<p>These are my top four schools so far. I'm planning to major in computer science, but I'm also interested in international affairs. Ga tech would be in-state for me and I would get hope so it wouldn't be a financial burden for my parents. However, I don't get a good "vibe" when I visit tech. I could never see myself attending and being happy for 4 years. I want to attend a laid back/liberal school. Based on the list above, which school would be a good fit for a computer science/international major? Could you suggest any other schools as well? Thanks</p>
<p>I am considering computer science as well and will be applying to ga tech and carnegie Mellon. I just want to say I have done some research and if you can afford it cmu is ranked number one in cs tied with MIT and a couple others, in addition cmu has partnerships with companies like google who has an office right in Pittsburgh! Many many employees of google come from cmu!</p>
<p>My daughter majored in Computer Science at Brown and it is a highly respected department within the university and with employers and grad schools as well. She thinks it is fantastically well run and had amazing opportunities there and very close interaction with profs. She didn’t start as a CS major, but there is a famous course (CS17/18 that seems to convert a lot of math and physics types over.) Many kids went directly to microsoft or google particularly, but some went on to research, she went into a PHD track program, and a couple did teach america. Brown is one of those schools where every department is pretty good/great and the open cirric allows you to study what you want and dabble in various interests. They encourage CS students to do that. It was part of her job when she was an upperclass ‘Mieklejohn’ mentor.</p>
<p>I’m kind of a broken record about Brown, just because that’s what I know about and I don’t think kids who ask in the general forums have seen my previous posts. While it does have a laid back liberal vibe, the students are very multitalented and work can be challenging.</p>
<p>CMU is one the the premier places for CS of course, and GA Tech is not shabby either. Don’t know about the program at Tufts. But these schools cost Crazy money compared to instate hope scholarship for you and I think you’d be nuts to do that to your parents, unless they really truly have money to burn. I do believe that you can find you own people an group that you want to hang out with most anywhere. There must be laid back peeps at GA Tech too. It just has a bit larger class size and more instate peeps compared to your other considerations. And if you are seriously committed to CS, then going to a school known for it may be a big consideration. You will have great opportunities for your future. I don’t know how hard they try to weed people out, maybe check that out. I think some schools do have weeder attitudes.</p>
<p>You really have to talk to your parents about the money before going down this road and taking their money. If you had to take it in loans and pay it back later yourself, would you make the same choice? Will you pay the difference back to your parents for their retirement? Have you looked at the places that give merit aid (not Brown, for sure.)</p>
If anyone is still reading this, what choices have you made? My son wants to go into CS plus he loves foreign languages and wants to do a study abroad or internship in Japan. It looks like at Georgia Tech he could study abroad in Japan and possibly France or Switzerland as well. Please comment if you know if Brown or CM offer these opportunities as well.
Tufts is strong in foreign languages and CS. (it has a 6 semester core language/culture requirement for all liberal arts students and an 8 semester language/culture requirement for IR majors)
Tufts has its own study abroad programs in Japan and Paris and it has a remote campus in the French Alps where they run several summer programs.
CS and IR are the two largest majors. The Human Computer Interface (HCI) is one of the core research areas for Tufts CS. You should look into this area as parts of it (Natural Language Processing) meld languages with CS.
Google is one of the largest employers. It has a development office 4.2 miles from Tufts -in Cambridge, up the street from MIT).
Someone from Google teaches a Natural Language Processing course at Tufts.
CMU has an even bigger HCI initiative than Tufts, but is less focused on foreign languages, I don’t know about their study abroad programs.