<p>I have my heart attending UVA for undergrad, and I am pretty sure I want to go straight into graduate school after undergrad. I want to major in computer science and I have a few questions. </p>
<p>First, how are the opportunities for undergraduate research? Are there lots of opportunities or are most opportunities for graduate students? </p>
<p>While looking at similar engineering programs, I have noticed that some universities give preference to their undergraduate students. For example, Virginia Tech allows its CS students to graduate with a bachelors and masters within 5 years - if the student meets a GPA requirement. Does UVA have an agreement like that? Does the graduate engineering program give preference to its undergraduate students? </p>
<p>Also, a question for the recent graduates. Can a recent graduate tell me about the job placement of Computer Science majors? I am unsure about what company I would like to work for, but it would be cool to land a job at Microsoft or Google. Do any graduates land there? I also might want to work for the Pentagon or some intelligence agency in Washington. Due to proximity, placement into government jobs should be the norm, right? </p>
<p>And finally, how is the engineering business minor? I know most the the time minors don't help too much, but the business aspect of engineering is a little interest of mine. Consulting seems like a job that is interesting, and does that minor help people get jobs at consulting firms like McKinsey, BCC, Bain, Booz Allen & Hamilton, etc? </p>
<p>Thanks guys! I know I asked a lot of questions but any responses would be awesome.</p>
<p>quick question (not answer uunfortunately) , cloud: out of curoiusity , why are you intending to go to grad school after a CS degree during UG? Don’t you think you can get a job with a CS degree during UG, or do you want to really become some sort of expert in the field?</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Don’t plan post-grad plans before even entering UG. Plenty of students, engineers especially, plan on going to grad school but hit the end of the four years and want to take a break (myself included…grad school is going to happen, just not right now)</p></li>
<li><p>Graduates land themselves at top companies all the time, it just takes work both in school and in pursuing the job. I know a couple CS kids and they went IBM, Google, and top defense contractors. Gov’t jobs aren’t the norm, but I’d say about 50% of students end up in gov’t contracting of some sorts (not necessarily defense work, but at gov’t agencies like EPA, FAA, NSA or companies that do direct gov’t contract work)</p></li>
<li><p>The business minor is really popular and it does help quite a bit. Many who get the minor go on to consulting firms like Accenture, Booze, and SAIC</p></li>
</ol>
<p>roderick, there are two reasons why I want to pursue graduate work. One, research interests me. I love hearing about ground breaking technology and cutting edge research, and to be involved with it would be truly exciting. The second reason, I’ll admit, is higher pay. I would like to get school done with all at once. I would hate to get out of school and then have to get back into “student mode” when doing graduate work. </p>
<p>shoebox10</p>
<p>1) Thanks for the advice. I do like to plan things out but I don’t think having some idea about my future is a bad thing. I will agree though, that making my mind up on something right now wouldn’t be beneficial.</p>
<p>2 & 3, thanks for the info. But do you have any experience with research? Have you heard any reviews from people who have?</p>
<p>My S is a UVA first year who came in with advanced placement in CS, and who has already declared a computer science major. Before coming to UVA he looked into job placement of CS undergraduates and found that it was excellent–big, well-known companies recruit at UVA as well as smaller startups. Placement in top graduate programs is also good (of course, you also have to be an excellent student–UVA, or any school, will not get you into a grad program merely by the strength of its name). My son’s faculty advisor has told him that if he is interested in grad school, which he might be, he should get involved in a professors’ research project during his undergraduate years. He’s looking to do this in the future, partly to see whether he likes it well enough to pursue grad school.</p>
<p>You can do CS either through the College of Arts and Sciences or the Engineering School. There doesn’t seem to be a difference in job/grad school placement in the two degrees. My S decided to go the A & S route because he wanted to take a lot of classes in foreign languages, philosophy, etc. The engineering degree is more structured and involves more science courses.</p>
<p>I am a faculty member in an entirely different field at UVA. We have a 5-year BA/MA program for our top majors, and it’s certainly convenient, but I’m not sure it’s always the best route for a student. You can learn a lot by going to a new department with different research emphases and star faculty.</p>
<p>if you are pursuing a PhD a 5 year masters doesn’t really do anything for you, since the masters is built into most phd programs’ core curriculum.
there is plenty of ugrad cs research at uva, and plenty of awards for people doing them (especially girls/minorities).</p>
<p>Keep in mind that graduate-level computer science and undergraduate level computer science tend to be quite different. Undergraduate level is more engineering focused while graduate-level is very much a discipline of mathematics. If you do end up at UVA take CS 3102 (theory of computation) because that’ll help you decide if you want to pursue a graduate degree. There’s a similar course at Virginia Tech which isn’t quite as abstract and focuses more on somewhat more practical concerns.</p>