<p>Is there a huge difference in employment or research opportunities between say a berkeley and a purdue? or a georgia tech and wisconsin-madison? or generally any difference at all?</p>
<p>You can get a good CS education (including research opportunities) at any of the schools you named. There may be academic fit differences specific to the student (e.g. what non-core CS elective courses are offered, what non-CS breadth courses are offered or required, what types of CS research is being done, etc.).</p>
<p>Where the quality of CS education differs is the situation of a school with too small a CS department to offer all of the usual expected CS courses. Note that this does not necessarily track the general prestige level of the school (some generally prestigious schools have rather limited CS departments). Research opportunities depend on both the size and quality of the CS department and how research-oriented it is.</p>
<p>For employment, among schools with good quality CS departments, location matters. A Silicon Valley computer company can much more conveniently recruit at Berkeley than at Purdue, for example. But Purdue or Wisconsin may be more convenient for midwest area companies.</p>
<p>Thank you @ucbalumnus . I would like to work for a silicon valley company in the future and my options right now are Purdue, Wisconsin and UCSD. I like Wisconsin the most out of the three. But i dont want to go there if it puts me at a disadvantage later when compared to the other two. considering all of this, which one would you suggest fits my needs the best. im quite confused</p>
<p>Wisconsin may publish a list of where their graduates are employeed. I would imagine that the big firms hire at Wisonsin, but the smaller firms hire mostly locally.
Silicon Valley jobs may pay slightly more and be more glamorous, but housing costs in the Valley are atronomical.</p>
<p>@marymac i know that the housing costs are high, i just basically want to know whether going to wisconsin would hurt me in terms of getting a silicon valley job compared to the other two uni’s</p>
<p>Wisconsin is a big prestigious school.
You should be able to check their website to get a list of companies that recruit at UW.
You may even be able to get the list if you call their CS department.
I work in IT, but not in CA, so I am only familiar with the NYC CS marketplace.</p>
<p>okay Thank you @marymac .also, how would you rate wisconsin’s cs rep in NYC?? because im not hell bent on working in the silicon valley, i wouldnt mind NYC either</p>
<p>okay Thank you @marymac .also, how would you rate wisconsin’s cs rep in NYC?? because im not hell bent on working in the silicon valley, i wouldnt mind NYC either</p>
<p>Employers in Silicon Valley would be perfectly happy to hire someone with a CS degree from Wisconsin. The only disadvantage might be what ucbalumnus mentioned - that it’s logistically harder to get a job on the west coast if you live in the midwest.</p>
<p>Actually, U-Wisconsin has some CS research areas that ranks very high (databases).</p>
<p>My M.S. degree is from U-Wisconsin (plain 'ole Engineering…no specialty).</p>
<p>Having said all of that…and YES, I sound like a broken record but you can attend a school in the Top-100 and be just as qualified when it comes to Computer Science. In software engineering, degrees are merely “check off the box” items.</p>
<p>Whether you have the skills in C++, Java, Linux, and other CS skills will be what defines you.</p>
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<p>Ranking is not so relevant as the presence of a CS department that offers the expected CS courses. Indeed, some schools with fairly high general prestige rankings have rather limited or overly specialized CS departments. Of course, some people who went to schools with weak CS departments successfully self-educate in CS, but if you are at the stage of choosing a school, you may as well choose one with a more complete CS department.</p>
<p>Between the schools listed, there is no issue about the quality of the CS department. Other factors like cost, other aspects of academics, whether one enters in the major or must apply to the major, non-academic fit, location, etc. can be used to decide between them. They may also differ in what more esoteric CS electives are offered beyond the “core” CS courses.</p>