<p>I'm a junior looking into UChicago, how's the comp sci? Does it at least hold up to other top colleges?</p>
<p>It’s one of the most popular and sought after majors. CMSC151, the intro class for students who want to major in CS, consists of 2 sections of over 100 people each (not including the honors course). That being said, the intro classes are generally considered to be overly complicated and a bit disorganized. It depends on which professor you get, I guess. I’ve heard only good things about the upper-level courses though.</p>
<p>Overall it’s a well respected major within the college, and everyone agrees that it’s a challenging one. I’m sure a B.A. or a B.S in CS from UChicago will be just as good as a degree from anywhere else.</p>
<p>This suggests the department has something going for it.</p>
<p>[UChicago</a> to compete in computer programming World Finals next June | UChicago News](<a href=“http://news.uchicago.edu/article/2013/12/13/uchicago-compete-computer-programming-world-finals-next-june]UChicago”>UChicago to compete in computer programming World Finals next June | University of Chicago News)</p>
<p>Thanks, looks good.</p>
<p>“Does it at least hold up to other top colleges?”</p>
<p>Not really. CS department is not up to par with the caliber of students uchicago attracts. Department does have a few well known theoreticians like Lazlo Babai but the department is not well known in the industry.You will be better off doing CS at places like UIUC, Northwestern or University of Wisconsin.</p>
<p>It is great that a uchicago team made it to World Finals but Mid-Central region is not all that competitive.</p>
<p>I heard that UChicago is pretty bad at CS, and the US News ranking (Chicago is #35) seems to confirm that. It sounds like it would be a folly for anyone to go to UChicago just for CS.</p>
<p>Hmm…well I definitely wouldn’t be going especially for CS, mostly for the history and general atmosphere, but I would definitely want to at least have half my major in it. </p>
<p>Would it affect job prospects heavily if I were to double major in CS/something else (probably econ) at UChicago as opposed to, say, majoring in CS at UMD (my home state flagship - blech, really don’t want to go)? </p>
<p>Other collages I’ve been looking at are more obviously CS oriented: Carnegie, Stanford, Columbia, MIT, Harvey Mudd, Cornell, Princeton etc. but I don’t like their atmosphere nearly as much as UChicago, and I really really want a strong history/humanities department.</p>
<p>Absolutely do not listen to any of the above posters. I am a 3rd year at UChicago and although I am an econ major, I know at least 15 people majoring in CS and I have heard 0 of them complain about it. In fact, everyone I know who is majoring in it says the professors are amazing and that they love it. I have heard amazing things about Adam Shaw and Babai specifically. </p>
<p>There is no question that you will learn a ton as a CS major and that you will be extremely marketable to firms with a CS major from UChicago. The people I know majoring in it have gotten jobs at google, amazon, dropbox, etc. All of those take UChicago CS majors. </p>
<p>Keep in mind, however, that the classes are very theoretical even in the CS department from what I’ve heard. You will learn weird instructional languages like Scheme in the 150s which will help you to get a great understanding of programming in the future. </p>
<p>Do not consider stupid metrics like Uchicago’s ranking in CS at the graduate level, talk to an actual CS major at the school!</p>
<p>Thanks for your input. I’m thinking I’m going to apply early even if the school isn’t exactly known for the CS - as long as it’s good enough that applicants are competitive for jobs, it’s good enough for me. </p>
<p>I’m very glad it’s theoretical actually. The theory is mostly why I like programming, and why I like UChicago in general. I taught myself Haskell (well, with the aid of the internet, just no formal instruction) a few weeks ago out of boredom and because Java was feeling too rote…the theory behind programming is the best part!</p>
<p>If you like Haskell, then you’ll probably like Chicago-style CS. Honors Intro Comp Sci 1 (better known as CS 161) is always taught in Haskell (which students love to complain about at 3am), and standard intro Comp Sci is taught in Scheme. (Though the second quarter is somewhat more practical. Take a look at [Stuart</a> A. Kurtz — Teaching](<a href=“http://people.cs.uchicago.edu/~stuart/teaching.html]Stuart”>Stuart A. Kurtz — Teaching) for syllabi) The favorite CS/Math (cross-listed) courses of many people include mathematical logic and combinatorics, so interpret that as you wish.</p>
<p>Awesome! Sounds pretty much like exactly what I want.</p>
<p>Just be forewarned: the posters above who attend UChicago are most likely severely biased both in terms of their natural school loyalty and their limited viewpoint. Obviously, the CS program is not bad at Chicago, but the point still stands that there are many better schools for CS to go to. Sure, some people go to top companies in the industry from UChicago, but I guarantee you that many more are from MIT/Stanford.</p>
