IIT vs Depaul

These are my two choices and both have about the same costs, pretty cheap for me. Just having trouble choosing which one. The atmosphere, buildings and whatever doesnt really matter for me. I am majoring in computer science. What i care more about is the classes in each school and the opportunities of getting internships or jobs. Also depaul has online classes which is compelling. Just wondering what are your thoughts. Thanks

In general, the admissions standards are a bit higher (median SAT/ACT) at Illinois Tech and our expectations are consistent with those numbers. Our students do well in getting jobs and internships.

I have heard good things about DePaul’s CS program as well and I think that you need to decide what kind of school you are most comfortable with. Illinois Tech is mostly science and engineering and has an undergraduate population of about 3,000. DePaul is much larger and is mostly liberal arts with no engineering. IIT is a research university with comprehensive MS and PhD programs and DPaul is primarily undergraduate with MS. DePaul is Division 1 in sports while IIT is Division 3 so the atmosphere is different.

In general, you should look at the curricula and see what appeals to you and then visit both if possible and see which fits best with you.

Hello there! My name is Nathan Cooper Jones and I am currently a computer science student here at the Illinois Institute of Technology. I want to go ahead and address some of the points you said and give my quick-take:

“What I care more about is the classes in each school and the opportunities of getting internships or jobs.”

Computer Science is really a vague term for a bunch of different fields that do drastically different things all relating around computing sciences. Some of that might be systems programming, artificial intelligence, web or software development, or data science (which is my major actually so I am biased in saying that this is the best major we have). The great thing about the curriculum here at Illinois Tech is that you are exposed to ALL of these sub-fields of computer science in your undergraduate career and there is plenty of opportunity to learn more and explore your true passion. Our classes are taught by professors doing research in that area and, most likely, will use this as well as cutting-edge tools and software to teach you the industry or scientific standard.

Classes here strike an excellent balance between practical and theoretical practice - the classes are hands-on enough to prepare you for an internship or job while they are also high-level enough to support your decision to continue with higher education such as graduate school should you so choose. There are a lot of CS electives that are very interesting and niche that you are bound to find the class that you love and want to do for the rest of your life (take from me and CS 422 - Data Mining).

Not only does the CS department constantly send out job postings (one of which I applied to and led to my summer research position), but we have a semester-ly career fair where just about 200 companies come in solely looking for IIT students and graduates to work for them. To be honest here, most students find internships or co-op positions in their second year’s summer and every one after that - if you are willing to put yourself out there, you will definitely find something.

“Also depaul has online classes which is compelling.”
Illinois Tech has online classes too! In fact, the Data Science degree has all CS courses be online classes as well you can take from anywhere! In fact, we even have sections for students in India. Crazy, right?!

IN THE END, the right school is all about fit - what works for you, the people, the programs, etc. Everything comes together when picking a school and statistics or rank aside, you want to be happy and motivated at the school you go to, and that honestly comes down to which one you feel you fit in better with. Both Illinois Tech and DePaul have excellent CS programs that lead to many excellent positions and opportunities. Feel free to schedule a visit with us and meet a professor at visit.iit.edu if you are interested. I am just one CS student here, but I am incredibly happy and feel I made the correct decision in picking my school. I hope this helped out a bit, and good luck!

xraymancs your comment about DePaul University being a “mostly liberal arts with no engineering” college is inaccurate. And, we actually have a PHD program and tons of research labs. Please educate yourself. https://www.cdm.depaul.edu/about/Pages/School-of-Computing.aspx

Our Computer Science and Data Science programs is ranked among the best. We are definitely not just a liberal arts college. We not only offer a law program but a very extensive STEM curriculum. Additionally, our school is highly respected by employers. I managed to secure an internship within the first year of the program at a top tech company in the city. Google and other leading companies have been known to visit our campus. The school has an extensive employer network.

DePaul’s CS program offers a wide variety of specializations, including System and Software Development, Artificial Intelligence, Data Science. The professors are extremely knowledgeable with tons of research and industry experience. Many of them have studied at MIT, Stanford, Cornell, to name a few.

As far as admissions go, it doesn’t matter whether or not IIT admission standards are higher. I can tell you my classmates are some of the smartest, many of them have conducted research and sit on several advisory boards. With everything, just because you get in doesn’t mean you will finish. If you don’t put in the work, the teachers at DePaul will have no problem failing you.

I can tell you the classes are challenging. Be prepared to work and get the full CS experience. You will not slide by at DePaul. After all, you pay for what you get, and the tuition isn’t cheap. I researched Northwestern, Loyola, IIT, and a number of other schools and selected DePaul for its extensive CS curriculum and reputation. You can view the program here: https://www.cdm.depaul.edu/academics/Pages/Current/Requirements-MS-in-Computer-Science.aspx

Best of luck with your academic endeavors.

You can check out the 2018 list of best Masters in CS program rankings here: https://tfetimes.com/best-computer-science-program-rankings/

DePaul ranks #72 nationwide

DePaul has a very good reputation in the Midwest and even on the West Coast for their CS program and things like their animation programs. I was in the very first CS graduating class as a separate major from Mathematics some 30+ years ago, and the program has grown leaps and bounds since then.

@jamesvalles - You are correct, DePaul has two PhD programs, one of which is in Computing. However, I stand by my statement that DePaul does not have an engineering program and is “mostly” a liberal arts university. CS alone does not constitute an engineering program. In fact, DePaul has a cooperative agreement with IIT for students to be able to get an Engineering degree.

https://www.depaul.edu/university-catalog/degree-requirements/undergraduate/csh/physics-bs/concentration-requirements/Pages/engineering-physics-concentration.aspx

As I said, DePaul is a fine university with a well regarded CS program. IIT, on the other hand, is a technical university with PhD programs in just about every discipline. The schools are very different and that was the point of my post.

@jamesvalles - DePaul does not have an engineering school or major itself, nor is it ABET accredited in any engineering specialty, hence the joint program with IIT if one wants an engineering degree. I would disagree with your claim that it has a STEM curriculum - STM possibly, but no “E”. As an example, the DePaul website for the combined chemistry/chemical engineering program states:

“DePaul University does not have the expertise or facilities to provide a complete education in chemical engineering; however, we provide the core chemical and allied-field education for students who wish to complete the engineering part of their degree elsewhere. We also provide the well-rounded liberal arts education that technical schools seldom offer. Thus students pursuing this option benefit from the core science and liberal arts education that DePaul can provide while still receiving a technical degree in Chemical Engineering at IIT.”

The statement that “We also provide the well-rounded liberal arts education that technical schools seldom offer” is self-congratulatory and untrue. All ABET accredited schools of engineering require a significant humanities and liberal arts component as specified by ABET’s accreditation standards. Claiming that technological universities (the proper term, not “technical schools”, as in trade schools) seldom offer a well rounded liberal arts education is simply false. I also take exception to their referring to an an engineering degree as a “technical degree” - it is a first-professional degree in engineering just as a medical or law degree is a first-professional degree in those fields and by DePaul’s definition are also “technical degrees”. If their intent is to distinguish between a professional degree intended to train one to practice a profession and a liberal arts degree, then that also includes medicine, law, architecture, et al as well as engineering. The wording of this statement implies they somehow consider engineering to be less “worthy” than liberal arts.

No other school I know of in a joint degree program with an engineering school makes the claim that their engineering school partner does not offer an adequate liberal arts grounding in its official catalog or website. In light of its joint program with DePaul perhaps IIT ought to have a discussion with them on this.