My S is looking at attending a top CS program but because also he is a recruited athlete in football he isn’t sure at this point what level he will be playing at…so he is trying to put together a list of possibilities:
Division 1 FBS: Stanford Berkeley(Not really interested) UIUC GT UW UT USC UCLA DUKE
Division 3: MIT CMU Cal Tech eliminated with no football
Division 2: No interest
Division 1 FCS: This is where it gets real tricky. So many differing opinions —thoughts?
Cal Poly SLO & UC Davis are in the Big Sky Conference for football.
The Ivys are FCS.
^^^ Well not just the Ivy’s but yes they are FCS…hence the differing opinions Cornell Princeton Harvard Brown…who is considered the best in undergraduate computer science? I wouldn’t put either in the same category level as Stanford etal IMO.
^^^ I’m not really clear what you’re saying. The Ivys have very good CS programs. Stanford’s main advantage in CS is that it has lots of angel investors and VCs hanging around the place, but student aren’t going to get less of a CS education at Harvard or Cornell than they would at Stanford.
What I mean is…he has a list of D1 FBS and D3 but when it comes to which D! FCS(mostly Ivy) which are considered to have the best computer science undergraduate programs. There seems to be a consensus on the others(D1 Stanford BerkeleyUIUC and D3 CMU and MIT) but no so much with the D1 FCS schools.
I’m not sure there’s really a consensus on where to go to school for CS. Most of us who have worked in the field for more than a few years feel it doesn’t matter that much where you go to school for CS.
@simba9
Interesting…so MIT CS= UNLV CS?
Quarter system schools like Stanford, UCLA, UCD, CPSLO, Washington may be better for a football athlete, since only 1/3 instead of 1/2 of the academic year overlaps the football season (other than a few postseason games). Taking lots of high workload CS courses during football season may not be a good idea.
Obviously, pay attention to the usual issues of admission to major, etc.
"Interesting…so MIT CS= UNLV CS? "
You’d probably find it easier to get an interview with an MIT degree. Otherwise, one can get a perfectly good job with a UNLV CS degree. I work at places where people with Stanford and MIT degrees sit right alongside people with degrees from Sacramento State and Cleveland State.
Very helpful thank you…especially for Division 1. I know Division 3 schools are MUCH more student friendly when it comes to the balance of school/football. I’m assuming that the Ivy league schools would fall somewhere in the middle for balance. Any thoughts as to which Ivy programs would be considered better in CS? He has visited Cornell, Princeton and Dartmouth. He loved the campus, location and coaches at Dartmouth but they don’t have the best reputation from what I understand in CS.
Dartmouth does have the usually expected CS courses listed in its catalog, though you and he may want to investigate how frequently they are offered:
http://web.cs.dartmouth.edu/undergraduate/undergraduate-courses
In particular, a course that is only offered during the fall may be more of an issue for a football athlete.
Dartmouth being on the quarter system is a point in its favor for a football athlete. However, its D-plan (an enrollment balancing scheme where many students take at least one fall quarter off and at least one summer quarter on campus) needs to be clarified in the context of being a football athlete (since football season is the fall quarter that many students have off at least once).
http://dartmouth.edu/education/undergraduate-experience/flexible-study-plan
Dartmouth may not be “on the radar” for CS recruiting as much as some other schools due to its small size, location, and competition with Wall Street and consulting recruiting.
Note that Dartmouth has very high fraternity and sorority participation, at half of all students (but more like two thirds of eligible students since frosh are not eligible).
http://www.dartmouth.edu/stulife/greek-soc/cfs/faqs.html#students