HES vs Cornell (Computer Science)

Colleges and Universities A-Z Harvard University
1

Hello,

This is my first post (as clearly seen) and I am not quite sure if this is the right forum to post this.

Anyways, I am looking to transfer from my community college to a four year university, after I finish my undergrad. Since I am part of Phi Theta Kappa (honors society) I keep on receiving emails from all of these colleges that give the whole, “Dear [insert name], we think our college is right for you.” The two (of many) that I have received these emails from, and have researched pretty in-depth are Harvard Extension School and Cornell University.

Since my major is in Computer Science, it seems that Cornell may be a better solution. It appears HES is just a school for those working full-time and need to take classes for gaining certifications, but I could be wrong, which is why I am writing this forum for your help.

I am in my early 20’s, and am looking for a place that will be beneficial regarding resume, challenging regarding education, and allow room for growth with regards to knowledge and experience learned from the professors. Also, I am looking for a school whose internship programs are pretty-well connected to technology companies, for hands-on experience in the real world.

I currently live in Virginia and have looked at the in-state schools first(save some money) but it seems as though CompSci is not really the most popular nor advanced major (from what I have researched). Most of the schools with the better programs are done up north (or way out west).

That being said, if you all could please assist me with answering whether HES or Cornell would be beneficial, I would appreciate it.

Thank you!

P.S. I looked for HES as a school, but all the other posts were written in Harvard’s forum, which is why I posted here. No offense to Harvard College is meant in this post.

2

HES is (for most intents and purposes) non-selective, so you’re comparing apples and oranges.

3

Welcome!

The majority of student’s enrolled at Harvard Extension School are working adults with families (the average age I believe is 33+) who have day jobs and attend school at night. Are you prepared to get a job during the day in Boston and go to school at night? In addition, HES does not offer housing or food, so student’s must find their own housing and food in Cambridge (very expensive) or nearby suburbs of Boston. Are you prepared to find housing in Boston? Please read over these threads and do some more research on HES

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/1406155-harvard-extension-school-undergraduate-privileges.html
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/1709126-harvard-extension-school-admissions-p1.html

If you’re concerned about money, Harvard Extension School is not a cheap way to a Harvard degree, as HES doesn’t supply the kind of financial aid that Harvard College does, nor does your degree say Harvard College – it says HES.

Given the cost of housing and food in the Boston area, a Virginia state school, such as UVA, Virginia Tech or William & Mary would be a much cheaper and better alternative than HES. Employers who know Harvard understand the difference between Harvard College and HES – one accepts 6% of applicants, and the other accepts 60% of applicants.

4

Attend Harvard Extension School if you are looking for a high-quality, flexible, and affordable program. The ALB program is for those who are driven by the intellectual opportunities the school has to offer and the resources Harvard University has to offer, but took a nontraditional route out of high school or stopped out of college.

As for the claim - “HES is (for most intents and purposes) non-selective”, there is validity in this post regarding HES as a whole, but getting into the Bachelors of Liberal Arts (ALB) program is selective with a formal application. As for the “60%” Gibby is referring to, I’m not sure where that figure came from and would be delighted if Gibby points me to an authoritative source. Otherwise calling BS on that. That being said, the ALB program is self-selective as those who earn less than a B in the three admission classes are ineligible to apply. It’s a meritocratic program based on your ability to succeed in the HES rather than on class privilege, wealth, and connections.

There are approximately 1800 degree candidates in HES (528 undergraduates and 1,210 graduates) and 25,000 non-degree students. Facts provided from Harvard University Fact Book 2011 - 2012 → http://oir.harvard.edu/files/huoir/files/harvard_fact_book_2011-12_final.pdf)

HES is a fantastic option if you are working at a full-time job and are interested in the myriad of excellent Computer Science and Software Engineering classes to enhance your knowledge and skills, here are some of them:

  1. CSCI E-20: Discrete Mathematics for Computer Science
  2. CSCI E-28: Unix/Linux Systems Programming
  3. CSCI E-32: Advanced JavaScript with Node.js and AngularJS
  4. CSCI E-46: Applied Network Security
  5. CSCI E-48: Secure Mobile Computing
  6. CSCI E-49: Cloud Security
  7. CSCI E-51: Abstraction and Design in Computation
  8. CSCI E-54: Concurrent Programming in Scala
  9. CSCI E-55: Java and the Hadoop Distributed File System
  10. CSCI E-56: Web Application Development with Groovy and Grails
  11. CSCI E-59: Database Design and Implementation
  12. CSCI E-61: Systems Programming and Machine Organization
  13. CSCI E-63: Big Data Analytics
  14. CSCI E-65: Mobile Application Development Using Swift and iOS
  15. CSCI E-66: Database Systems
  16. CSCI E-71: Agile Software Development
  17. CSCI E-81: Machine Learning and Data Mining
  18. CSCI E-90: Cloud Computing
  19. CSCI E-92: Principles of Operating Systems
  20. CSCI E-93: Computer Architecture
  21. CSCI E-97: Software Design: Principles, Models, and Patterns
  22. CSCI E-109: Data Science
  23. CSCI E-121: Introduction to the Theory of Computation
  24. CSCI E-124: Data Structures and Algorithms
  25. CSCI E-127: Introduction to Cryptography
  26. CSCI E-181: Machine Learning

Learn more about the program from my post: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/non-traditional-students/1837962-harvard-extension-school-vs-penn-lps-vs-northwestern-sps-vs-uc-berkeley-vs-ucla.html

However, given your circumstances and desire for a traditional undergraduate experience, Cornell is probably the way to go. For a cheaper option and an experience closer to the traditional experience, take a look into University of Pennsylvania’s LPS program in Logic, Information, and Computation or Cognitive Science. Good luck OP! :slight_smile:

***Side note, I work full-time as a Software Engineer in San Francisco. I’ve interviewed many candidates from CMU, Stanford, UC Berkeley, etc. and although it’s nice to have a prestigious college on your resume, it’s 100x more important what you learned from the classes and what you take away from it. Judge the program by the quality of the education and course offerings and not what other’s snobby perception of the program might be.

5

I can’t remember where I read the 60% acceptance rate for HES. It may have been related to Harvard’s Summer Program for High School students. So, I’ll be happy to retract that statement and replace it with another more accurate one. HES has open enrollment for many classes, including their on-line courses. There’s no SAT or ACT score required, no essays, no application at all – just sign-up and pay the money. So for some HES courses there is a 100% acceptance rate. The downside is that many colleges will not accept on-line credits from HES. Ironically, one of those colleges is Harvard College.

6

You are in Virginia? VT is darn good in CS!