You have trouble understanding why people may want to or have to stay near/in their home region?
OK, so how many Californians do you know are raring to go to the Midwest?
I’m not saying your list is wrong, it’s just surprising to me (not hard to do). I’ve never seen a CC post by a student saying “I want a degree in CS so I can land my dream job in Illinois”. No disrespect to Illinois intended, just my personal experience. 
Hi,
That’s an interesting point. I had one question in that regard: If a majority of UIUC students want to stay close to their home city/state, will that stop/discourage companies from other parts of the country (like Silicon valley companies) from recruiting at UIUC?
Also, I am not married to any geographic region, but I would still prefer my first job to be in either CA or east coast. So, will UIUC help or hurt or have no effect in that regard?
I wouldn’t say the majority want to stay in IL, but some do, and no, it won’t affect recruiting. All the top software companies will still go to recruit there. UIUC is still well-represented in Silicon Valley, being in the top 10 of all colleges.
Besides the CA schools, it’s CMU at #3, Texas at #5, GTech at #6, UIUC at #7 and close by ASU at #10 (MIT is #20).
Anecdotally, I’d say UIUC is more represented in Silicon Valley than the East Coast. In Silicon Valley, UIUC actually beats out all the other UCs (like UCLA and UCSD) besides Cal.
1 Like
A company like Google hires from many college campuses around the country. However, a smaller and more selective company or even a unit of Google (e.g. Google Brain) wouldn’t be all over the country looking for a few undergraduates they hire every year. They’ll be much more targeted.
Having said that, I certainly don’t think the incremental benefits justify the cost differential. You can still be noticed by Google Brain anywhere, for example, if you have notable publications as an undergrad.
Did you compare the fine print? Some include signing bonuses, some don’t.
Typically placement stats between schools are not apples to apples.
1 Like
If you’re tallying, one more vote for UIUC.
I’m on the UIUC website. It shows salaries of $106,551 in 2018/19.
CMU - has a million majors probably considered in Computer Science - so it shows $120K but not sure how many salaries are included. I just clicked on computer science.
Plenty of UIUC grads also go to the coasts. My son has friends that went from UIUC to NYC for phenomenal jobs and knows plenty in the Silicon area as well. Chicago as he has told me too many times to count is not really where the jobs are for CS/Software Engineers or startup companies. Not sure if it’s still the case, but even the Google office here is full of Salespeople, not SE’s.
UIUC doesn’t hurt in that regard. Yes, the majority of UIUC students are in state, but that is not really the case with CS at Illinois. They do not give preference to in state students at all, so it’s just as hard to get into CS at Illinois if you’re in state as it is OOS. There are a lot of internationals also. You can get jobs anywhere you want because it is one of the Top CS programs out there. People aren’t graduating from there and staying in U-C. They’re really going anywhere they want.
1 Like
I’ve never really trusted salary surveys. I have the feeling most people exaggerate their income when asked. (Except when they’re figuring out their tax returns.)
Just responded to the question of UIUC at 92 vs. CMU at 120. UIUC doesn’t appear to be 92K. CMU - there’s really no way to tell.
Programmer here. That’s a big myth. A 90k salary in CA doesn’t mean the same thing as a 90k salary in TX. Here’s the reality. Tech is a job market based almost exclusively on hands on experience. So much so, that after about 3 years of experience, employers don’t even ask where you went to school. I know this because I’ve already interviewed at 2 of the “Big 4,” (overrated), among several other fortune 500 companies, and I went to a regional state university. It’s very probable that UIUC graduates are getting jobs on the east/west coast, because Chicago doesn’t have a strong tech market. 90k in CA is right about entry level. In Texas, no company in their right mind would pay that much for an entry level college graduate. It would be about 60k…but that’s a reasonably comfortable starter salary for a young professional, and that could pay for a house as well.
If you graduate from college with zero experience, you’re going to get to get an entry level job and salary, no more, no less. Any increase in salary means the company can hire an experienced professional to do the job. That’ll be determined by the local job market. Whichever school you choose, make darn sure sure you can afford it. By the time you’re driving a BMW, your loans are going to be paid off anyway.
