<p>I was accepted at Brown this year and intend to major in CS. I dont know all that much about the Brown CS program and from what I have heard, its pretty good and definitely up there with one of the best in country; However Stanford has a prestige of its own. I am definitely certain that I will go on to do an MS followed by PhD in CS and for both of them Stanford will be my number one choice so I wanted to get there for my Bachelors as well. Since I couldnt get in I thought I ll transfer from Brown to Stanford. </p>
<p>But the thing is that I keep on liking Brown more and more with every passing day and cant think of a concrete reason other that the Google Guys went there (and even they got there Bachelors Degrees from other places) for going to Stanford.</p>
<p>So I want to ask how much of a difference is there between the CS at Stanford and Brown and whether its worth even going through the transfer application process to go from Brown to Stanford and if I even have a chance of getting in at Stanford.</p>
<p>Brown’s CS department is definitely up there with Stanford’s. It’s one of our proudest programs at Brown with some of the greatest employment opportunities. I heard that a great number of CS majors at Brown get jobs at Google, Apple, and (some) Pixar after graduation (someone correct me if I’m wrong). Brown’s CS is really a great program and the decision for transferring should depend on your happiness here compared to Stanford. If you feel you’re selling yourself short and would rather go to Stanford, transfer. They’re both fa nominal programs and both will get you far. Granted, you still need to get into Stanford as a transfer of course. Just give Brown a chance is my recommendation.</p>
<p>Wait a second – you are asking about transferring and you haven’t even stepped foot in Providence yet? Jeez …</p>
<p>Go to Brown, take some CS courses, talk to CS professors. Even better, go to the career fair in the fall and talk to all the employers who are lining up to hire Brown CS majors. They’d be a great resource to ask about Brown v. Stanford for CS. </p>
<p>Also – many grad schools like to accept students who went to other colleges undergrad. It might be easier to get into Stanford grad from Brown than from Stanford.</p>
<p>And Google Andy van Dam if you want to get an idea of how good Brown’s CS department is.</p>
<p>A friend of mine is heading to Microsoft. You can do a 5th year masters in CS at Brown too. No GRE, just paperwork mainly.</p>
<p>My daughter did a math/cs major at Brown and is in grad school on a PhD track, so I know a few things I can mention.</p>
<p>Brown has a fantastic CS dept with ample opportunity to do undergraduate research which is very important for PhD application. She was absolutely devoted to her department.</p>
<p>Brown has a 5 year MS program because the level is so high you can stay on one year and get your masters. You can also choose to apply directly into PhD programs. </p>
<p>Students do not usually do their PhD at the same place they did the undergraduate work. It is generally discouraged, you are expected to get exposure to other professors and their research.</p>
<p>It doesn’t make sense to transfer to me and transfer rates are low. Are you going to be on any financial aid? You may have trouble as a transfer with that.</p>
<p>If you go to Brown, at least take the CS 17/18 sequence as soon as you can, that will give you great insight into the strengths at Brown.</p>
<p>All of you have posted very encouraging facts about the Brown CS Department. However if it really is on par with Stanford’s how come Brown is rated so lowly in most of the CS ranking while Stanford is right up there at the top?</p>
<p>Chance of Stanford transfer is low. Too bad you have to wallow away in misery at… Brown! muahahahaha (insert devilish laugh).</p>
<p>Seriously bro just enjoy your four years at Brown, it’s a tight place, and maybe hope for a transfer but Stanford has its downsides too ya know. Well maybe not for CS because CS majors at Stanford call themselves gods and aren’t joking about it. And seriously I think it would be crap to have to live in Silicon Valley for like 15 years straight. It’s a nice place, but it’s very sterile and boring.</p>
<p>Quick thoughts:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Departmental rankings are often bad measures of the quality of undergraduate education in a field, because they emphasize factors unrelated to undergraduate education.</p></li>
<li><p>Conventional wisdom is that you should attend different undergraduate and graduate institutions.</p></li>
<li><p>If you start school intending to transfer, you’ll never give your first school a chance. If you mention your plans to others, you’ll become ‘that guy’.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>I agree with all comments in the previous post. </p>
<p>Brown is an outstanding place for undergdauate education, regardless of your major. Their CS professors will teach you everything you’ll need to know to be successful in grad school. Realize you’re fortunate to be accepted to Brown, and enjoy your 4 years there! If you make the best of the educational and research opportunities, Stanford and other grad schools will come calling :-)</p>
