Recommend Computer Sci school for son

Parents Forum
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<p>I am amazed that UW allows only 32 direct admits out of 1,000 applicants.</p>

<p>Whose purposes are being served in denying 840 interested students per graduating year? (1000 applicants - 160 students per graduating year). I wonder whether the $ucce$$ful US tech firms that hire CS majors are happy that UW has 160 students per graduating year. Would they like more well trained, capable grads to choose from? Would they consider funding the CS department to support increased enrollments? Or would they rather complain about tech grad availability and lobby instead for more (cheaper to hire) H1Bs?</p>

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<p>I would second the previous mention of RIT and WPI.</p>

<p>Also, Drexel, Northeastern, and RPI.</p>

<p>All have excellent computer science programs.</p>

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<p>turbo93, if you hire CS grads, I’d love your opinion on how well the ‘team programming’ approach works. I worry that some kids will skate through without doing the work.</p>

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<p>The Grinnel article was interesting, but you can get a similar education if you choose, in plenty of places. Even Carnegie Mellon requires comp sci majors to have a minor on the theory that Comp Sci is an applied science and you should know about something else. In addition CMU has fairly extensive gen ed requirements. That said, my son with lots of AP credits managed to take 12% humanites/social science, 68% comp sci/math and 20% physics.</p>

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<p>Georgia Tech sounds right up his alley(:</p>

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<p>*I urge you to look into New Mexico tech. Potentially, without financial aid, the total bill for NMT will be ~$9k a year. That is, I assume you son gets WUE (I got it, and my friend got it). That brings the tuition down to a manageable $7K a year. Housing is cheap at around $2K. *</p>

<p>Room and board: $6,108</p>

<p>David you may not have looked at the school year cost…It seems like you looked at the “per semester” price.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.nmt.edu/images/stories/reslife/Images/Rate_Sheet_2011-12.pdf[/url]”>http://www.nmt.edu/images/stories/reslife/Images/Rate_Sheet_2011-12.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>According to USN&WR rankings of Computer Science graduate programs, Oregon and Oregon State are ranked 63, and Washington State ranked 79. It’s reasonable to extrapolate that their undergrad programs are good, too.</p>

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<p>If your S is not into writing, I wouldn’t recommend Case Western! They have a “SAGES” program (acronym for what, I forget), but they are writing-intensive seminars in all subjects, required of every student (including engineering) every year.</p>

<p>A shout-out for UIUC (Illinois) here. S loved it, interned at Microsoft, current job at Google. They put a lot of money in the CS program & engineering college overall, and give OOS money to deserving students. Apply early. :)</p>

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<p>I have been doing fine for 30+ years working in IT (local college - 3 degrees, first job after CC, then employers paid for BS and MBA). I cannot see how different college can make much difference. Most will have to be learned on a jobs, every place is very different from another, ability to self-train is a must and so are great communication and analytical skills, both more personality traits than 'learned in college". Definitely vey exciting type of job, my biggest entertainment, no plans to retire. Best wishes on decision!</p>

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<p>BTW, Case is a great school and is well known for huge Merit scholarships to top caliber students. My D. got $27k/year for 4 years, but she went to another UG for different reason. Case originally was her choice #1 and she still likes it a lot.</p>

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<p>Some colleges have too limited a selection of CS courses to be suitable for a CS major. This is independent of general prestige level of the college.</p>

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<p>Most of the top tech firms limit their recruiting to the top 20 or 30 schools for the most part. So if you want a job at Google or Apple you need a top degree. Sure, if you want to be an IT guy at the local Best Buy you do not need a Top 30 degree.</p>

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<p>On the other hand, a lot of companies recruit locally, even if they travel only to higher reputation schools. Schools like SJSU, UCSC, and SCU have an advantage of being local to numerous Silicon Valley computer companies.</p>

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<p>Judging by the quality of work they’ve performed on machines belonging to friends and relatives…a Bachelors degree…or even a 2-year IT AA degree may be far in excess of what is actually required. </p>

<p>Moreover, until this recession started…no CS/engineering grad would go for such jobs…they tend to be populated by MIS, anyone with CS/IT minors, or high school/college kids who learned this stuff on their own outside of school. </p>

