<p>What are some of the differences between the two Computer Science programs at these two AMAZING institutions? </p>
<p>What is the difference in rigor?</p>
<p>What is the difference of job opportunities?</p>
<p>What is the difference in environment (students, professors, cut-throat-ness etc....) ?</p>
<p>Include anything else that will help me make a decision. Thanks.</p>
<p>P.S. Please do not base your answer on school rankings i.e. US News or any of the sort.</p>
<p>Michigan CS is no where close to Stanford CS. Stanford has the BEST CS program in the nation.
Right in the heart of Silicon Valley and home of Google, Facebook, Apple, etc, Stanford CS grads has many job opportunities in big companies as well as start-ups.</p>
<p>3 vs 8, I wouldn’t call that a huge difference, but if you get into Stanford go to Stanford.</p>
<p>^ what ranking puts Michigan CS at 8? In these, only in the US News ranking does it seem to break the top 15</p>
<p>[NRC</a> Rankings in Computer Science](<a href=“http://www.stat.tamu.edu/~jnewton/nrc_rankings/area29.html]NRC”>NRC Rankings in Computer Science)
[NRC</a> Rankings Overview: Computer Sciences - Faculty - The Chronicle of Higher Education](<a href=“http://chronicle.com/article/NRC-Rankings-Overview-/124721/]NRC”>http://chronicle.com/article/NRC-Rankings-Overview-/124721/)
<a href=“http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-computer-science-schools/rankings[/url]”>http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-computer-science-schools/rankings</a></p>
<p>Of course, these are grad school CS rankings, and you might be referring to an undergraduate CS ranking.</p>
<p>To the OP,</p>
<p>Your questions are very general and thus hard to answer. The core of truth would be that Stanford and Michigan CS are probably equal in rigor. I would say Stanford has the edge in job opportunities, given that it’s in the center of Silicon Valley and has ties to over 3,000 companies in SV; the average starting salary of CS grads is over $90k (if you commute from a cheap city to a big company in SV, that goes a long way), and as you probably know, there are constantly tech companies recruiting on campus. There are fairs, etc. but other opportunities as well, like partnerships e.g. Intel just announced it’s giving Stanford a ton of research money to start a center of sorts on campus.</p>
<p>Not many people are going to be able to answer the difference in environment, because most haven’t attended both. I can say that Stanford is very collaborative in CS, not cutthroat; the professors are awesome and always willing to help; and the students tend to be brilliant (I’m always awed by the sorts of software and hacks, etc. that my CS friends pull off). At the same time, I’ll add that CS undergrads can be insufferable. Something I posted in another thread (I think it was another thread of yours, so you might have seen it):</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Anyway, as I said, we can’t really know about both, so if you haven’t, post a similar thread in the Michigan forum to get a balanced response. I don’t know very much about Michigan CS, but I can say that Stanford CS is worth it (even if your fellow undergrads can be very… proud). :)</p>
<p>^Yeah but if you’re in CS I doubt you notice how your classmates are mostly pr*cks.</p>