<p>Alexandre, what are you basing that tiering system on? The new NRC ranks Computer Science rankings a lot differently than you do.</p>
<p>[NRC</a> Rankings Overview: Computer Sciences - Faculty - The Chronicle of Higher Education](<a href=“NRC Rankings Overview: Computer Sciences”>NRC Rankings Overview: Computer Sciences)</p>
<p>If we look at the new September 2010 Rankings and use the eyeball test to average the R and S scores, this is what we get roughly…</p>
<p>TIER 1 (the low range for either R or S is within 10)
Princeton
Stanford
MIT
Carnegie Mellon
Berkeley</p>
<p>TIER 2 (the low range for either R or S is within 20)
UC Santa Barbara
Penn
Cornell
UCLA
UNC-Chapel Hill
UIUC</p>
<p>Tier 3 (the low range for either R or S is within 30)
Columbia
Wisconsin
Duke
Michigan
UT Austin
Georgia Tech
UC San Diego
Maryland</p>
<p>Brown, Rochester, Michigan State, U of Washington, SUNY Stony Brook and the University of Southern California narrowly miss the cut but they are all fantastic programs as well. I’m skeptical of what these rankings mean at the undergraduate level but rest assured that Michigan and Texas are peers in CS.</p>
<p>If cost is not a concern, then go to Michigan if that’s what the son prefers. Otherwise, Texas it is.</p>