@arwarw Do you know where I could find post-graduation destinations for students of other schools by major? Similar to the link you posted for comparison purposes.
lol
The reality is the true WOW from just school name along still belongs to HYMPS. Even there it’s a bit overrated but these schools are indeed very very hard to get in and have earned their break just by that. The rest of Ivies and a handful highly selective schools still command great respect but start to get down to the actual fields and their merit vs just a overall name. Banking and MC still favor Ivies sure (more on the MBA level though), but those industries are fading a bit. The new darling tech world looks at skills more than school name, and looks for schools strong on the training for such skills. Ivies in general are more liberal art schools with engineering as back burner. It’s is still good but really not their strong hold (except maybe Cornell and Princeton). Many public schools are actually better in those technical disciplines. Still people know all Ivies are highly selective that give well-rounded education, and that is always valuable. In humanities and liberal arts I’d say Ivies definitely are the places to go.
I’d also say schools like Caltech and Chicago are wow schools overall. And the tech companies actually went to the brand schools first, but realized that employee performance was not correlated with where they went. So they just started recruiting more in California and west coast where it was easier and cheaper than sending out teams to interview, except for MIT and CMU in the east and Michigan and Northwestern in the midwest. Note that companies want to maintain good relations with colleges, so they’ll still send out a team to a lot of colleges.
Yes Caltech is just about as hard to get in as the top 5 but it’s more of a niche school for the super focused science minded. Not sure UChi is quite that hard to get in. Their academic is superb but for some reason many parents/kids still prefer any Ivy with perhaps less rigor to UChi. Tech companies would go out to all schools with strong engineering/CS programs. UCs/Cal Poly/Stanford in CA happen to provide a bunch good ones already on their own back yard, but they would also go to MIT/CMU/Cornell, and many strong public schools like UW/UIUC/Ga Tech/UT/UMich… before they go to say Brown or Dartmouth whose CS are still good but not better than the usual suspects above, and not in such scale/volume either. I mean, if you are really into CS why would you particularly want to go to Brown or Dartmouth vs those that are known for it? Probably you want good liberal arts or Ivy badge along with it, but not just for the strength of CS. Tech companies would still hire kids from Brown/Dartmouth for sure but probably not before those from the schools above.
Brown IS known for CS.
"Not sure UChi is quite that hard to get in. "
Have you tried? Its not easy.
Never said UChi is easy but just not as hard as HYMPS because its yield is not as great. They have to accept a bit more as a result. But once in there the rigor is no kidding. Maybe that’s why some don’t want to go there if they can get into any Ivy. As to Brown CS are you comparing to other majors of Brown or other Ivies? Then maybe yes. But it’s not in the top 10 or 15 countrywide right?
I think the best thing to do is ignore
Just4years and Theloneousmonk.
They are stalking the Brown forum and
don’t know what they are talking about.
They both have other posts where they like to put down ivies and prop up
California schools and other State schools.
OH MY GOD HE ONLY WENT TO BROWN!! HAHAHHAHAHAHAH. Better pick the guy that went to Stanford or Harvard!
No.
I’ve seen people on the 2021 Brown admitted group pick Brown over HYMPS.
To attend classes (even as a freshman) taught by pioneers in the field like van Dam, Wagner and Savage. And directly assist them with their research as an undergraduate. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GX1LXeWKTGI
For excellent grad school and job placement, and internship opportunities - Brown’s post grad results (which were previously linked in this thread) speaks for itself.
For the opportunity to design your own curriculum tailored to your own specific interests that may span multiple disciplines.
For the freedom to explore other academic interests.
For the ability to ‘shop’ classes and professors before signing up.
For the opportunity to work, study, learn from and live with other bright, friendly, creative, free-thinking undergrads with varied talents and interests.
A pretty good post here on the difficulty of ranking undergrad majors generally and undergrad CS programs specifically:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/20387137/#Comment_20387137
@arwarw Wouldn’t you be able to pretty much do the same with any other Ivy or selective private that has solid CS programs? I know Brown has its infamous open thingy w/o GE that makes it easier to really study anything there. If, in the absence of the open curriculum and freedom of no GE, what’s in Brown’s CS that stands out from the other top private schools (which all have their own big time prof too) that make you want to come to Brown first?
I also heard that in the past few years CS class enrollment has dramatically increased at Brown (and frankly at many other Ivies/privates as well) that the faculty resource per student is no longer as available as used to be. Hundreds of students now flock to any lower division CS course just like that in public schools. How’s Brown handled that demand?
I personally know several MIT engineering graduates that gladly passed up Google/Apple/Amazon/Facebook to either create startups or go into consulting or finance. Most of the top graduates have what they consider as better options than these tech companies.
@just4tears I’m not sure what more I can tell you. You would need to directly compare Brown’s CS faculty and course offerings to whichever university you’re interested in. I will say the open curriculum seems to permeate the entire culture of Brown influencing the type of faculty and student it attracts. It can be a burden. You’re responsible for charting your own education- it’s not for everybody. Also, you may find yourself coding or working problem sets with a theater major - something that would likely never happen at say CMU which is tops in both theater and CS.
If that’s your concern, instead of chasing ratings, look at smaller LAC’s with strong math departments like, for example, the Claremont or Quaker Consortiums.
^meant to say rankings not ratings
@hebegebe - Sure and Stanford grads also do startups over the tech companies.
I was responding to this comment: “Many Ivy grads have other options, so they are not interested in boring, low paying jobs with little upside and opportunity. They want to pursue more interesting opportunities .”
Jobs at tech companies are neither boring nor low paying, and they have a lot of opportunity.
Let me clarify my position, Brown is an excellent school and anyone fortunate enough to get in should be proud of themselves and their accomplishments. The question was hiring managers being wowed by a Brown math major, and I said they probably wouldn’t be. Can’t both of those be true - Brown being a superb school and not wow in math?
@theloniusmonk the problem with the question of whether a degree may “wow” an employer is inherently flawed because of subjectivity. How are we to objectively argue at what point a degree generates wow factor? How are we to control for the different types of employers and all other things?
What we’ve learned is that Brown’s grad school placement and employer perception are top tier, but objectively lower than schools which are more focused and perhaps stronger in the field like MIT, CalTech. Among other things, but the bell is going to ring so I have to wrap this up.
I have to say though that this thread has been infinitely more useful than the scope of the questions.