<p>I have a choice of going to Rutgers University or University of Maryland. I want to major in Computer Science. Rutgers is about $27,000 a year and UMD is $42,000. I will not be receiving any aid from any of the schools. My question is does it really matter? I would love to go to UMD because their program is ranked #14th in the nation and Rutgers is #28. However, UMD costs a lot of money. Also when I graduate either of these schools, I would like to pursue Masters at a top level school. When I graduate, I would like to have a job at any top technology company such as Apple/Google. So what would be the wise choice here?</p>
<p>Have you visited? Which school do you “like” better. It’s very important to choose a school where you will be comfortable with the people around you.</p>
<p>Disneydad,I have visited only Rutgers and I have a bunch of friends at Maryland and Rutgers. I like Maryland better even though I haven’t visited it.</p>
<p>The difference between #14 and #28 is negligible. Seriously. People over-hype small differences in rankings. And yes, the difference between 28 and 14 is small. $15,000 times 4 years = $60,000. Sorry, UMD is NOT worth $60,000 more than Rutgers.</p>
<p>Go to Rutgers.</p>
<p>Sounds like you want UMd. Have a heart to heart with your parents about finances. Either is a good choice.</p>
<p>Eh, if you can get Honors for CS at UMD, choose UMD. (You’ll find out with your acceptance notice Jan 27th-31st). Normally, #14/#28 have few differences, but UMD has a high percentage of CS students going to Silicon Valley and produced a co-founder of Google. When I visited UMD, I met a ton of kids from NJ, and they were happy they chose UMD over Rutgers.</p>
<p>Vctory, what evidence do you have that “UMD has a high percentage of CS students going to Silicon Valley” compared to Rutgers?</p>
<p>If the costs were the same, no problem… but paying an extra $60,000 (at least) over 4 years?</p>
<p>Some stuff the President mentioned at Marquee Day. He didn’t mention Rutgers specifically, but I tried doing some research and couldn’t find anything on Rutgers students going to SV. In recommending to the OP that he should go to UMD, I took into consideration 1) his personal favoritism toward UMD, 2) UMD’s nice SV farming rate, 3) UMD’s alumni, 4) other NJ kids at UMD, 5) UMD high-ranking Honors program for CS. A major factor still is the OP’s preference of UMD over Rutgers even without his visiting UMD… Although he can’t really confirm a preference for UMD, we can assume he doesn’t particularly like Rutgers… If he wants to pay 60k, the investment might be worth it given the programs at UMD vs at Rutgers.</p>
<p>I don’t think it makes one bit of difference between Rutgers and UMD.</p>
<p>There are stats out there that give the average first year salaies in certain fields by college, also salaries x years hence, that can show some advantages of some schools over others. However, studies have shown the students accepted to colleges do as well as those who go there even when they do not.</p>
<p>I know a set of identical twins, who are both engineers. One went to Georgia Tech, the other to Pitt. The big difference is the one who went to GT has loans to repay which has been a tough go compared to his brother who is loan free. Also, coming back north put him a bit behind job wise. They make just about the same amount of money in similar jobs, their mother tells me…</p>
<p>To add to this post, I don’t mind going to Rutgers but I prefer UMD just because of the ranking and I just want a higher salary/preference for a job, so I was thinking UMD.</p>
<p>Vctory…</p>
<p>Most of your pieces of evidence are unsubstantiated or completely subjective… NJ kids at MD prefer MD?? Really, you don’t say!? That is what is called a selection effect. Unless you polled MD kids at Rutgers, it is a useless, irrelevant factoid.</p>
<p>Again, I asked for evidence of the SV farming rate… you gave none, and just repeated the assertion. How does it compare to Rutgers? </p>
<p>Heck, I think UMD is an awesome school… but the question is, is it worth $60,000 (at least) more than Rutgers. I don’t think you can come up with a shred of evidence to prove that assertion. </p>
<p>If the OP’s family is wealthy, and don’t mind paying an extra $60,000, then I guess it doesn’t really matter.</p>
<p>Apple: if you are only asking about ranking then I say it’s a no brainer to go to Rutgers. Rankings are very imprecise. Your grad school or your job will have a lot more to do with “you” than with " your school".</p>
<p>H+B: No need to go on the offense; I understand I’m being completely subjective here. </p>
<p>If he feels a better fit at UMD than at Rutgers, then don’t let the kid suffer in NJ, let him go to MD. It’s not my duty to provide SV farming rates, and I’m writing a paper for AP Lit right now so I don’t have the time to find any. I gave him points to further his own research on the school. The OP’s question was whether or not undergrad mattered for his field; I gave him broad information requiring further research on an Honors program at UMD, a great network of alumnus, and farming for SV. If he wants to find quantitative data supporting all of that, it’s up to him. </p>
