<p>I told my counselor that I wanted to go to Vandy for Computer Science and she looked at me crazy. She told me that Vandy is more known for their pre-med program and that both their CS and Engineering program isn't very good.</p>
<p>That, and recruiters don't go to Vandy for Computer Science majors. Is that true?</p>
<p>Google, Cisco, numerous others were at one of the job fairs last fall.</p>
<p>I know cs majors in very recent years have gone on to graduate schools such as MIT and Stanford. I would suggest contacting some of the extremely friendly and helpful personnel in the cs department for some accurate information. </p>
<p>In terms of variety of research, I don't imagine VUSE is going to compare with top-ranked cs departments, but there is a lot of research going on, and undergraduates are very welcome to get involved. My son has been doing research since the first month he landed on campus, as a freshman.</p>
<p>One of the "selling points" of the cs program at Vanderbilt is that they allow--even encourage--students to take a lot of courses in outside fields. Sometimes those fields are related to cs (math and neuroscience, for instance), and sometimes not (music performance, foreign languages). The reason my son chose Vanderbilt for cs over places like CMU-SCS was because of the extreme flexibility they gave him to put together multiple majors, and because after talking with faculty, it was obvious he could get very involved in research as soon as he wanted to. Also, they were very generous with AP credit. </p>
<p>The web site for the cs dept has some useful information about the type of research currently being funded. I recommend that you take a close look, and contact any professors who are doing things that interest you. Also available is the course catalog, which can give you an idea of what kinds of classes are available, and what is required.</p>
<p>Thanks so much for the info! Do you mind giving me the link to the CS department?</p>
<p>Why so lazy? Well, here it is as you wished. It looks like Electrical Engineering and Computer Science are under the same department.</p>
<p>EECS</a> Home Page</p>
<p>Good luck! I am still waiting on my decisions!</p>
<p>EECS</a> Research Page</p>
<p>This link lists some research topics by type, and describes some of the research laboratories that operate on campus. Links to participating faculty can be found within the links provided.</p>
<p>Note that although Electrical Engineering and Computer Science are part of the same department, graduation requirements for majors are not the same. CS is a different sort of engineering program. In some places, cs is part of arts and sciences, at some it is a stand alone program/college, and at many it is housed within the engineering school. At Vanderbilt it used to be part of arts and sciences, but was moved to engineering because that is a better location for a program that wants to emphasize research and applications. However, cs majors have different basic course requirements than most other engineering students.</p>
<p>
[quote]
EECS is the largest department in the School of Engineering, as measured by the number of faculty and amount of externally sponsored research awards. At the graduate level, we offer Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and Master's degrees in Electrical Engineering and in Computer Science. In 2007, our graduate programs in Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering were again ranked in the Top 50 nationally by US News and World Report, reflecting the strength of Department research and education programs in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. EE and CS together comprise the largest graduate program at Vanderbilt, and EECS faculty won the highest amount of research awards of any Department at Vanderbilt over the last year. These are the same faculty who teach our undergraduate and graduate classes; the shared passion for research and education is a hallmark of the Vanderbilt environment.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>That quote, from one of the links above, emphasizes the link between graduate programs, external funding, and research opportunities for undergraduates. That sort of link is a no-brainer for those interested in cs and other research oriented fields. What I think may make Vanderbilt a bit different than some other programs is that the PIs (principal investigators, that is, faculty) on those projects work closely with undergraduates and are very accessible. If I can use one kid (mine) as an example, even freshmen involved in research already know senior faculty very well. That is not true at many larger programs.</p>
<p>Good luck, Tsenguun.</p>
<p>Thanks for the link! And good luck Tsenguun! </p>
<p>I'm working on a friend's crappy computer in dial-up and it takes forever just to load this page up so I didn't want to go through the pain of trying to find Vandy's CS page. Thanks again!</p>
<p>Oh, I see. I am sorry. I just misunderstood. I really understand because I once had to use that crappy dial-up!</p>
<p>And thanks Midmo!</p>