Have you factored in Cornell’s new tech campus in NYC and the additional access to career and research opportunities?
Obviously this is a personal decision, but CS at Duke is something you do if CS at Cornell is not an option.
1 Like
I don’t see how that would actually help undergrads.
1 Like
Perhaps not directly. I can’t believe these additional resources, grants, faculty and proximity to NYC won’t enhance the opportunities for all Cornellians.
The number of programs they currently have is tiny (they graduated 248 grad students in 2019). And as NYS’s land-grant uni, Cornell already had a huge alumni (and other) presence in NYC even before Cornell Tech.
1 Like
If you’re the type that loves to learn things by themselves then Cornell’s advantage in curriculum is not super important. In CS it is possible (and even necessary, given the fast pace of innovation) to learn things on the job. On the other hand, if you’re the type that prefers to learn things in class then Cornell’s advantage cannot be dismissed offhand.
That’s interesting. I’ve always preferred to learn on my own…my parents would say I’ve been saying that since 1st grade. Always. I’ve never been a school lover but I’ve always loved to learn especially in math. I taught myself Calc 2 last summer from a textbook, well enough that AP Calc 2 this year has been easy for me and my grade is a 99.
I woke up in the hotel literally with panic. I think I would like be happier for 4 years at Duke, in the warm weather and more easygoing, less high-stress culture (although I do get that cornell A&S is less stressful than engineering). But I’m scared of regretting that I let a top 10 school (and Ivy) go, and that that decision could limit either my education or my career potential.
I have only a couple of days to make the decision and I’m definitely obsessing about it,.
I really appreciate all the comments, they’re helping me hone in on the issues. Is there anyone who knows the world of CS hiring who has a strong opinion? Thank you
Duke has an amazing alumni network (Melinda Gates is one who comes to mind) and does extremely well placing grads in all fields. When we were looking for our S21, who is planning on sending engineering (not 100% sure), he bypassed Cornell (much higher ranked) for Duke. We talked to lots of phDs who said the niche classes weren’t necessary for undergrad. Now, maybe if you know you want certain classes that Duke doesn’t offer, that could be a different story. We know a student who picked GT because he already know, doen to the minutiae, what he wants to study.
I would suggest you reach out to some CS faculty at Duke. Duke faculty can teach whatever you want (they have a program for this). For instance, our S was concerned because they don’t have an applied math major, but applied math can easily be pursued.
Unless someone knows Duke CS grads aren’t getting good jobs (that seems hard to believe), you should definitely consider overall experience. And, given that many engineering majors double in CS, I think Duke is the less stress environment between the 2. They’re really big on interdisciplinary study, which we didn’t feel to be the case at Cornell. (Although, if you’re not in engineering school, that may not be the case.)
My kid just turned down Georgia Tech, Michigan, and Brown for Duke’s ECE / CS double major.
He ultimately went with fit.
Good luck with your decision!!
5 Likes
Here’s what I posted on another thread a few weeks ago:
Both are obviously good schools, but there’re some significant differences between their CS programs. If OP’s goal is grad school, contrary to some of the posts above, where s/he goes to college also makes a difference because of the courses, and more importantly, the research experience in her/his specialized area in CS.
3 Likes
I’m just curious. Did the Duke cs grad have a hard time for grad school? Did he have to do something else after Duke to get into Princeton?
Does anyone know if Duke is llightweight in programming education?
I mean, “programming education” (I assume you mean learning a language) isn’t what a CS major is for. I figure pretty much any good CS program reckons you’re smart enough to learn any programming language yourself and won’t spend much time on it.
2 Likes
I posted above that my son will be attending Duke next year and is looking to double major in ECE and CS. I know that when he initially looked at the CS courses available at Duke he noticed there wasn’t a huge variety. But then he looked at the courses designated as ECE and he was quite happy. I take it there is a lot of overlap between ECE and CS so make sure you look at the ECE courses too.
But wouldn’t you need to major in ECE also?
I’m not sure to be honest. I didn’t know if you could take some as electives, etc.
1 Like
And take my comment about there “not being a huge variety” of CS courses at Duke with a grain of salt. My son was comparing Duke and GT at the time. GT has a full Computing School so, in comparison, Duke’s CS course selection seemed small.
But, he ultimately chose Duke because of its smaller, more intimate community. For example, he “attended” an accepted ECE students Zoom info session. The ECE professor who was moderating it stayed late until every single student question was personally answered. It was quite impressive. By the end of the session I felt like she actually “knew” my son as he had his camera on and was able to ask his question, not by typing in the chat feature, but by actually conversing back and forth.
(GT ran their sessions very well too, but there were so many kids “in attendance” that the personal touch that Duke gave him was missing.)
Anyway, I wish you luck in making your selection! You’ve got two great choices and I’m quite certain you’ll be happy at either!!
Thank you so much for all this info to consider and for your wishes, I hope your kids are also happy with their choices!!
I’m sitting in the airport heading home after visiting Duke , and I keep thinking of more questions, I hope that’s ok. I’m comparing the list of CS courses offered at Duke with the list of CS courses offered at Cornell, in different semesters. Cornell clearly has significantly more courses! But I’m not sure how much importance I should give that, since honestly over several different terms Duke also does offer more courses than I can possibly take. Duke does seem to offer most of what I want although Cornell offers some interesting unique possibilities, such as Intro to Cognitive Science or UNIX Tools and Scripting, I guess I’m not yet sure what extra topics I will want to explore, and Duke has many but Cornell has more. Over 8 semesters there will be a limit to what I can take, though, right? So I’m not sure how to weight that!
1 Like
I don’t know if you have noticed this or not, there is a Cornell CS student died just outside of campus today. He was from CAS also. Don’t know if it is due to high pressure in study though. According to the article below, this is the 5th unexpected student death in Cornell this year. Last student died last month in the dorm, happen to study CS also. IMO, nothing is more precious than life itself.
1 Like
My vote will be Duke simply after seeing the tragic news from Cornell. I read before that Cornell may have 3 months without sun during the winter and school had to distribute artificial all-spectrum light to fight student depression. I also read that Cornell CS course load is very high, competition between students is fierce and grading is deflated. You will have arguably most important 4 years of your college life ahead. To me, as parent, a less competitive and collaborative learning environment is 1 million times more important than a few extra course offerings. I would have sent my kid to Duke without a second thought now.
3 Likes
I’m not sure about his personal experience with respect to his grad school applications. He was comparing his undergraduate CS program at Duke with the Princeton’s program that he was also familiar with (he worked as a TA at Princeton).