Definitely not trying to insult at all!! I know many people who are going into CS who are the most outgoing people I have ever met and I know that there is a very social aspect with it. However I personally have found the stereotype to be associated with it, and I have been told that people can’t see me in CS bc “I am more outgoing person” (which I definitely don’t agree with). I personally could see myself in any CS job but also going a more business/ management path with it. My point is that is something that I am considering looking more into.
“I personally could see myself in any CS job but also going a more business/ management path with it. My point is that is something that I am considering looking more into.”
Management is a career track. It depends on your performance at work over time, not on the college you attended. Engineering/CS majors from both universities are recruited into a variety of jobs, not all of them technical. Many go straight into consulting or banking. As for switching majors, you may do so at both Columbia and Michigan, and still go on to have an excellent education regardless since both universities are excellent across virtually all disciplines.
You will be able to get a job in any city after graduation with a degree from either, and recruiters from all the big companies will be on campus. I would say Michigan offers more opportunities.
Most CS majors do not go to grad school at all unless they are planning to go into research or academia. If you plan to work in the software/business world, you will only need a bachelors degree.
Michigan has good business school too.
D had interviews with an ivy league alumni, who told her that there was a research showing that for people who got accepted to both U Penn, and Penn State, years later, they were roughly at the same spots in their careers.
I quoted an excerpt of her essay on college decision…hope that helps someone.
"First and foremost, please remember that college is not the end destination; college is not where you should be peaking. No matter what college you choose, more times than not, your happiness and success at a college is a result of self-determination. A result of you, standing up and resolving, “I will be happy and successful.”
Perhaps, most importantly, remember that college is a personal decision, a decision that can’t be decided by your parents, friends, or for that matter, absolute strangers that think they know your best interest. It’s you that’s going to college – not your Aunt Sally or your mom. It’s you, and you better be invested in your own education."
Best of luck!!
Have you applied to either of these colleges yet? If not, you really don’t have a choice to make unless you’re deciding whether or not to apply early (action/decision) to one.
You haven’t posted your stats so I don’t know how competitive you are for admission, but even if you’re competitive I hope you plan to apply to more than an Ivy League university and one backup. What other colleges are you considering?
OP, there is very little advantage, if any, in going to an Ivy league school for CS for undergrad. I work for a VC firm in the Bay area and am very familiar with the target hiring at some of the best start-ups and established firms.
PayPal Mafia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PayPal_Mafia
“PayPal Mafia” is a term used to indicate a group of former PayPal employees and founders who have since founded and developed additional technology companies[1] such as Tesla Motors, LinkedIn, Palantir Technologies, SpaceX, YouTube, Yelp, and Yammer.[2] Most of the members attended Stanford University or University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign at some point in their studies. Five members, Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Reid Hoffman, Luke Nosek and Ken Howery have become billionaires.
Even at one of my well-known competition (KPCB) - not strictly CS related - check out where most of them did their undergrad for CS or Eng.
http://www.kpcb.com/teams
Similarly, if you “google” the profile of the Google Fellows, most of these high flyers did not attend an Ivy for undergrad. In fact, the most famous of them, Jeff Dean ((after Brin (UMD) and Page (UMich) of course)), attended UMinn for undergrad and UDub for his PhD.
What the above examples have in common is that these guys/gals attended some of the toughest CS/Eng schools, whether be it is the US or abroad (my alma mater IIT as an example) and did well there.
The OP doesn’t actually have a choice yet, unless maybe they are a recruited athlete.
Exactly, @intparent. This is pure conjecture and putting the cart before the horse. Acceptances first, decisions second. And as @austinmshauri mentioned, we have no information on the applicants’ stats. So this is all candy canes and unicorns at this point. There is no decision to be made until acceptances are complete and FA packages can be reviewed. Perhaps the OP meant to say, in the OP “I hope to have to choose between…”
This thread is getting silly.
Do you all think the OP should attend San Jose State over MIT? Since SV hires more people from SJS? Meg Whitman, Jeff Bezos, Sheryl Sandberg, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates attended schools in what athletic conference?
If getting a job in SV was the only factor involved, this kid should be applying to a school in CA. But college is about more than a major and a post-grad job. Go where you can get in, where your parents can pay for, and where you will be happy and successful.
Kid should go where they are most interested/excited to go. Which clearly seems to be Columbia in this case based on what this kid is saying. Since this kid probably does not have expensive grad school in the cards, there’s no money advantage to saving the 529 by going to UM. The data says 75% of cross-admitted kids would make that same choice.
Apply ED to Columbia and EA to UM as a back up. Good luck.
“The data says 75% of cross admitted kids would make the same choice.” Parchment doesn’t seem that reliable in this kind of comparison. A Michigan kid that bothers to apply to both Michigan and Columbia, probably would be more likely to pick Columbia. They made the effort to apply OOS to an Ivy even though they have a highly ranked instate choice, may want to get out of Michigan, think Columbia will gain them more prestige,etc. But many high stats Michigan kids will not even bother to apply to a school like Columbia. For instate kids, the more interesting comparison would be Michigan vs. MSU. If accepted to both, many more will pick Michigan than MSU.
@northwesty Well, I think the OP should attend Harvey Mudd instead of either of the other two (and I’m a Michigan grad who works in tech). 
Yes, @northwesty, this is a silly thread. The OP asked about a choice that doesn’t seem to exist yet, and IIRC, cc isn’t really a place for “hypotheticals”. As far as job placement in SV, I’ve been told by an employee of one of the big employers there that the large majority of offers of employment for new hires out of college are made to their interns, so the OP should be looking at which schools have a better track record for placing interns in the tech companies (if that is a desired goal). And as for the examples of people like Gates and Zuckerberg, mentioning dropouts seems off the point.
Harvey Mudd’s a great school (girlfriend of one of my son’s is a CS grad from there) but seems so different than either Michigan or Columbia. The OP has provided so little information, that is not even possible to make suggestions in terms of what schools could be a financial, social, and academic fit.
Other son does some recruiting for one of the tech firms mentioned here a few times (he is there to talk about the technical side of things and working for the company). Most of his time is spent on technical projects, the campus visits are just an extra thing he’s been asked to become involved with. He just went to Michigan last month. He has also been to Yale, Penn, and Georgia Tech in the last year. Michigan is certainly not going to hold the OP back in any way.
These kinds of threads are predictably similar. Someone asks “should I spend a gazillion $$ for an elite or very little for a flagship”. This leads to the “NO WAY- save your $$” and “if your parents can afford it without blinking an eye, do what you want” posts, the “”what are your stats? We don’t have enough information to be helpful” posts, then followed by the fans of each of the schools throwing statistics at each other to support their school. Then the thread derails and gets closed. Wash, rinse, repeat.
So true. There are a number of repetitive/predictable threads here. Read threads here long enough and you can predict who posted what even if you block the names/icons.
^ So, true @saillakeerie - and you have only been on cc for a year and a half???
I lurked here for a while before posting. Though a lot of the patterns aren’t difficult to discern.
Yes, “silly thread” but people are still participating! I wondered in post 70 why we had not heard back from the OP , and @jym626 seemed to be pointing out a similar issue still in post 94 . But , we are all still here many posts later, still chiming in. Most families are going to do what they’re going to do, regardless of what anyone here says. Although , sometimes there is useful advice and good tips!
LOL, @sevmom. Its the same old song… but with a different verse. Oh great… now I have the Four Tops song as an earworm https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uS2nWLz-AbE