<p>Hi everyone, My S has received acceptances to RIT, WPI, RPI, Case Western and University of Rochester. He was also lucky to be awarded substantial merit aid at these schools. He wants to study computer science and is unsure if he wants to work or go to grad school after graduation from college. He liked every school when he visited and is having a tough time choosing. Any advice as to the strength of the programs would be appreciated! He doesn't care about weather or location. Thanks for your input in advance!</p>
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Spoken like a true computer scientist! My son was accepted at both RPI and WPI (but went elsewhere - CMU). I thought WPI would seem too small quickly. (My brother’s Boston comp. company likes WPI grads. FWIW.) My son’s a senior and he’s going straight to work, though I know some of his friends are going to grad school. I’d look carefully at course offerings and see what’s available and I’d try to see how forthcoming the departments are about placements - especially in the last two years. My son had an internship fall through two years ago because of the financial crisis, but was easily able to get another one at the last minute through the school grapevine. The kids I know at RPI didn’t necessarily love it, but they’ve done very well there and had no trouble with whatever next step they wanted.</p>
<p>Congratulations to your son on his acceptances!</p>
<p>My nephew has had a very good experience at RIT in the computer game design program (he is a junior now). He chose it over WPI because of superior scholarship aid. He’s had to work hard, but he loves what he’s doing, and there are lots of likeminded kids around, so he’s made a lot of friends for somebody who’s basically pretty introverted. There is a good internship program that coordinates with the academics and leads into the workplace. I don’t know how RIT compares to your son’s other options–I gather RPI is a bit more prestigious–but it has been a great fit for my ubergeeky nephew.</p>
<p>My older sister went to WPI and I think she’s still there doing a fellowship or her master’s now…she seems to have really loved it there …plus even though Worcester has some sketchy parts and lots of pushers it’s about 40 mins from Boston which is nice ;Worcester is a city so the school is on an urban location I guess…I lreally liked some of the middle eastern restaurants though :).The academics at WPI are very strong…but keep in mind that the students receive very demanding & challenging workloads----i remember my sister mentioned to me that WPI ranks among the top 10 colleges up there with MIT that give students with the most demanding workloads.But also WPI also ranks very high for the richest alumni AND excellent job placement 
. I know that for a fact bc my sister had received many great job offers from top pharmaceutical companies.She’s also landed many good internships…I know one of them was at NYU for the summer. As for social life I don’t know a lot :/</p>
<p>Sent from my LG-P509 using CC App</p>
<p>What good choices! </p>
<p>My son was also accepted at Case and RPI. I’ve heard good things about WPI and UR too. From what I know, RPI and RPI are more techie oriented. Case and UR would have more non-techie majors (more university-like). Either path could be fine. </p>
<p>If music is a factor, Case has a lot of options. They range from being in a non-audition band to classes, to minor, to double-major. We heard that the most common double major is engineering-music. Last winter I put a lot of posts on the Case threads about our visit.</p>
<p>UR’s comp sci dept is very strong and is quickly gaining international prominence. </p>
<p>Last year UR beat MIT (first time MIT has ever been defeated by anyone!) to go on to becomes a finalist in the in international 2010 ACM competition.</p>
<p>[UG</a> Team Advances to ACM Programming World Finals, beating MIT | University of Rochester Computer Science](<a href=“http://www.cs.rochester.edu/news/2009-11/ug-team-advances-acm-programming-world-finals-beating-mit]UG”>http://www.cs.rochester.edu/news/2009-11/ug-team-advances-acm-programming-world-finals-beating-mit)</p>
<p>This spring CS students took first place at the CS Games–this is the third time UR has won in the last 6 years. Students scored perfect scores in 6 of the 15 divisions.</p>
<p>[UR</a> dominates at Computer Science competition | Campus Times](<a href=“http://www.campustimes.org/2011/03/17/ur-dominates-at-computer-science-competition/]UR”>http://www.campustimes.org/2011/03/17/ur-dominates-at-computer-science-competition/)</p>
<p>D has a several friends who are CS majors at UR. They are happy with their program and they have all gotten well-paying summer internships as rising sophomores in places like NYC, CA <cough-google-cough> and Seattle. </cough-google-cough></p>
<p>If your son is interested in music–the Eastman School offers free lessons to River campus (non-conservatory) students who have intermediate or better skills in their instrument. It’s a very nice perk. Also River campus maintains separate orchestras and other performance groups for River Campus students only. (IOW, he won’t be competing with conservatory students for playing time.)</p>
<p>Rochester has a very pretty and compact campus and the students are remarkably friendly and non-cut-throat.</p>
<p>My reply is based on the assumption that your son has a deep passion for CS, and that post graduation he will pursue top tier positions at leading international software companies.</p>
<p>My sense is that all the colleges on your S’s list are inherently regional. Post graduation the recruiting at these colleges will be from companies based in the Northeast. If that is where your S is destined career wise, then my sense is that they will all work well.</p>
<p>If your S’s interest is to work at the leading international companies in CS then the way to decide which college is best is to look with care at the graduate programs in each of these colleges in CS. If they are reasonably strong it means that the faculty is “wired” into modern CS development, and that they are likely to have relationships with major international companies. This translates into high level intern positions for undergraduates – key to a successful transition to top tier companies. Also it means strong graduate students who are likely to assist as TAs. That’s important for undergraduates. It also may mean research/work projects as assistants to the graduate students.</p>
