Future CS Major: UMass Amherst vs. RPI vs. Stevens vs. (ETC)

College Search & Selection
1

Hi, I’m considering multiple schools and I could use some help. If I’m looking to pursue computer science (AI/programming, but not engineering), which would best balance cost, quality of program, and quality of students socially? I don’t get any financial aid, but below are my options with net costs for first year after deduction of merit scholarships:

  • Stony Brook U-Honors College ($23k first yr) [$4,500 scholarship]
  • RPI ($52k first yr) [$18,000 scholarship]
  • Northeastern U ($58k first yr) [$10,000 scholarship]
  • UMass Amherst ($33k first yr) [$14,000 scholarship]
  • Stevens Institute of Tech ($25k first yr) [$26,000 scholarship]

WPI and NYU Tandon also accepted me, but no financial package from them yet. They are estimated to have even higher costs than Northeastern unless WPI provides a significant scholarship.
Note: I understand that this is a lot to compare, but I’m having trouble eliminating some options since they all have something to offer.

I went to RPI for Senior Visit Day (program lasted about 5 hours and consisted of presentations, attending multiple classes, and eating) and I experienced a low-key atmosphere with students working diligently. I have also planned visits to Stony Brook and UMass Amherst.

Right now, my top choices are UMass Amherst, RPI, and Stevens.

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Profile:
*GPA: 4.0
*ACT Composite: 32
*Multiple leadership extracurriculars/volunteer work

*No sports

I appreciate the help, and if anyone needs to know more for sake of comparison, I will share the details.

2

UMass

3

Thanks for the input. I was thinking of UMass too in terms of cost and quality of the program. However, would it have career services/employers that are as good as RPI and Stevens, for instance?

Also, would the type of students on campus be anything to worry about?

4

Are you sure about the Stevens cost? My son got the same scholarship and based on the COA (67,775) we calculated it would cost about $40k to attend there. Maybe you calculated off the grad school COA (51,645)?

5

Yes, I mistakenly calculated the net cost based on just tuition. The correct net cost for Stevens is $42,000.
Sorry

6

I’m currently a senior at UMass Amherst in Computer Science, when I was looking around at schools I was considering UMass against a similar list (RPI, WPI, etc) and I’m honestly very glad I chose to go here.

Our AI track is pretty awesome (I think the AI grad program is like top 20 in the country or something), although I’ve only taken a few of the courses offered (AI, and Machine Learning). You get your hands dirty pretty quickly in the classes, so that’s cool.

It sounds like you are a better student than I am and can probably do a lot more with the education that is offered here. I personally already had a near 6 figure paying job offer before I started my senior year (I’m going to Cisco, I specialize in networking), and have multiple friends going to each of Amazon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and others. The opportunities here are only getting better, too.

The CS College is growing like crazy too, since they just split off from the College of Natural Sciences, and the department is getting pretty competitive since they turn away so many students (I think there’s only like 70 Professors, so it’s like as hard to get into the Major directly as it is to be accepted into the Honors College here)

When it comes to money, you do get a large bang for your buck at UMass but honestly if you leave any reputable school in CS you can probably find a job to pay it off in a few years easy, so that’s whatever. I came entirely on loans and am looking to pay it off in like 2 years.

I’d be interested to hear what people have to say about the other colleges, but I would definitely recommend UMass to you.

7

Do you have direct admission to the CS major at each college? If not, have you checked what college grades/GPA/etc. you need to get into the CS major?

For example, here are UMass’ criteria to enter the CS major if you do not have direct admission:
https://www.cics.umass.edu/ugrad-education/major-change-cs

For Stony Brook, the criteria are described here:
http://sb.cc.stonybrook.edu/bulletin/current/academicprograms/cse/index.pdf

8

Thank you, @jhives. It seems like I am getting the same vibe regarding UMass from other threads as well. I’m glad that they are improving every year and bringing more employers. Now, I just have to visit.

To @ucbalumnus, I do have direct admission to the CS major in all of the schools I listed. At Stony Brook, I also have direct admission to their Honors College, which consists of students from various majors.

