Does anyone know what the quality of the Computer Science department is at East Carolina University?
What makes me hesitant, is for one, as compared to UNC which requires calculus before taking the stats class. The stats course for ECU B.S. in CS does not require a calc pre-req.
also, UNC requires three semesters of calculus, but ECU only one course in calculus.
How can I determine what kind of quality to expect from a program? ECU is not as prestigious as UNC so not much information is to be found on the internet about the quality and information on the program.
While I don’t know anything specifically about ECU, their BS requirements seem to be very standard for CS - nothing special, but nothing significantly missing. Calculus or non-calculus based stats is a very small difference practically with CS.
One of the better ways to look at the quality of a CS program is their upper division elective options - there aren’t a ton at ECU, so I think there would be a bit of practical difference to better programs, but it looks like it will prepare you to work in CS just fine.
In general, CS is much more about your abilities than the school you went to - unless you went to MIT, Stanford, CMU, etc, the name of the university doesn’t matter that much. The advantage that better programs offer is ideally better teaching, more challenges and in the end, more of an ability to develop your skills so that you are better off for the industry.
When it comes to the academic CS side, then name does carry a bit more weight.