I got into Northwestern, UCLA, Michigan, and Georgia Tech for CS and I’m having trouble choosing which one to go to. I’m not in state for any of the public schools. I also can’t visit any because of coronavirus. I visited Northwestern over a year ago and I don’t remember that much. I visited Michigan a few weeks ago and I liked it, but I thought it might be a little big. I’ve never visited UCLA or GT.
As others here would say, choose the cheapest.
Do you have the opportunity to visit? These are very different schools in size and environment. Michigan is huge. UCLA is largely off-campus after the freshman year. Northwestern is suburban-ish, and GT is urban in downtown Atlanta.
I can’t do any visits because of coronavirus
@opinionator . . .
Per your quote:
Are you referring to living off campus? If students do, it’s their choice, but dorms are available for three years, and it’s working on a fourth with new construction.
Edit: So you’re from Illinois. As @ucbalumnus would say, “Cost of attendance of all four?”
GT would be the most cost effective.
GT is ranked above all 4 for 10yr and 40yr ROI.
https://cew.georgetown.edu/cew-reports/collegeroi/
The 2020 US news CS ugrad ranking
4 GT
7 Michigan
https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/engineering-doctorate-computer
UCLA 31,000 ugrads, 44k total
Michigan 31,000 ugrads, 44k total
GT 15,000 ugrads, 21k total
NW 8,000 ugrads, 21k total
Cold weather Michigan, NW
Warm weather UCLA, GT
@Greymeer . . . per your quote:
GT is also a predominantly tech school, more so than the others. If we were to refine the comparison of the others’ tech majors to GT’s, they would all pretty much yield the same outcome. So any conceived ROI assigned to these universities graduates is not relevant to the OP because she will be in the same major at all four universities.
There are factors that should go into a blended ROI of a university’s graduate outcomes and they need to be in the right mix, otherwise any attempts at the calculation of ROI will blow up: salaries adjusted to the COL of a specific region and the right mix of graduates’ employments; and whether they attend graduate school for further training in their specific field.
If any of these are off, and I don’t see how the inputs to ROI can be correct, then it turns into junk. The persons who try to calculate an ROI from a proposed income stream are way too simplifying it. And unless the site that is calculating ROI has very detailed information about a university’s graduates, then there won’t be sufficient amounts to even begin to calculate a university’s ROI.
While it is true that calculating ROI can be imperfect, you have to consider costs. GT has a much lower COA than the other choices. OOS costs for the 3 publics: GT $50K, UMich $67K, UCLA $65K. NU is $79K.
OP, what are the relative costs for you (if you aren’t full pay)? What school do you prefer with regard to size, location, student vibe, CS curriculum, etc.?
@Mwfan1921 . . . I don’t think any site can remotely calculate an average income stream of any set of a college’s graduates, much less its ROI, so it wouldn’t yield imperfection, it’s just not doable.
If I’m reading the inferences correctly, and sorry if any of this is overanalysis, she appears to be from Illinois. If this is correct, then she probably applied to UIUC and some of the other UIs and state colleges within Illinois, but she’s not considering them. Why? Maybe they’re too big as she said for UMich. But CS will be one’s own smaller community at any college.
They’re all pretty pricey at full cost, so maybe it’s not a factor at all.
I have no idea where else OP applied or was accepted. I worked with the facts at hand.
@Mwfan1921 . . . She did edit her post, which seemed to imply that she was from Illinois, but maybe it was stated incorrectly. But either way, she’s not from CA, GA, or MI.
I was not admitted to UIUC CS
@emily123456 . . . understood as it’s a top program also.
Are the schools all equally affordable to your family?
My family can afford all of them, but Georgia Tech is cheapest, UCLA and Michigan are in the middle, and Northwestern is most expensive.
Does the quarter versus semester system matter in any way? UCLA and NU are on a quarter system.
Really, they’re all awesome schools. My initial reaction was to choose NU. It’s close to home and smaller, but expensive. My secondary reaction was choose GT for its highly ranked CS program and it’s the cheapest, but Atlanta is a huge city and you haven’t visited.
UCLA and Michigan are both wonderful places too.
My own D attends Michigan and really loves it. She also loves the big rah-rah sports culture. Getting up early Saturday AM for the pregame parties and attending the sold out Big House with 111,000 other fans. My D is in LSA, so all her classes are on Central Campus, thus essentially she just moves between a few buildings on the one large rectangular block.
The one thing that gets missed sometimes with Michigan is that school starts around September 1st and your home by May 1st. This year she would have been home 4/23, but not for the Corona. That won’t be the case with schools on the quarter system. So, there’s a lot of time (4 months) for internships or whatever. And usually your friends may still be in school for another couple of weeks at least.
Good luck with your decision.
“I visited Michigan a few weeks ago and I liked it”
I would probably go with UM because you at least liked your visit. Looks NU didn’t make much of an impression and UCLA will also be big, but an unknown.
While it is true that the campus is in the middle of Atlanta, the actual campus is not urban in that it is not integrated into the city. The campus is open, green, and has lots of trees. Walking around campus you don’t get the feel that you are in a big city until you get to the edges. Kind of best of both worlds.
I’d personally go for GA Tech… a fantastic school and most affordable option. My D’s friend had a great.four years there.