Although I’m definitely leaning toward UMass, is there a point in paying an extra $9,000 for Stevens (the third least expensive)? I’m assuming that there would be much better access to internships/other opportunities since NYC is right across Hoboken. Also, would budget cuts affect UMass from time to time?

9

Considering cost difference, I’d say UMass. Otherwise, RPI.

10

Northeastern CS student here - I love CS here and it’s a got a lot of good things going for it when it comes to co-op and the way CS is taught here, but it’s not worth the cost difference to UMass if you’re taking out any loans or anything.

For sure in my eyes. I don’t see Stevens as on the same field in my experience. I think Stony Brook and Stevens are a very tangible tier below RPI/Northeastern/UMass, who I think are peers in various ways for CS. UMass wins the value game by a landslide over everything here.

If you have any particular questions on Northeastern CS I’d be happy to answer! Here’s a good overview of the program and what makes it different:

http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/matthias/Thoughts/Growing_a_Programmer.html

One thing you keep hinting at but not really going into depth on is social environment/students. What exactly are you looking for? Can you go into more detail there?

How much of a factor is cost exactly?

11

First of all, congratulations on your admission to so many excellent universities. It’s always great to have a choice, and it looks like you’ve worked very hard to put yourself in a great situation.

I am fortunate to have attended both UMass Amherst and RPI as an undergrad. While I studied engineering (not CS) and while I attended these schools about 20 years ago, there is some context which is probably still relevant to help you in your decision.

RPI:
I found the vast majority of students are engineering or technical. As a freshman, about 90% of the students take exactly the same classes regardless of major. On whole, students all took their education very seriously. On the social side, RPI at that time was a huge greek school. This meant that a large percentage of students joined fraternities and the bulk of the social scene around campus hinged on fraternities and sororities. If you weren’t part of a frat, frankly I’m not sure what you did on weekends. That may have changed over the past 20 years, but it’s worth considering. Additionally, not to sound harsh, but the city of Troy is a real pit. It’s marginally safe to walk the streets at night unless you are with a group. I didn’t find much outlet in getting off campus by heading down the hill into the city, because there wasn’t much there except a couple bars and some scary run-down buildings.

UMass Amherst:
Obviously, Umass is a much larger school with a significantly more diverse student body. Most of your dorm mates will not be engineering or technical majors, you will absolutely mix with people from every race, religion and background. There is also a huge socially-active political base at Umass. While you will absolutely find most students take their education very seriously, you will also find some drifters" at UMass. In my vocabulary, a 'drifter" comes to school with no real passion or interest, flails around for a while, enjoys the social scene, and eventually drops out. Because it’s so large and diverse, it’s east to get ‘lost’ at UMass if you are not self-disciplined. But considering all the great schools to which you’ve been admitted my guess is that’s not going to be an issue for you. Additionally, keep in mind the lower cost of UMass. I graduated #3 in my class with a degree in engineering. I was hired directly out of school for an entry-level position at a Big-5 consulting firm. My start group at that firm consisted of 25 graduates from Harvard, Dartmouth, Tufts, BU, BC, Brown, plus me (the only UMass grad). During new employee boot camp, one night at an after-work happy hour we took an informal poll and it turned out that I was the ONLY PERSON in my entire start group who didn’t have any college loans to pay back. When you are just starting out with entry-level pay, that is a really huge deal.

Good luck with your decision.

12

UMass has had one of the top handful of research programs in the country in AI for a long, long, time. Now that AI is going mainstream it is very well positioned. Another benefit is that the CS program is not that big (by State Flagship standards). The food may be the best in the country

13

Thank you all for your replies.

I meant to say this as a reply to @PengsPhils earlier but College Confidential website would not let me post anything for some time.

I appreciate the input on Northeastern, but unfortunately, I made the mistake of shoving it aside until the very end because the net cost was so high and didn’t seem worth it. Cost is definitely a big factor, and my parents and I are trying to negotiate RPI’s slightly more reasonable financial package. Based on RPI’s response, we may be able to do the same thing with Stevens/Northeastern. Also, I’ll be missing the Admitted Students Day for NU due to a conflict with Stony Brook’s event, and if I want to squeeze in a visit, it’ll have to be a general tour and not a special day for admitted students. Basically, I’ll have a better answer once we find out how RPI is willing to negotiate.