<p>I believe his choice should be predominately about his fit when he’s considering two similarly ranked schools. If he likes the school, then he should go. If he doesn’t like the school, then he shouldn’t go. If he wants to pay 60k for a more enjoyable time, then he should feel inspired to research my broad points to give justification to his parents. </p>
<p>But, if his only concern is about rankings, then as Disneydad said: “it’s a no brainer.” OP, if you wouldn’t mind going to Rutgers, or if you don’t want to pay the extra 60k for UMD, then go to Rutgers. If you want to go to UMD, then see below, do some research, and find some extremely convincing reasons. </p>
<p>OP:
Look at the Deans and Presidential scholarships for UMD, depending on stats you may qualify. If you need assistance with research on justification or finances, try going to the UMD thread. Maryversity and some other UMD experts “monitor” the section; they’ll be able to answer any question you have about the school.</p>
<p>I did a little sleuthing, and it does appear that UMD has better corporate partners in their computer science department. UMD has connections with Microsoft, Google, AOL, and Yahoo among others (<a href=“Community | UMD Department of Computer Science”>Community | UMD Department of Computer Science) whereas Rutgers’ industry partnerships were good firms of which I’ve heard but not as high profile ([Rutgers</a> Computer Science Industrial Affiliates Program](<a href=“Computer Science at Rutgers”>http://www.cs.rutgers.edu/outreach/iap/iap_members.whtml)). That’s only one data point in what should be a more holistic decision, and it’s really not complete - I didn’t peruse Rutgers’ career services page, which may have more contacts with these firms. Besides, students from plenty of schools that don’t have formal partnerships with Google/Apple/Microsoft do summer internships at these places.</p>
<p>The flip side is that you know you want to pursue a master’s at a top level school - that will certainly cost a lot, and if you do it will be your graduate degree that matters, not your undergrad. You can get into a top grad school from either Rutgers or Maryland - it really doesn’t matter, as long as you do well.</p>
<p>This is a $60,000 difference, so honestly unless you’re getting a lot of gift aid from someone (either the school or a generous grandmother or something) then I would probably choose Rutgers.</p>
<p>I work in SF/Silicon Valley, and don’t recall meeting anyone at a local tech company who went to either Rutgers or Maryland. </p>
<p>It doesn’t matter where you go.</p>
<p>Likely that both schools will be recruited at by big companies like GAFAM (but ask the career centers if you really want to know). But smaller companies are likely to show local biases. Rutgers may be more convenient for New York area employers to recruit at, while Maryland may be more convenient for Washington area employers to recruit at. That does not prevent a student at either from applying to other companies for jobs, though.</p>
<p>But the difference is unlikely to be worth $60,000.</p>
<p>Let me just mention that you are comparing the US News ranking of the PhD programs. But you are not going to be admitted to the grad school.</p>
<p>But my bet is on UMD being the stronger program with the higher profile. That doesn’t mean that you can’t do quite well at Rutger’s.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I doubt that reliable, comparative data exists for “SV farming” or CS “feeder” rates. Someone would have to define a set of target companies, then lay down ground rules for who counts as a hire (graduating seniors only? unpaid interns? alumni with graduate degrees?), then get companies/colleges to agree to expose the data, aggregate it (perhaps normalizing for school size, or for the number of majors), then make it accessible. The Wall Street Journal tried this once for law, medical, and business admissions, took a lot of flak for their methodology, and never repeated the measurement.</p>
<p>This illustrates a characteristic of many real-life computing problems. The most challenging part of the task often isn’t in the computation itself. It’s in analyzing the “business problem” from various perspectives and breaking it down into managable steps, all the while exercising a host of communication and teaming skills. </p>
<p>Absent any such feeder data, it’s hard to give an objective answer to the OP’s question. For overall undergraduate programs, the two schools get nearly equal US News rankings (60-something). It comes down to how strong is your personal preference for Maryland and how much does $60K mean to you and your family.</p>