<p>My son needs to decide whether to attend IU where he has been offered a full tuition merit scholarship and direct admit to the College of Computer and Information Science, honors college etc. or to attend Purdue's College of Science where he has been offered $0. We have not attended any accepted student days at IU so we are not sure if IU's computer science opportunities (internships etc. ) are comparable to Purdue's. What do you think?</p>
<p>I don’t know what opportunities are available at Purdue, so I can’t offer any comparison. </p>
<p>However, here is the latest hiring survey [Hiring</a> Statistics: Trends: Explore: Career Services: School of Informatics and Computing: Indiana University Bloomington](<a href=“Careers: Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering: Indiana University Bloomington”>Careers: Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering: Indiana University Bloomington)
that shows employers who have hired interns and full-time employees through IUB.</p>
<p>First off, congrats on the admission to Purdue and the Full Ride to IU. I’m a senior in high school in the same position as your son. I’ve been accepted to Purdue, UIUC, Georgia Tech, and Carnegie Mellon for Electrical Engineering. I’m also considering switching into comp sci after my first year, or pursuing a minor in comp sci. As far as comparing Purdue’s comp sci program’s curriculum, rankings, and opportunities to IU’s, I would say there’s hardly a comparison to be made. Purdue is known from coast to coast as a distinguished engineering school, and in terms of strict rankings, it consistently places in the top 10-15 nationwide for computer science and computer engineering. IU is practically unheard of for it’s engineering and even less so for its computer science, while anyone can tell you that Purdue is an engineering powerhouse. In terms of facilities, Purdue is state of the art in the engineering department. Now, many people will tell you that for a comp sci major, it really doesn’t matter too much WHERE you go. Cost is certainly a big factor, and the full tuition scholarship to IU will make paying for grad school a breeze should your son choose to pursue further education. That being said, you will certainly miss out on many opportunities at Purdue. As a research oriented university that spends enormous amounts on its engineering and technology departments, Purdue has many more opportunities for research with distinguished professors, internships and coop over the summer, and to top it all off, Purdue hosts one of the largest job fairs in the country every year that attracts the biggest and baddest companies from the east and west coast. This isn’t a knock against IU, but the list of companies that visit and recruit on Purdue’s campus makes the IU list posted above look tiny and insignificant. The honors college is tempting (I got into Purdue and Illinois honors) but in the end, recruiters don;t care that much about honors status. They care about your gpa, research, internships, and extracurricular activities as well as the school’s overall standing, and Purdue is one of the BEST universities for all of the above. I’ll probably end up going to Carnegie Mellon, but Purdue is still a serious contender on my list. In the end, it’s your call to make, and the full ride to IU does hold a lot of weight. In my opinion, the national and international reputation of Purdue combined with its distinguished professors in the engineering fields makes it far more worth it in the long run.</p>
<p>If you can pay for Purdue, go there. If not, then accepting a full-ride to IU won’t be such a bad consolation prize.</p>
<p>Unless paying college is not a concern, seriously consider the full-ride. The knowledge you learn in undergraduate at most universities is pretty much the same academic wise. </p>
<p>Job opportunities from IU CS are good, but Purdue most likely has a better program. That being said, I’m not sure what more one could learn about computer programing that you cannot learn at IU. </p>
<p>Computer Programing is not very intensive and demanding to major by itself. I am doing Kelley B-school Finance, Accounting, & Technology Management with Computer Science minor. By mixing these I create uniqueness and a specialized skill set. </p>
<p>I advise doing Kelley School Information & Process Management and a Computer Science BS. This would open many more opportunities.</p>
<p>If you want to do more hardware components though, you’ll have to go to Purdue. Strict programming, probably better to go to IU based upon costs. </p>
<p>P.S. hconghoops, IU has no Engineering by state statute. Purdue is the only state university that is allowed to have engineering.</p>
<p>Straight CS classes are a lot different at Purdue than a programming class for non-majors at IU. Non-major programming classes are usually quite basic, since the focus is an introduction to programming. They’re not going to be teaching you LALR grammars or analysis of algorithms in a non-major programming classes.</p>
<p>Computer science at Purdue is a good program for undergrads. You have to put in a lot of work for the assignments they give vs the credit hours you get, though. </p>
<p>Another school to consider is Illinois. They have a very good CS program for both undergrads and graduate students. It’s a very tough program to get into and very competitive. Their ECE program is really good too. I know someone who is graduating in ECE, has been on internships, and already has a job offer. ECE is also very competitive.</p>
<p>When I was on IU’s campus with the daughter this past summer, one of the speakers was an Informatics professor that gave a really good talk. His name was Mehmet Dalkilic. I got the impression you’d put a lot of work into his class, but you’d get a lot out of it too. If I were there, <em>I’d</em> take one of his classes.</p>
<p>Someone above mentioned that a full ride at IU would make it easy to pay for grad school, if that were a consideration later. Most grad school students I know (and I know quite a few) have some sort of assistantship or TA position, which waves the tuition fee and gives you money to get by on. A friend of mine says “If you’re paying for grad school, you’re doing it wrong”. In other words, if you do decide to go for a higher level degree after undergrad, look around a lot. You’ll probably find a good program that’s willing do wave tuition and pay you besides.</p>
<p>Apollo6, My recommendation is to go to both schools, talk to a couple of members of the faculty, if at all possible. They’re the people he’ll have to deal with day and and day out. When I was an undergrad, I visited faculty, and it sealed the deal for where I went for CS.</p>