Hi, I’m curious how Northwestern compares to other schools if I want to learn about/research machine learning and data science as an undergrad. I was initially wowed by the MSiA program and spent a whole day writing about that in my “Why Northwestern” essay, until I realized that was a graduate program.
I see that when I google “northwestern machine learning” not much comes up, e.g. it doesn’t appear they have a dedicated webpage for that. I also noticed that over here: http://www.mccormick.northwestern.edu/eecs/research/groups-labs.html, there are no data science groups, and most of the few AI groups are dedicated to computer vision, which I’m not planning on pursuing. The “Interactive Audio Lab” is as close as it gets to the fields of AI that I’m interested in, namely ML, data science, and NLP. Also, searching for “machine learning” on this page: http://www.mccormick.northwestern.edu/eecs/courses/, I only see 6 courses dedicated to that.
Northwestern is not particularly known for CS, though they are trying to be an expanding their department. But it will take some time for their research in particular to match.
However, I would say be careful with looking so specifically for undergrad. If you’re doing a CS degree, you’re likely not going to take that many ML specific classes. The offerings in their course catalog aren’t really that bad. It’s not a CMU/MIT, but you’ll find similar options at many second-tier CS schools, even those with more ML/DS stuff going on.
I think while there are better options (even some easier to get into than Northwestern), it’s not really a bad option. And there aren’t that many schools that will have such a large focus on Machine Learning or Data Science.
Are there other schools you are comparing it to? Are you looking to add schools or already have your list?
Based on the schools you listed here, I would say its one of the weaker schools in these areas.
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/2017416-chance-me-for-cmu-northwestern-urochester-cornell-upenn-northeastern-rpi-nyu-uwashington.html#latest
@PengsPhils Yeah. I’ve heard that schools like UMass Amherst have better ML programs and are easier to get into. Besides Cornell/UPenn/CMU, do you think you can rank the schools I listed in that question in terms of their CS quality?
@underscoreone , did you apply ED anywhere? If so, what’s the outcome?
As for CS undergrads, don’t stress too much about machine learning or vision or NLP. At most, you’ll take one or two electives in those areas in your junior or senior year. For the most part, focus on the general education and math/CS foundation classes. Agree with @PengsPhils , Northwestern is not known for CS. US News rank its PhD program around 35, similar to UChicago’s. Many public universities rank higher than it. But as an undergrad university, Northwestern offers small classes and close faculty/student interaction. Not bad, if you can pay the price.
All of the schools listed are pretty strong. Top would be CMU/Cornell/UWashington/UMass. The middle would be UPenn, RPI, Northeastern, NYU. The weakest I think are URochester and Northwestern, though both great schools overall like all of them.
This site is not perfect but goes a good job with analyzing CS research strength for colleges. The link below should auto-sort by just AI fields.
http://csrankings.org/#/index?ai&vision&mlmining&nlp&ir