<p>ok so i got into u chicago (which techincally doesn't have an engi program)
and UCLA (UC lots of asians, no offence im an asian male to) and CMU's School of Computer Science AND RICE.</p>
<p>as a future cs mjaor, CMU's SCS seems most appealing as of now. but for some reason i have this fantasy about RICE and especially its residential colleges (they assign you to a unique residential college that your going to have to stick with for the rest of your college life). its like HOGWARTS! yes i'm a huge fan of harry potter... which tells me .... i will fit very well at rice.. and after all college is where you LIVE for the nxt 4 years of your life right??</p>
<p>but then again..i guess ..name values and prestige do matter.. all in all i know rice is pretty strong when it comes to engineering and especially bio engi but.. is RICE worth it to choose ovr cmu's famous SCS? </p>
<p>I am debating.. and need your input</p>
<p>You’ll probably get some pretty biased opinions here in the Rice forum, but if cost and other limiting factors aren’t an issue, I’d urge you to follow your heart. Name values and prestige matter, but they’re not everything. I’d like to think rice has pretty high prestige itself across many disciplines, so I don’t think a CMU CS degree would be looked upon that much more favorably than one from Rice.</p>
<p>As you state in your own post, college is where you live for the next four years, so it makes sense to choose the place where you think you will be most happy. In my experience, you’re likely to do better work if you’re more satisfied with your environment, and if you think Rice will provide you a better college experience, I’m willing to bet you will get more out of your education overall.</p>
<p>I completely agree with Dorian. My son, a CS senior at Rice, was also admitted to CMU SCS and after visiting both decided to attend Rice because of the quality of life (and better weather). He hasn’t regretted it.</p>
<p>I will play devils advocate on this one by saying that CMU’s CS department is excellent and very prestigious. Based on what I have heard from recruiters/venture capitalists etc. they hold the CMU degree in very high regard. Rice’s degree is great as well. </p>
<p>The real decision is about the environment, finances and weather. CMU is in Pittsburgh where it is cold all the time. This decision is between two really good schools, make sure you are happy wherever you end up.</p>
<p>CMU’s graduate CS is typically considered among the top three (the other two are MIT and Stanford). That said, Rice has an excellent CS reputation, too.</p>
<p>College isn’t just what you major in. CMU is not an overall top school like Rice, so what that means is that you won’t be surround by bright, quirky people like you would be at Rice. IMHO Rice is much more prestigious than CMU, and the connections you’ll gain from a Rice degree are superior.</p>
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<p>I will agree with 1 but strongly disagree with 2. We have a tiny alumni base and Rice is definitely more regional than CMU. In addition, their career fair is a lot better as is their alumni influence in silicon valley</p>
<p>Rice is a better overall school (which is why I chose Rice over CMU) but CMU’s CS department is top notch.</p>
<p>Also a question regarding Rice CS: I got into UT and multiple honors programs (Dean’s scholars, Turing, etc.) there, and their CS program is ranked higher but I think I like Rice as a school more… also, Rice is much cheaper right now. Still, my parents are a little hesitant especially after hearing about many companies interviewing at UT, etc. Are there still opportunities despite it being a smaller school?</p>
<p>I also got into UT Austin Turing and am trying to decide between it and Rice CS.</p>
<p>The Rice CS site doesn’t say very much about opportunities, internships, etc.</p>
<p>Are you OOS?</p>
<p>While Rice might not have the same number of companies coming to Rice to recruit, that doesn’t mean that opportunities are not available for internships and permanent jobs. Rice CS is respected in the field. My son had a great internship in NYC after his junior year and others worked at Microsoft, Google, etc.</p>
<p>Lots of companies go to UT to recruit - but it has proportionally a much greater body of students. I think your chances are better coming from Rice! Both of your options are good, so choose where you want to be for the next four years.</p>
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<p>This is true. However, if you compare Rice CS to CMU CS, which are both excellent programs, the career fair and recruiting presence does help.</p>
<p>lizabet - If Rice is cheaper, go for it. The career fairs are smaller, yes and you will probably have to work a little bit more to find good internships, but the UG experience of Rice is amazing.</p>
<p>Alphabeta: I am in state.
However, I’ve only gotten ~3k from UT (although a prof told me I might be getting more) compared to ~40k (including Trustee) from Rice.
I think that+ UG experience is what really is pushing me towards Rice- hopefully Owl Days will make my decision a lot easier!
Thanks to everyone for responding!</p>
<p>I don’t know much about CS companies (except I have seen Microsoft, Google, Apple, and Facebook on campus recruiting), but as far as stuff like financial firms (who by the way, love cs majors) go, they go to both Rice and UT for recruiting. Going to Rice isn’t going to put you at a disadvantage for the big firms, although some smaller regional companies may skip out on the drive down to Houston.</p>
<p>Once you get to the interview, it’s all about you; not your school or GPA. I don’t think recruitment opportunities is a particularly big reason to choose one school over another.</p>
<p>I don’t think on-campus recruitment is all that important, especially for software/high-tech companies. This is the online age, after all! Rice is well known in high tech companies–as a longtime software engineer, I can attest to this. You shouldn’t worry about whether the companies you’re interested in working for come to campus to recruit or not.</p>
<p>I was deciding between Rice and CMU CS last year too. I chose Rice for the quality of life. After visiting both schools, I’d say Rice definitely has a better campus life and social environment. Rice’s CS program is going through some changes now to hopefully become even better but i’d say rice has a really caring CS department. A professor approached me to talk about research for the summer and gave me useful advices that helped me get a research job.
When i visited Rice, students seemed really happy. When i visited CMU, CS students joked about how they never sleep and bragged about their starting salary in the future. It was an impressive figure but it just gave me the impression that they’re just trying to get through college to get the money. i’m not saying there’s anything wrong with that it’s just not a way i’d like to live my life.
Overall i think if you’re willing to work really hard and have little life for your four years of college for a promising future, CMU does the trick for you. At Rice the CS program is great but not as strong as CMU. However if you are willing to work hard (but will hopefully still have a life) you should be able to do great too</p>
<p>I visited Rice for Owl Days and UT this week to get a better idea of both programs. It seems like UT’s program provides many more opportunities and it’s members are very highly recruited.</p>
<p>Although I was drawn to Rice’s college life system and social life, I found things like that the fact that at UT many Turing scholars are recruited extensively and receive internships at several companies after just their freshman year. According to professors and students at Rice, most Rice CS majors (and CS majors at many other prestigious universities) don’t get such opportunities after only one year.</p>
<p>Although I understand Rice is less highly recruited from due to the department is significantly smaller, it seems like the fact that it is so much smaller restricts the major since there is a smaller variety of courses offered.</p>
<p>UT’s program also seems like the professors all take an immediate investment in Turing scholars.</p>
<p>Right now it seems like I’m leaning towards UT.</p>