Also, money is far from everything. I learned that the hard way. Corporate jobs pay well, but most of them are like working in a human pressure cooker. That’s the trade-off with money. Personally, I work for my state government. I’ll probably never drive a BMW or own a fancy house, but there’s a good work-life balance.
2 Likes
Not even a debate here. UIUC is the clear choice.
1 Like
I think you’re missing the boat here that in Austin the tech jobs are paying similarly to the jobs in Silicon and that Austin is outrageously expensive to live these days. You’re also a little low on the starting salaries as my son with no college degree was offered well over 90k for his first job 5 years ago.
From UIUC he has a friend that went to NY and his comp with bonus was about $200k. That included stock options which does have value. My friend’s son is going to work for Apple in Austin graduating in May from USC and making 6 figures. Not 60k! He was originally going somewhere else that had a great salary but they wound up doubling it. The days of signing bonuses are going away, but the 6 figure salaries are not.
Austin is becoming a huge Tech city and with no state sales tax, even more inviting to companies. Google, Apple, Dell, now Tesla are all there. UT just offered a new major in Information for the Fall for the first time modeled after Michigan’s undergrad program. They’ve currently had a successful graduate program in the School of Information but demand by these companies has propelled them to add an undergrad major as well.
But back to the quest at hand. One is going to get a great job from either school. CMU is also more theory based by the way. Forcing his parents to not buy a house so he can go to CMU is not worth it. Kids don’t go off campus to a “downtown” on a regular basis. College is for being in college and hanging around the college town etc, going to sports UIUC has a great bball team and probably will next year too. CMU has a stadium that looks like a high school stadium and it’s a tiny school. Pittsburgh is a great city, but again, other than the few credits they let you take at Pitt, you aren’t going to be going all over the city anyway.
“Also, money is far from everything. I learned that the hard way. Corporate jobs pay well, but most of them are like working in a human pressure cooker. That’s the trade-off with money. Personally, I work for my state government. I’ll probably never drive a BMW or own a fancy house, but there’s a good work-life balance.” So true. Quality of life is so important. Who cares what kind of car you drive?
2 Likes
My feedback was to go to UIUC and let parents buy house, but here are a few other data points.
CMU offers depth in some areas that UIUC cannot match
The first positions that college grads take are important in that it sets them up to gain relevant experience.
I’m not sure about the average salary numbers being thrown around, but our S recently finished his job search for his first position (CS). All of his offers were well above $90k in base pay alone (think almost double), all offers were in research groups within his target companies, locations on east coast, west coast, and one in middle America.
1 Like
This thread is making me viscerally upset. So common on this site, it has turned into a UIUC v CMU rank/brand/salary splitting hairs debate. Meanwhile, we have a post that states:
“…my parents can pay the extra money for CMU but then they won’t be able to buy a house (which they have wanted to do for a while)” This is not a scenario where money means absolutely nothing.
Two hundred thousand dollars - I mean, does it sink in if I write it out?
OP - Sometimes, decision making is not only about what is good for self, there’s a moral/ethical component that requires consideration. In my opinion, it’s an element of strength in character, and that’s part of the formula for success. It’s one of those things that separates the best.
You have two incredible options here, But only ONE will help realize a dream for both you AND your parents: Take the offer from UIUC. It will offer you a pathway to an incredible future in your career AND allow your parents to have their dream of owning of home. You will benefit from both.
6 Likes
Uhh did you read my post two posts up, and I quote “But back to the quest at hand. One is going to get a great job from either school. CMU is also more theory based by the way. Forcing his parents to not buy a house so he can go to CMU is not worth it”
Which I said at the beginning of this thread. It is a no brainer. I even said in my first post that I would NEVER let my parents not buy a house to send me to one college over another. No college is worth that. Kind of selfish IMO quite frankly that this kid even is thinking about doing that.
I don’t think my reply was to a single individual? Maybe I tapped the wrong key. Simply reading the flow of the thread as a whole. Directed my perspective to original poster. And if you posted similar, I’m glad we are reinforcing a perspective.
Ditto