Now about the social environment, the ideal place would be somewhere where I could open up and make friends as easily as possible. Obviously no college is perfect, but it’s a preference. All throughout HS, I just had acquaintances, not friends. What I like about UMass (besides low cost) is that the students are outgoing AND the CS community is reputable.

When I visited RPI, all of the students were straight-faced and nobody spoke to anybody else. It almost made the place seem depressing. I went close to the end of March, so maybe it’s just the time of year? I know RPI wins in overall reputation, but that experience made me feel uneasy about RPI.

14

@Bgeo25 I think everything said here by you and others about RPI is more or less accurate. It’s why I didn’t even apply to RPI myself despite its technical strength. I think I would eliminate it for all intensive purposes. I don’t think it offers anything tangible over UMass in your case.

Negotiating is going to be hard with Northeastern, and even if you get the price down, I think UMass still could be a better option with its AI strength. Again, it’s a great program, but I think everything here points to UMass Amherst to me - low cost, great CS option generally and in specialty, social fit, etc.

Good luck!

15

Regarding RPI - my D is currently an undergrad there (engineering, has friends in CS):

  • "Troy the pit". There are a lot of comments like this online, but most are from people who attended years ago. Downtown Troy has undergone a major upgrade in the past decade and is quite pleasant with lots of nice restaurants, shops, riverfront walk, etc. It's not amazing, but it's a nice little area. Sure there are sketchy areas of town (as in any city) but you don't have to go there. The downtown is walking distance from campus.
  • Student body: I don't know what happened the day you visited, but my D has found the student body to generally be quite nice - nerdy but friendly, collaborative, diverse (nerds, jocks, and everything in between) and tolerant. In fact, she's commented a number of times that it's what she likes most about the school. She also hasn't found the m/f ratio to be an issue (of course she's a girl, so it's different). Also, things have changed in the last couple of decades and most students don't go greek (in reference to @BMac91) , and there are lots of clubs and opportunities for students to do things (having time as an engineering student is another matter, but the CS workload isn't as heavy).

I wouldn’t say RPI is work $20K/year more than UMass for CS, but it’s not only a solid choice academically and in terms of employer reputation (my D said the hire rate out of CS is almost 100%, and with high salaries for the most par), but some of its social reputation has changed.

16

Thank you @insanedreamer and @PengsPhils.

I appreciate the input on Northeastern, but unfortunately, I made the mistake of shoving it aside until the very end because the net cost was so high and didn’t seem worth it. Cost is definitely a big factor, and my parents and I are trying to negotiate RPI’s slightly more reasonable financial package. Based on RPI’s response, we may be able to do the same thing with Stevens/Northeastern. Also, I’ll be missing the Admitted Students Day for NU due to a conflict with Stony Brook’s event, and if I want to squeeze in a visit, it’ll have to be a general tour and not a special day for admitted students. Basically, I’ll have a better answer once we find out how RPI is willing to negotiate.

Now about the social environment, the ideal place would be somewhere where I could open up and make friends as easily as possible. Obviously no college is perfect, but it’s a preference. All throughout HS, I just had acquaintances, not friends. What I like about UMass (besides low cost) is that the students are outgoing AND the CS community is reputable.

When I visited RPI, all of the students were straight-faced and nobody spoke to anybody else. It almost made the place seem depressing. I went close to the end of March, so maybe it’s just the time of year? I know RPI wins in overall reputation, but that experience made me feel uneasy about RPI.

17

Ignore the copies of my reply. I don’t how it just appeared again.

18

Any word on Stony Brook [Honors College] and how it compares to UMass? They have a small difference in cost anyway.

19

I’d go with Umass, it’s hard to beat for CS and AI, it’s your best value, and cherry on the sundae 's whipped cream, you can take some gen eds at some of the nation’s top colleges, in particular Amherst or Smith.