<p>That being said, you certainly wouldn’t be unhappy or even necessarily much worse off at UChicago, as the above posters outlined. In undergrad, a lot of what you get out is what you put in. In terms of classes and education, there shouldn’t be a big difference. What really matters is the level of students (very important IMO), the research opportunities, and the atmosphere - all places in which UChicago is lacking in. </p>
<p>Personally, I’ve been accepted into Chicago (not necessarily going), and plan on at least double-majoring in CS.</p>
<p>That’s very true; the overall reputation of UChicago for CS is, from what I’ve heard, very questionable. Also, most CS majors can’t help the people taking CS for econ because nobody learns any basic Java or R or anything else people will actually expect you to know. There’s some coding-type student culture (see hack@uchicago, for example), but I wouldn’t even pretend that UChicago gives the same sort of actual programming background as MIT. I think UChicago’s first course in CS for majors being taught in a functional language and the most well-known CS professor teaching combinatorics and algorithms summarize the program’s internal biases pretty well. LordCthulhu sounds suitably disdainful of usefulness to be a good fit for the program.</p>
<p>CS at UChicago certainly isn’t as strong as CMU, MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, or UIUC and if you have the option to go to one of those places, think very carefully before turning it down. However, the CS department at UChicago is perfectly respectable and has some areas of real strength. Calling it “very questionable” is totally off the mark. </p>
<p>The most exciting CS jobs go to people who are 1. smart 2. have a solid theoretical and conceptual background in CS, and 3. who are demonstrably passionate about if. If you major in CS at UChicago, you’ve got 1 and 2. 3 is up to you. Of course, there are plenty of employers out there who just want someone who can code and knows the language/tool du jour. For those jobs, a more vocationally-oriented program is fine.</p>
<p>Okay, I’m still applying early after looking over this. I do have a passion for comp sci…I do a LOT of programming on my own, I’ve made everything from Sudoku generators and solvers, to a clone of tetris entirely using Java’s swing library. I’m not too worried about quality of practical education because for the most part I can teach myself that, there are loads and loads and loads of resources online and once you got one language down you can just play around with it and do projects on your own, and picking up another language is pretty easy too (I went from Java [and by extension C#, they’re practically the same language!] → Python → C/C++ and most recently Haskell without much trouble). However, as much as I love making things, the theory behind why it works is even more fascinating (as I said, I learned Haskell to learn more about this), so in that respect UChicago sounds perfect.</p>
<p>But, I also adore history and the humanities and want somewhere that has, for some examples, strong linguistics and history departments. Unfortunately that has somewhat limited my college choices because I’ve avoided looking at places like CMU or Caltech that, while good at my intended major, just aren’t as strong at other things I’m interested at.</p>
<p>I think LorCthulhu has hit on something that makes UChicago different and perhaps better in this area. It could be a real source of strategic advantage going forward. Something like the computer scientist as Renaissance man.</p>
<p>LordCthulhu, the reasons for your interest in UChicago sound very familiar. Our S1 turned down some those tech schools you mentioned to join UChicago.</p>
<p>What does he think of UChicago? Did it live up to his expectations?</p>
<p>@Kaukuna - I don’t think that being a “Renaissance man” would give you any advantage as a computer scientist. In fact, it would very likely make you a worse one; someone splitting time between CS and humanities would inevitably be worse than someone completely focused on CS.</p>
<p>I agree that several schools, most notably CMU and Caltech as mentioned, have pretty terrible humanities programs. MIT has a decent one from what I’ve heard, but if one is looking for a school at the absolute top in both areas, Stanford and Berkeley would fit the bill. Harvard would also not be a bad choice, although it does not have a tip-top CS program like the California schools.</p>
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<p>Self-aggrandizing much?? </p>
<p>I second Stanford and Berkeley, which are top in both humanities and computer science. Their representation in the Silicon Valley speak volume about their “strategic advantage”.</p>