better jobs. </p>
<p>Hope that helps.</p>