<p>That’s assuming the institutions are actually interested in hiring people remotely proficient in performing IT support work…something which seems to be very hit/miss with big box stores like Best Buy IME.</p>

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<p>Here is a list of some firms that hired U Iowa computer science grads in 2010-2011…</p>

<p>John Deere, Rockwell Collins, Cerner Corporation, Accenture, State Farm Insurance, Pearson, IBM,Principal Financial, and Microsoft.</p>

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<p>Humor :-)…</p>

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<p>I guess i hit the jackpot for people in the know by posting here. Sorry for the lack of replies yesterday. My car battery died and my husband is out of the country. I deal with everything else (taxes, plugged drains, etc). But car trouble I won’t touch. And, of course there were concerts to get to etc yesterday.</p>

<p>I thank you all for your valuable input.</p>

<p>dadinator and Elikresses: the tech institutes you mention were on my radar, but I am not sure what the environment is like in such places. I guess i was hoping my son would go somewhere where he might at least encounter an english or history major. Are these places very unidimensional? i am interested in knowing more about Georgia Tech if anyone has personal knowledge.</p>

<p>mathmom: Carnegie Mellon would probably be the first choice- if son were admitted and if we thought he would be able to hack it. :)</p>

<p>mommusic: are you from Illinois or the region? Did your son find it easy to fit in socially (if from elsewhere?) Is the big size daunting?</p>

<p>ucbalumnus: I agree that some schools may have too limited a selection fo CS courses. I had looked into Tulane and then was shocked to see that there was NO CS major at all!</p>

<p>MiamiDAP: Case came to my attention initially because of its merit aid. Then realized what a good school it is. mommusic, I think my son could handle writing. It’s more the rigorous lit type courses that I think would give him trouble. </p>

<p>barrons, thanks for the info on hiring practices in CS. My husband and i have backgrounds in basic research fields. There it is grad school and post-doctoral work before one even starts to look for a job. So, the UG school is certainly less critical. </p>

<p>spurster, thanks for that ranking info. It sure would be nice if my son could stay closer to home. Also, all the places we have identified as candidate schools seem to be covered in 10 feet of snow for a lot of the year. It didn’t affect me as an ug, but it would certainly be a big adjustment for my son (school closes here in anticipation of 1/2 inch of snow) Hmmm Georgia sounds like a good place to visit mid-winter :)</p>

<p>Treetop: I do think that the CSE route might be the preferred one. And I share your outrage with the UW admission policies. I think a lot of kids who aren’t admitted to the major of their choice simply choose another. My son has made it clear that that is not an option for him. Not clear what we will do. Particularly if he were to receive a merit scholarship elsewhere. it would be awfully hard to roll the dice with an admission decision in sophomore year at UW, having forfeited aid somewhere else…</p>

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<p>Barrons…I know.</p>

<p>Just wanted the OP to know that there are so many quality CS programs out there not ranked in the top, say 50, that offer a great education and value…Iowa State and U Iowa in particular especially with rather low OOS fees.</p>

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<p>I’m guessing barrons was replying to cobrat, haystack. I appreciate your comment.</p>

<p>Just looked at the videos of students at Georgia Tech. All were in polo shirts or button down shirts. My slob probably would feel verrrry uncomfortable. just sayin </p>

<p>Wish there weren’t so many criteria to satisfy.</p>

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<p>I haven’t seen the video, but perhaps the GaTech students dressed up specifically for the video. It is not a preppy school.</p>

<p>mommeleh, may I gently suggest that you may be overthinking this? Ruling out a top school because of the clothing some kids were wearing in a video seems a bit premature. Most of our kids just had to pick some places to apply to based on incomplete information, and then later make a choice with more, but still incomplete information. And it works out for most of them.</p>

<p>As others have said, if your S has aspirations to work at whatever the coolest company will be when he graduates, it will help to come from a top program. But plenty of kids from all sorts of schools get good jobs. Just make sure the program has enough depth. You should be able to find out which companies formally recruit at a school.</p>

<p>Also, be aware that CS is an area where it is possible and desirable to make your mark outside of the classroom or a formal job by working on open source projects, etc. The ideal candidate for most companies is a student who not only has done well in school, but has also demonstrated independence and interest by something significant that wasn’t a class assignment.</p>