<p>Brown and Stanford are very similar environments (except for core curriculum) and both have very good CS programs. Forget about minute differences in prestige. Once you’ve reached this level, it’s your own abilities that will carry you. </p>
<p>Enjoy Brown. You haven’t been yet! If you don’t like it for the program or for other reasons, look at transferring. But not until then.</p>
<p>Stanford and Brown do not have the same student sensibilities–the undergrad population at Brown is much more iconoclastic and quirky in their thinking, a reason that a lot of very creative types are attracted to Brown.</p>
<p>You are talking about two wonderful schools–don’t covet something from afar, especially since you seem to be enhancing Stanford’s appearance of Nirvana.</p>
<p>Throw yourself into the Brown experience–likely, you won’t be able to imagine yourself anywhere else, by the end of your first year. </p>
<p>You can always head to Stanford for grad school.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Here are things about Stanford CS.</p>
<p>1) Companies founded by alumni:
HP, YAHOO, GOOGLE, SUN, CISCO, VMware, Netscape, silicon graphics, mathwork</p>
<p>2) Turing award ties: 20+</p>
<p>3) notable technology milestones:
TCP/IP internet protocol,
google search engine,
56k modem
DSL
microprocessor
Stanley (the driverless car which won the 1st DARPA driverless car race)
Stanford arm (1st computer controled robot arm)
Stanford cart (1st computer controled cart)
digital music synthesis
multiprotocol internet router
LISP
expert system
TEX
matlab
PASCAL
Cryptography
microfoft word
SQL
MIPS (RISC)</p>
<p>4) rankings
USNEWS ranking: Stanford #1 (score 5.0) Brown #24 (score 3.7)
AWRU world ranking: Stanford #1 (score 100), Brown #49 (score 44.2)
NRC 2010 ranking: Stanford --R rank 1-2, S rank 1-2
Brown–R rank 17-34, S rank 24-59</p>
<p>Finally, I don’t understand why some people claim Brown is as good as Stanford in CS. To be honest, they are not even remotely close.</p>
<p>According to [50</a> Top Colleges](<a href=“http://50topcolleges.com/Rankings.html]50”>http://50topcolleges.com/Rankings.html)</p>
<p>Stanford Rank 2-3, Brown Rank 12. What Stanford can provide to CS undergraduate Brown also can. </p>
<p>For weather, Stanford wins…
For intelligence, Stanford doesn’t win.
For prestige, not much difference!!!</p>
<p>I would go by ‘fit’ and ‘cost’.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Let me explain the meaning of US-NEWS ranking scores: Stanford–5.0, and Brown --3.7.
Basically, 100% of the deans and program directors in computer science departments across US who responded to US NEWS Survey graded Stanford as distinguished. Almost none of them graded Brown as “distinquished”, instead, roughly 70% of them graded Brown very good, while 30% of them graded Brown good.</p>
<p>You may call a difference of 1.3 in score is not much difference as you wish. Then let’s pick another university: Washington State university (# 79 in US NEWS, score 2.4). I would use your logic to claim Washington State University is as good as Brown in CS because the difference of the scores between Washington state and Brown is also 1.3. I would also add, what Brown can provide to CS undergraduate Washington State University also can.</p>
<p>In terms of intelligience and prestige, if every one agrees that the famous IT companies founded by alumni do not matter, the Turing award ties do not matter, the highly cited scholars do not matter, the rankings by US NEWS, by Academic ranking of world universities (AWRU), and by NRC (national research coucil) do not matter, and the world changing IT innovations by faculty and alumni do not matter, then you are correct.</p>
<p>I think that you’re paying attention to these numbers as if a 1.3 in US News rankings different could make or break your future career. Employers looking into different candidates wouldn’t look as much into this type of nit-picking as they would at your talent and accomplishment as a computer scientist. I think in some respects, Brown could beat Stanford since you could graduate having taken only CS classes. Employers might not like that… but you’ll be super talented and accomplished.</p>
<p>Finally, to OP.</p>
<p>Even though Stanford is much better than Brown in CS, it doesn’t mean you have to transfer. The reason is that the difference in undergraduate learning might not be as big as in graduate study. If you become a top student in Brown CS (top 3?), you may have a chance to become a Stanford CS graduate student in the future. If you can not make into Stanford, you may still have a chance in other distinguished CS programs like Berkeley, MIT, CMU, UIUC, Princeton, Cornell, and etc.</p>
<p>Oh good Lord is right. If you want to go to school with ^ then by all means transfer. The reason people select Brown over Stanford is so they do not have to endure ^ for four years. Please do us future students a favor and leave as quickly as possible.</p>
<p>How do you know that ^ is at Stanford?</p>
<p>I don’t think you have the authority to ask people to leave. </p>
<p>Sorry to burst your bubble that Brown is as good as Stanford in CS. The hard facts (data) are sometimes cruel. But they are facts.</p>
<p>Haha I understand that this is Brown thread, but it is absurd to even compare Stanford and Brown.</p>
<p>Stanford, MIT, Harvard > > > Brown (especially in CS)</p>