UConn vs Penn State (Computer Science)

College Search & Selection
1

Hi!

I have been admitted as a Computer Science major to both UConn and Penn State for the Fall which are the two schools I have narrowed down to. However, I am having a bit of trouble deciding between the two as I know Penn State’s program is much better and renowned but I love everything else about UConn (Campus, Student Body, Location, etc) better.

I guess my questions would be:

  1. How much of a difference in quality would there be between the two programs?
  2. Niche ranks Penn State's Computer Science program as #57 and UConn as #183, are these rankings reputable?
  3. How much more weight would a Penn State degree carry than one from UConn in terms of employment?
  4. How much distraction would there be at both of these schools, especially Penn State?

I am OOS for both so they would cost around the same

Thank You!

2

Anyone please?

3

Did you visit both and talk to profs at each?

4

PSU offers a stronger CS program than UConn, but UConn’s overall academic level may be higher than PSU’s: https://www.businessinsider.com/the-610-smartest-colleges-in-america-2015-9.

5

@“Jolynne Smyth” I’ve visited both but I didn’t do an actual student tour at Penn State, through virtual programs and reviews, I kinda got the sense that a lot of the Penn State professors are especially there for research as opposed to teaching (not to say that this doesn’t happen at UConn) and it would be a tad bit harder to interact with them.

6

@merc81 Are these still accurate from 2015? Also, I thought that Penn State’s engineering program was known to be very difficult.

7

These sources offer more recent figures, but suggest the same general statistical relationship for your choices:

https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/?q=Connecticut&s=all&id=129020#admsns

https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/?q=Pennsylvania+State&s=all&id=214777#admsns

8

The difficulty reputation is probably because PSU engineering students need to meet college GPAs substantially higher than 2.0 to get into specific majors, so some students are “weeded out”. For CS, the college GPA threshold is 3.0: https://bulletins.psu.edu/undergraduate/colleges/engineering/computer-science-bs/#howtogetintext

9

That’s if you believe that “smartest” or “academic level” is solely determined by test scores.

10

@ucbalumnus: How did you get from “may” — which may mean may not — to “solely”?

11

Because the page you linked to ranked colleges solely by test scores.

12

Does anyone know how different the job outlook would be at each? I would like to work in an urban setting one day.

13

My daughter is a CS grad from PSU. She has a great job in Boston. She had terrific internships from her sophomore summer on. She was in Houston with a major oil company (paid internship.) And then junior summer and senior summer with the same company she is with now. She had a job offer after her junior summer.

I gotta say - I live in CT. I think PSU is much more fun undergrad experience than UConn. And a way better college town. I really like UConn, but I don’t think you can compare the experiences.

14

Go to the school you feel most comfortable at. Employers aren’t going to make a big distinction between Penn State and UConn, unless the hiring manager went to one of them.