<p>Hey all,</p>
<p>I originally studied economics as an undergrad. I worked in financial services for 3 years now, and I want to switch over to the tech industry. I'm thinking about getting an MS in computer science.</p>
<p>I had a question about recruiting prospects for different MS in computer science programs. I notice that in a lot of rankings (Like USNWR), state schools like UW-Madison, UMaryland, Illinois, rank a lot higher than programs at the Ivies. I was wondering, how do the recruitment prospects for big tech firms (Microsoft, Oracle, Apple, Google, Amazon) compare between these programs?</p>
<p>Wisconsin Madison
Maryland - College Park
UMass Amherst
UCSD
UCSB
UW
Purdue
Rice
NYU
Stonybrook
Yale
Penn
Stonybrook
Brown</p>
<p>It would be helpful if you could group these schools into tiers.</p>
<p>Also what do you suggest in terms of applying? I was thinking that I should take a few comp sci courses at a local college. A lot of these programs say that non-CS undergrads should take courses in Data Structures, Algorithms, and Discrete Math. Do you think these 3 courses are enough? What about math? Is calculus 2 enough?</p>
<p>Thanks a lot</p>
<p>Let me guess. You watched “the social network”. Why is everyone flooding into cs?</p>
<p>LOL</p>
<p>Well I’ve become totally disillusioned by the finance sector. I didn’t really like my econ classes and finance classes in college,and just stuck through it because I felt that I was too invested into my degree already. I feel that I want a career change now.</p>
<p>I took AP Java in high school, and intro to programming in college, which were both interesting to me. So I want to give it a shot now. But I plan on taking a few night courses first. (mainly Data Structures, Discrete Math, and Algo). If these go well I will apply for a MS program. </p>
<p>I don’t know too much about how recruiting in the tech sector works. I know finance and law are HUGE on prestige. If you come from a school like Wisconsin-Madison or UMass Amherst, you’ll have a hard time getting a a good finance gig. I was wondering how much prestige of the university mattered in recruiting for top tech firms.</p>
<p>Do all the schools I listed above have good recruitment with Google, Microsoft, Oracle, etc?</p>
<p>EDIT: Also I would like to know what math courses are necessary for MS programs. I only took up to calc 2 in college.</p>
<p>The CS field is “hot” enough these days that going to any decent university is enough for getting a position at a top firm. The rankings generally refer to research strength and are not so meaningful for your purposes. </p>
<p>That being said, from your list, Wisconsin, UW, and UCSD are the strongest. I would also add Michigan, Gatech, Illinois and UCLA to that list. </p>
<p>In engineering, companies are much more interested in your skills than in your education. </p>
<p>In finance, they are concerned with university prestige because they do no meaningful work and therefore have no other basis from which to judge candidates.</p>
<p>When I worked at Apple, most of my coworkers were from San Jose State, San Diego State, Wichita State…it almost makes you think that attending a crappy university will improve your chances. </p>
<p>For math, hmm, I am not the best guy to answer this question but I would recommend up to Calculus 3, with a linear algebra class too. But maybe you should research the requirements for the programs that interest you. You can email the admissions office, etc.</p>
<p>Just a note to the OP… a lot of these reasonably good to good MS CompSci programs would have competitive admission policies. I would consider this in my search a lot more than I would consider whether recruiters stop by…</p>
<p>I have degrees from both Directional State U and Purdue and my LinkedIn profile seems to attract a lot of attention from the big ones (except Facebook, what’s up with that?). But it is related to skills and experience, not college name…</p>
<p>See how your undergrad profile fits their admissions requirements and take it from there. THEN worry about recruiters. I have friends in a lot of the awesome list and believe you me, the awesome list ain’t all that is cracked up to be. </p>
<p>I’ve been where you’ve been. I shelved my first degree and spent another decade in college but again, (a) it was free and (b) I did it for fun and learning more than I ever did it for money.</p>
<p>JamesMadison,</p>
<p>Do you think Suny Stonybrook is good enough to be considered a “decent university” in terms of recruitment for tech firms?</p>
<p>Your comment about Apple is exactly what I needed to know. </p>
<p>Turbo93, </p>
<p>That’s a good point. I’m not looking past the admissions process at all, I know it will be tough as I’m a non-traditional applicant coming from a non-technical background. </p>
<p>Could you tell me about your approach for applying to these MS programs as a non-CS person and as a working professional? Did you take night classes, online classes, etc?</p>
<p>Actually my approach was to get a 2nd BS degree in CS @ Directional State after a BS Civil Engineering.Figured 1 year worth of prerequisites or 2 years for a BS degree, no brainer. Then continued to grad CS @ Directional State then Purdue for more grad school. </p>
<p>I would build up as much expertise as possible - I had a lot of classmates that went for an MS CS with unrelated (and I mean unrelated) BS or BA degrees. Even at a Directional State most had a devil of a time and took 1.5+ years for prerequisites and even then…</p>
<p>My suggestion is to take as many undergrad CS classes for credit but not necessarily for a degree then apply to a good CS program with these classes on your transcript. You can do one course a semester part time - I would not do advanced CS classes online - in the evening and take it from there. I did do 2/3rds of an MSEE part time and it was not all that difficult if you don’t have kids.</p>
<p>It will all depend on where you work (city) and what schools are nearby.</p>
<p>I see. I work full time. I was thinking of doing 2 classes a semester. </p>
<p>A 2nd bacc. isn’t a bad idea. It will probably look a little better than just a bunch of prereq courses.</p>
<p>Just wondering, for those of you who work in the tech sector, is a BS in Comp Sci enough for most jobs? Because if so, maybe I could just get a 2nd bacc’s and skip the MS?</p>
<p>If it is from a decent to good school, sure. If it is from a Directional State, maybe not so good and an MS may be needed. </p>
<p>An MS or further is usually done for specialization. I became fascinated with human computer interaction during my undergrad CS degree (dark ages) and pursued it further with graduate degrees focused on just that. Would an employer care to pay for all those shingles? I think not, but it’s fun knowing the stuff.</p>
<p>I would say just for kicks, pull out your transcript and a BS CS plan of study where you’re interested and see how many classes (or semesters) you need for a second BS. If it’s more than a dozen courses, i.e. 2 years at 6 classes a year, I’d say go for the MS after doing prereqs.</p>
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<p>For CS, stony brook is definitely good enough for the top firms.</p>