<p>I'm a current high school senior looking to major in CS. I got accepted to UNC-Chapel Hill's and North Carolina State's programs. Even though UNC-CH is the stronger school, I can't help but lean toward NCSU's program, since first off I really, really don't like liberal arts courses and UNC-CH puts much undergraduate emphasis on liberal arts, and also NCSU seems to have more courses related to what I would like to do, which is graphics programming for game engines or similar applications.</p>
<p>I would like to eventually get a Master's, but am considering getting one in a leading CS university such as Cornell or maybe even Berkeley (I realize UNC-CH has a high-ranked graduate program as well, but the courses offered at Cornell seem to be more related to what I would like to do). What I'm wondering is... would choosing NCSU's program over UNC-CH's significantly hinder my chances of being accepted into a high-ranked CS graduate school like Cornell's? If I was to have a higher GPA at NCSU than I would at UNC-CH's, would this work out in my favor?</p>
<p>I'm not sure whether or not I would have gotten into Cornell's undergrad; I didn't apply to anything but UNC-CH and NCSU for monetary reasons (they're in-state public schools).</p>
<p>Also, obviously if I ended up struggling in NCSU I wouldn't apply to such a high-ranked CS school, but this is just under the hopeful assumption that I don't have too much of a problem getting a relatively high GPA.</p>
<p>EDIT: Also also, I'd like to make it clear that I'm in no way trying to say that NCSU is a bad or easy school, just that's it's not regarded to be quite as prestigious or difficult as UNC-CH</p>
<p>Some grad schools take into great consideration the prestige of your school’s undergrad CS department. A while back I was reading in another thread that Harvard, for example, explicitly states that prestige of the undergraduate CS program is taken into consideration when admitting for grad school. </p>
<p>Anyone have thoughts on which school produces the strongest CS students? Becoming skilled at CS is more important to me than getting a high-paying job.</p>
<p>FYI - not that I can find at the moment. The FAQ does indicate that </p>
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<p>What are the criteria for admission to the Ph.D. program?</p>
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<p>though this does mention an example of a “strong plan of study at a respected university”. </p>
<p>Harvard may not be the best example - their program is somewhat unusual, being a “concentration” within the School of Engineering and Applied Science. They emphasize interdisciplinary studies over more traditional computer science programs, as far as I can tell.</p>
<p>Master’s programs are often very different from PhD programs (e.g. no financial aid, lower admission requirements, separate courses from the PhD students), and the reputation of the PhD program may not imply anything about a Master’s program. If you are interested in Masters programs, make sure to investigate these directly, and not be distracted by the PhD program.</p>
<p>NCSU Computer Science has a 5 year BS/MS program. Unless you can determine that a Master’s at a more prestigious University actually provides any advantage, the 5 year program might be of interest. </p>
<p>I have a relative who entered a graduate program at UC-Berkeley primarily to get access to the Career Center and job fairs there. (The career center at his undergraduate institution was essentially worthless to him.) However, I doubt that this applies to NCSU, but you can check on the career center and on placement of previous graduates from the CS department to get a feeling of what type of recruiting goes on on campus. The availability of co-ops and internships can also be important.</p>
<p>Of course, all of this may apply to UNC equally well. In particularly, they also have a 5 year BS/MS program.</p>