Should I go to CalTech, Columbia or Georgia Tech for my international year?

College Majors Math/Computer Science Majors
1

Hi all,

I’m an undergraduate student studying Computer Science in the UK and, in my third year, I have the option to study abroad. The opportunity really excites me and the three options that interest me are Caltech, Columbia and Georgia Tech.

My area of interest is graphics and games development. From my research so far, it seems that all three of these universities have good courses on graphics. In fact, Columbia has a graphics track, and I’ve heard their graphics group is very good. Although, the fact that there are no games/graphics companies at Columbia’s careers fair makes me less inclined to pick it. New York has a Google office, but my target is the games industry. Georgia Tech has had both Nvidia and EA come to their careers fair and also have a media track. Although, I’m quite a nerd and I’ve heard Georgia’s social scene is more intense. So that attracted me to Caltech, because its quite small and quite nerdy, but at the same time, its more research focused and there are no games companies at their careers fairs. However, they are literally in California, which is full of games companies. I would like to be hunting out internships for the summer after that year.

In summary, my overarching career goal is to break into the games industry. I have a passion for both gameplay development and graphics. University reputation matters a great deal to me, but it is a pointless factor if it would not benefit me for my particular career path. Out of Caltech, Georgia and Columbia, which would you pick and why?

Thanks for any help!

2

Game design is a niche subfield of computer science where the higher ranked schools for this subfield are less well known than those known for CS in general. If you have other options for your international year, take a look at the Princeton Review for best game design schools. If you are set on one of the three aforementioned schools, I think you need to decide how much you want to get out of your comfort zone and try new things, which to me seems like the purpose of doing study abroad.

3

Georgia-UGA has an ‘intense’ social science. Georgia Tech doesn’t. It’s very nerdy.
However, for your term abroad I’d definitely pick either Caltech or Columbia. Both will combine exciting environments with top-notch academics and opportunities. Are you sure to get into one of these three? If admission is not guaranteed, what are your other choices?

4

Thanks for the replies!

Admission is not guaranteed, and in fact, I cannot pick both Columbia and Caltech together. So options 1 and 2 will be either Caltech/Columbia and Georgia. My third option is one I am not decided on yet. I’m speaking in a hypothetical situation that I did have all three options (which I will not), in order to help rank my choices. :slight_smile:

The other options that would possibly interest me, as a third choice, are UBC and McGill in Canada. Simply because they are good universities and Bioware is in Canada, a dream studio of mine, and I know they do university events with these universities. However, these are also described as competitive for students to get an exchange on.

If I don’t get into an exchange, I simply complete my third year at my home university like most students. This year abroad is optional.

5

Besides looking at the Career Fair lists, I would look at the course catalogs to figure out what courses you would take. Since these are the study abroad options available to you, they probably have some suggestions.

This would be for 1 term, right? Caltech is on the quarter system and Columbia and Georgia Tech are on semesters. Be sure you look at the academic calendars to see what fits.

If you go to Caltech’s CS catalog page (https://catalog.caltech.edu/current/cs) there are no hits on “game” except in the first course and for “game theory.” Caltech’s CS program is very theory-based, so it might not be a good fit for you.

Also, Caltech is in Southern California, which is about 600 km from Silicon Valley. There is more special effects for Hollywood type CS nearby.

Are you in a 3-year plan or 4-year plan in the UK? That is, will this be your last year?

Caltech has a broad STEM core, which is probably different from course requirements in the UK. The CS students there will have all taken 5 terms of math, including calculus (proof-based) through multivariable, linear algebra, differential equations, and calc-based probability and statistics. In addition, they will all have taken a full year of calc-based physics and some will have taken more physics.The courses will assume this level of math and physics knowledge and interest.

As far as CS courses, if you are looking at 3rd year courses, they will have already taken the following courses listed in the catalog I linked by the end of 2nd year:

– Python based intro course
– C++ based programming methods (My son is in this now. It actually seems like an advanced data structures class from what I hear. Final project is to create an Othello-playing program that competes against the rest of the class and probably uses machine learning for training.)
– Discrete math
– Decidability and Tractability (hard)
– Intro. to Computing Systems (hard)
– Introduction to Algorithms (notoriously hard)

So, the 3rd year courses beyond that tend to branch out. For your games interest, it looks like the closest threads would be:

– Graphics and Geometry: CS/CNS 174 and other CS 17x courses.
– Learning & Vision: EE/CNS/CS 148, CMS/CS/CNS/EE 155, CS/CNS/EE 156 ab, ACM/CS 157, ACM/CS/EE 158, CS/CNS/EE 159, CNS/Bi/EE/CS/NB 186, CNS/Bi/Ph/CS/NB 187, Ec/ACM/CS 112.

Note that course numbers >100 are taken by both undergraduate and graduate students.

6

I’m on a four-year programme (MEng), and this exchange is for a whole year.

I probably should have been more clear in my post. While I’ve talked about getting into game development, I’m particularly looking at graphics courses, not necessarily “game development” courses. Its very easy to teach yourself to make games and even common theory behind graphics. My interest is broad in CS, but this area makes me most ecstatic. I’m already working my way through a graphics textbook, and of the courses you mentioned, I’ll have completed most of those by the end of my first year. I’ve already finished my university’s equivalent of “Introduction to Algorithms” in my first term and have basically finished discrete maths, as I already know what is left of it. These universities set up the partnership with my university, so they are aware of what the academic standard here is like.

7

Note that you must say ’ Georgia tech’ to indicate the university you mean. ‘Georgia’ is the state OR the other flagship university (UGA) which is not Georgia Tech.
What are your other choices in the US? They may be as good or better than UBC/UT for CS.
So, right now you have Caltech or Columbia 1, GTech2, …?

8

Ah, apologies. I was just trying to shorten the amount you had to read. :slight_smile:

The only other US choices are the University of Texas at Austin and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. So right now I have Caltech/Columbia (edging on Columbia) 1, Georgia Tech 2, and I’m still not sure about my third choice. There is also ETH Zurich in Switzerland, but I need to research it more.

9

UT Austin is FABULOUS - highly ranked in CS, great city, great university with an all-American vibe (including football). I’d definitely take it over ETH, where you can easily go after your degree since it’s EEA.

10

That is true. Looking at the US News Global Rankings for Computer Science (so research and academic reputation), it is second place!

I’m so lucky to have three amazing choices no matter what way it turns out. Let’s hope I don’t get turned away from all of them, haha, but hopefully not.

11

Fingers crossed!