Illinois vs Michigan for computer science?

College Search & Selection
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<p>OP: another dimension you need to pay attention to is the subfield of CS that you’re interested in. CS is a very broad field, and Michigan and UIUC have many strengths, often different ones. While they’ll both give you a solid education in most (if not all) of the CS subfields, there are many benefits to attending a school that’s stronger in a given area - e.g. better connections, more renowned professors, greater course variety, more funding, more facilities, etc. all with respect to that subfield. For example, if you’re interested in distributed computing, UIUC wins hands down. If you’re interested in bioinformatics, Michigan wins hands down.</p>

<p>Here’s a ranking of CS schools by their research quality, which is a pretty good proxy for all that I just mentioned:</p>

<p>[Top</a> organizations in Computer Science](<a href=“http://academic.research.microsoft.com/RankList?entitytype=7&topDomainID=2&subDomainID=0&last=0&start=1&end=100]Top”>http://academic.research.microsoft.com/RankList?entitytype=7&topDomainID=2&subDomainID=0&last=0&start=1&end=100)</p>

<p>You can restrict it by CS subfield, as well as by time frame. This database is probably the most comprehensive for CS articles out there, as it was the first one that Microsoft started developing (before they did the other sciences and now social sciences).</p>

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<p>The downside of the above method is that it does lag by a couple of years, and they may improve substantially by hiring more professors in a given area. So another simple way to see the institutional support for your subfield is by looking at the # professors that work in that area. For what I study in CS, you’d be crazy to choose Michigan, which has a whopping total of 1 professor who works in it, whereas UIUC has one of the largest labs for it with tons of professors/postdocs/researchers/students.</p>

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<p>“Clearly you disagree. I would like to hear your arguments on why U-M offers a better undergraduate education than ND over most of the subjects.”</p>

<p>Let me see:</p>

<p>Better facilities
Better class instructors
Better research opportunities
Better college town
Better football</p>

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