<p>Of the colleges on your list RPI has a national reputation as a good engineering college. I’ve seen resumes from RPI, and I’m aware of recruiting activity by a major international software company at RPI. I know less about such recruiting at the other colleges on the list.</p>
<p>In practice many of State flagships have very strong CS programs. If one of your choices (not on your post) is your state flagship, you may want to include that in the decision matrix.</p>
<p>The choice of undergraduate college for CS is extremely important. CS is one of the most competitive engineering fields. The employment pool is world-wide.</p>
<p>I really appreciate all of the replies. So much helpful information! My S did not apply to our state flagship (or any State Us)–he needs a smaller environment. Not sure how accurate the NRC rankings are for computer science (I’ve read that they seem to be “outdated” already!). But, if they are accurate, UR ranks much higher than the other schools on his list – not sure how much weight should be given to this info. as part of his decision-making. RIght now it is great to have choices, but it seems very overwhelming. I’m concerned that there won’t be enough other “techie” kids for my son to “bond” with!</p>
<p>I work at one of the largest software companies in the world and the last two hires in our group were from WPI. The hires before that were from MIT and Brown.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure all these schools are good enough and that there will be enough techies at them to satisfy any computer geek. I really don’t think there’s a bad choice here and you can relax and let him go with his gut. </p>
<p>WPI felt too small to ME. But it had among the cheeriest undergrads of the campuses we visited. I believe it has quarters not semesters and you take fewer courses at once. There are advantages and disadvantages to that. Certainly worth thinking about.</p>
<p>All of the schools on your list except Rochester (and perhaps Case) are tech schools, with a big focus on technical fields. Rochester is more balanced, with strengths in additional fields, and has ~50/50 Male/Female ratio, while the other schools will be predominately male.</p>
<p>Depends on your son whether or not that is a good thing or a bad thing.</p>
<p>S is a sophomore ECE major at WPI. He loves it. But, clearly, the most important thing is what school fits your S the best. A big difference at WPI is they have 4 terms, each lasting 7 weeks – so 2 terms in the length of a regular semester. The normal load is 3 courses each term. At the end of each term S sleeps for about a week – it’s fast-paced and quite intense. Also, WPI is all about project work – which goes a long way in helping with job placement at graduation. Yes, the M/F ratio is skewed, but that’s true at many of the “techie” schools. The last couple of years more women have come to WPI, so I think it’s about 30%, or even a little more.</p>
<p>Congratulations on all of those choices! I have no advice here, but am happy for your son and you that his results give him so much choice.</p>
<p>Lake Junior and I are headed to WPI and RPI for visits next month. Case is on his list as a ‘possible’ application, all for Aerospace Engineering. Thus, I’m soaking in all of the info on this post.</p>
<p>Back when I was making choices I was also deciding between RPI, WPI, and RIT. I asked at RIT what percentage of their students go on to grad school, and the admissions person said only a few percent, so that knocked it off of my list. WPI was a great school in a nice area, but the more I found out about their trimesters the less I felt I would like it. They also only offered the major I wanted as a concentration within another major. I liked RPI quite a bit, and they had really nice facilities, and if not for my first choice (CMU) matching RPI’s financial aid offer, I would have gone there for undergrad.</p>
<p>op, RIT is very large for a private school (15,000?). They are also VERY big on their co-op program. U of R doesn’t have a core and they also have some kind of “Go an extra year for free” program. I think the places you have chosen have some substantial differences in approach, so I would suggest really taking a look at what will be happening academically OUTSIDE the CS major. Maybe something will strike a chord there.</p>
<p>Reaver, I think the reason why RIT sends fewer kids to grad school is that their mandatory co-op program prepares everyone for the workplace right away. They still send plenty of kids to top grad schools.</p>
<p>Our son was accepted by Case and RPI plus he visited RIT and UR. All the colleges you mentioned are good academically. Re the merit scholarships, kudos to your son. Keep in mind that RPI has no minimum gpa requirements on their merit scholarships unlike Case and perhaps the other three. RPI has chosen to adopt this policy in order to allow their students the freedom to choose whatever academic program they desire without regard to gpa consequences.</p>
<p>Our son chose to attend RPI because of their AI Minds and Machines interdisciplinary compsci/cogsci program. He eventually picked up a Gaming/Simulation Arts minor and is working for a computer gaming company in California. He did a summer internship for a gaming company in Pasadena between jr/sr yrs.</p>
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<p>That certainly is true, and I should mention they have some extremely top notch facilities there. The amount of money they’ve gotten from surrounding companies to build world-class clean rooms and such is astounding, and, in general I liked the school. I just wanted to wind up somewhere where a larger percent of the student population was looking for a similar next step after school as myself.</p>
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<p>Is that really true? I’m quite skeptical.</p>