I am currently trying to decide which school to go to for a computer science major undergraduate. I got into NYU CAS Computer science with no aid, Boston University CAS computer science with no aid, and Northeastern Computer Science with a lot of aid. I am unsure which school here has the best comp sci program and which is worth going to. Please help me decide, with pros and cons etc. Thank you!
I am a NEU CS student and I can’t speak higher of the program. This has pieces borrowed from some of my previous posts:
I came into NEU with over two years of programming experience and from Day 1 the best piece of advice I was given was “forget everything you knew before”. This held true about 90% of the time. The first programming class in the sequence is required to all CS students no matter their background. My professor even said that prior programming experience could be a disadvantage if you didn’t forget what you knew before.
Instead of teaching a language that everyone knows, they use a language that was developed specifically for teaching CS (Racket, a Scheme variant).
What that does is:
A. puts almost all students on a level playing field
B. allows them to teach complex logical ideas early in the course rather than syntax and convention
C. makes them focus on good programming practices over working code. Usually self taught programmers tend to opt for working code and do not know how to properly design a program.
After the first class in the sequence, the second class is taken by nearly every student again, and they use the approach of the first class and apply it to a more commonly used language (Java) which leads into the rest of the CS classes. Some students with experience dislike it because they fight against the classes with what they already know, but if you let go of that you can use prior experience to your advantage for sure. By the second semester, there is rarely a gap between those that start with experience and those that are new to CS.
Also, don’t forget about the co-op program, one of the best parts, especially for a CS major. You get to go out and get valuable CS experience working for startups or any of the big players. Overall at NEU, about 50% of students get a full time job offer from one of their co-ops. That’s a great leg up in the job market.
Overall the department has really blown me away. The department is growing quickly in stride with the growth of CS but even the intro classes stay under 50-60 students per section and first year classes have dozens of tutors available. The support network is A+. Their approach, size, and accessibility is incredible and I would suspect that rankings will begin to reflect this soon along with the universities rising ranks.
As far as NYU and BU, I would give the edge to NYU but both are comparable, and in the grand scheme all three really are in the same ballpark right now. When things are this close, I would focus more on other factors having more to do with personal preference:
- Co-op: yes or no?
- City school or central campus
- NY or Boston
If you like the co-op program, to me there’s no question you should go NEU. But I am a biased source so I would recommend getting some more input. If you have any more questions about NEU just let me know!
Best of luck! All three schools would be fine options.
Thank you. helped a lot!