Is Princeton a good choice for Computer Science?

<p>Hi,</p>

<p>I am currently helping a senior in high school with his decision regarding where to attend college, and I need some help.</p>

<p>He scored a 2400 on the SAT, is ranked in the top 10% of his class, and would like to study Computer Science.</p>

<p>Although I am encouraging him to attend my alma mater (U of Illinois), he really wants to go somewhere like an Ivy league school, MIT, or Stanford. I have already told him about MIT and Stanford, but I'm not sure how strong some of the Ivy league schools are for CS.</p>

<p>So, if he wants to attend an Ivy, which would be the strongest for this field of study?</p>

<p>Princeton has a long and storied involvement in mathematics and computer science and carries on that tradition today as reflected in the most recently released National Research Council rankings. The NRC rankings have been considered the “gold standard” of academic department rankings in the U.S. for many years. Averaging the ‘R’ and ‘S’ scores for computer science leads to the following 2010 national ranking.</p>

<p>2010 NATIONAL RANKING OF COMPUTER SCIENCE PROGRAMS
ACCORDING TO THE NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL</p>

<p>1—Stanford
2—Princeton
3—MIT
4—Berkeley
5—Carnegie Mellon
6—Cornell
7—Harvard
8—UC Santa Barbara
9—Penn
10–UCLA</p>

<p>[Find</a> the Graduate School That’s Right for You — PhDs.org Graduate School Guide](<a href=“http://graduate-school.phds.org/]Find”>http://graduate-school.phds.org/)</p>

<p>[Computer</a> Sciences Rankings — PhDs.org Graduate School Guide](<a href=“http://graduate-school.phds.org/rankings/computer-science/rank/]Computer”>http://graduate-school.phds.org/rankings/computer-science/rank/)</p>

<p>For more information about the study of computer science at Princeton see:</p>

<p>[Computer</a> Science Department at Princeton University](<a href=“http://www.cs.princeton.edu/]Computer”>http://www.cs.princeton.edu/)</p>

<hr>

<p>“World Honors Turing *38 the Man who Imagined the Computer” </p>

<p>[Princeton</a> Alumni Weekly: Daybreak of the Digital Age](<a href=“http://paw.princeton.edu/issues/2012/04/04/pages/5444/index.xml]Princeton”>Daybreak of the Digital Age | Princeton Alumni Weekly)</p>

<p>“Just before the Second World War, a Big Idea was detonated: the idea of the computer. The world has never been the same. </p>

<p>Princetonians played a key role. [At Princeton] graduate student Alan Turing *38 finalized his landmark paper, “On Computable Numbers,” the light-bulb moment in which humankind first discovered the concept of stored-program computers. And here one of his professors, John von Neumann, would build just such a device after the war, MANIAC at the Institute for Advanced Study, forerunner of virtually every computer on the planet today. </p>

<p>Of course other people were involved, and other institutions — Penn had its pioneering wartime ENIAC machine — but Turing and von Neumann arguably were the two towering figures in launching computers into the world. As George Dyson claims in his new book on early computing at the Institute, Turing’s Cathedral, “the entire digital universe” can be traced to MANIAC, “the physical realization” of Turing’s dreams.</p>

<p>June 2012 marks the centennial of Turing’s birth in London, and universities around the world — including Princeton and Cambridge, where Turing did the research that led to his landmark paper — are celebrating with conferences, talks, and even races. </p>

<p>Mathematicians are calling 2012 “Alan Turing Year.” Since the year also is the 60th anniversary of the public unveiling of MANIAC, this seems a particularly good time to recall the part Princeton played in the birth of all things digital. . . . (continued)”</p>

<hr>

<p>. . . and for a story about the Princeton student winners of the 2012 NYC Hackathon</p>

<p>[cLoudspeaker</a> Proves the Easiest Way to Win a Hackathon is by Rickrolling the Audience | Betabeat](<a href=“Business News & Current Events | Observer”>Business News & Current Events | Observer)</p>

<p>“Last weekend’s hackNY Hackathon at NYU’s Courant Institute culled some of the best young engineering minds from the East Coast to compete in a 24-hour code battle to the DEATH (okay, not really). But still–intense! The main project criteria for this hackathon? “Awesomeness,” obviously.</p>

<p>“For seriously this is not a hackathon about building something with a huge market or a ‘minimum viable product’ or something,” reads the Hacker League page. “Build something that blows away the judges with creativity and skill, either in design or technical winning.”</p>

<p>By the afternoon on Sunday, three teams would place, but only one could be declared the first place victor. That winning team? cLoudspeaker, a collection of Princeton and Rutgers students that built an app to crowdsource music through laptops. . . (continued)”</p>

<p>I’ve had multiple people tell me that Princeton, Stanford, and MIT are the best for CS. I’m majoring in computer science here and I really do believe that we’re top-notch. We get recruited by many, many major companies (Google, Facebook, Microsoft, etc) and the courses I’ve had have all been great. I definitely feel that Princeton is one of the best CS schools nationally. I don’t know about the CS reputations of the other Ivies. There are also a bunch of informal groups here that do cool CS things.</p>

<p>Do you have specific questions about the Princeton program in particular?</p>

<p>Tiger,</p>

<p>When I talk to him again, I’ll ask him what specific questions he has. I am a CPA, so I am not really too familiar with CS.</p>

<p>I am kind of bummed he doesn’t want to attend UIUC. I am trying to convince him to go there and have told him that the founders of PayPal, Netscape, and Youtube are all U of I guys, but he really wants to attend an Ivy. </p>

<p>Thanks for your help.</p>

<p>No problem. :)</p>

<p>When I was a senior there were also some adults in my life who really wanted me to go to their alma maters (College Park, UMBC) but Princeton was a much better fit for me, I think. And I love our CS program. Keep in mind that “fit” matters a lot – what made UIUC a great school for you might just not jive for him. (For me, for example, I wanted to go to school somewhere new, and not in-state! Obviously not the only reason I chose Princeton, but I think it’s a valid desire.) An “Ivy” (including Stanford/MIT/etc) would probably have a different atmosphere from U of I, I’d imagine, but I can’t really say for sure.</p>

<p>Feel free to message me if you have questions about specifics (I can give you my email over PM, too, if he wants to talk to me directly)!</p>