<p>If you’re interested in CompSci AND you want to work for tech companies, I recommend going for more techie univ like MIT, Caltech, CMU, Stanford, or even state schools that’s renowned for CS like UIUC and Cal (Berkeley).</p>
<p>Reason is, they have bigger CS dept, which mean more course offerings, more research opportunities, more varieties of tech companies visiting on campus, more on campus interviews and generally more reputable program. </p>
<p>Top tech companies indeed visit Penn campus but the number are quite limited, the big ones that attend Penn engineering career fair are Google (but they don’t do on campus interview for tech students, I think they’re looking for more MBA and Wharton students) and Microsoft (they do on campus interviews). I think Cisco also attends Penn career fair and also does campus interview but that’s about it. Other companies like Yahoo, Amazon, Adobe, AMD/Nvidia only visits the schools that I mentioned above for career fair so you’re better off at those schools. </p>
<p>Actually, there are more tech companies visiting Penn but most are defense contractor/government agency or defense lab like Lockheed Martin and MIT’s Lincoln Lab. But considering you’re not a U.S citizen you won’t be able to work for these companies due to security reasons. So going for Penn will pretty much limit your employment search. Most companies that visit Penn are finance companies e.g. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, etc and they are looking for IT interns/full time employee. So if you’re interested in working for financial companies, Penn might be a good choice. </p>
<p>Also, another factor that you might want to consider is Penn engineering dept does not offer CPT course for international students so basically that means you won’t be able to work in summer, which restricts your option if you want to gain technical experience. But don’t worry, all other universities that I know of offer these courses so if you are not attending Penn you won’t get into this trouble. </p>
<p>Also keep this in mind, Penn is not renowned for their engineering dept.. It’s true that they are one of the “better” schools for engineering but it’s definitely not the top ones.</p>