<p>I'm trying to choose a college. I have narrowed it down to two: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and North Carolina State University. I will be majoring in computer science and I have an interest in game design.</p>
<p>UNC Chapel Hill was ranked #20 in computer science and #29 overall by US News. NC State was ranked #49 in CS and #101 overall. NC State's CS Game Development concentration is included in the top 15 game development programs by the Princeton Review; UNC does not offer a game dev concentration. NC State's computer science program is ABET accredited, while UNC's is not (go figure!).</p>
<p>It is very likely that I will be attending graduate school after graduation.</p>
<p>Given the above information, please provide your opinion as to which school I should attend.</p>
<p>I would agree that you should apply to both but it would seem that NCSU would have an edge since UNC doesn’t have the program (game design) that you’re interested in and is not accredited. Decide which has the best program for your interests rather than relying on reputation and overall rankings.
If you have not already applied, I would urge you to apply to NCSU by Nov.1.
Your app. must be in by Nov. to be eligible for merit scholarships at NCSU. You will find out of you’re accepted on Jan. 30 if you apply by Nov.1. If you applied by Oct. 15, you’ll hear about your acceptance on Dec. 15. Good luck.</p>
<p>You may want to be careful about overspecializing in the game area of CS. For both graduate study and job and career prospects in industry, it is generally a good idea to get a broad exposure to various subareas, with some additional electives in the areas of interest.</p>
<p>For example, a good selection of courses for a CS major would include a course each in algorithms, operating systems, networks, software engineering, databases, and security. If interested in game development, add additional electives in graphics, artificial intelligence, art or animation, and physics (mechanics). If interested in hardware or low level issues (including game console related issues), courses in computer hardware and compilers can be added.</p>
<p>Also, apply to both so that you can decide later. (And if neither is a safety for you, apply to a safety that you are willing to go to; in-state possibilities with CS include Appalachian State, Fayetteville State, NC A&T, UNC Greensboro, UNC Wilmington, Winston-Salem State.)</p>
<p>ABET accreditation in CS is not much of an issue at well known schools for CS – but at lesser known schools, it can serve as validation that the degree program meets a minimum standard. Basically, UNC Chapel Hill believes that its reputation in CS is high enough that it need not rely on ABET accreditation to validate its degree program.</p>
<p>This is a good question to ask in the engineering forum as it has to do with ABET accreditation. You will get feedback as to the necessity of this for Comp Sci majors. It is vital for some majors to have ABET accreditation, but perhaps not with a Comp Sci major. I don’t know, but I promise the people here will —> [Engineering</a> Majors - College Confidential](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/engineering-majors/]Engineering”>Engineering Majors - College Confidential Forums)</p>
<p>You may want to phrase your question title along the lines “Is ABET Necessary for Comp Sci?”. Then in your post go into detail re the specific schools to get more traffic.</p>
<p>To answer one question, there may be a non-compete clause between the schools. For example, UNC-CH is not allowed to have an engineering school since NCSU does.</p>
<p>Last year, my son applied to both: CS at UNC and CS Engineering at State. He was accepted at both but chose UNC for 5 reasons. He loves programming and wants to do pure CS (in probably the security field); UNC has a ‘Masters in 5’ years in CS; the graduate program in CS at UNC was the only school in NC ranked in the top 10 last year (US News maybe?), he wants to minor in business (to be prepared for a rise in management or to open his own business) and Kenan-Flager b-school is highly regarded, and finally, his best friend from HS is also his roommate.</p>
<p>Definitely apply to both! Also, visit both schools and their CS departments to see which has a better ‘feel/fit’ for you. Also, since you’re going for your graduate degree, check to see how this year’s rankings turn out for graduate schools. You may decide to go to one school for graduate and one for under-graduate.</p>
<p>Also, I read that students are allowed to take one class per semester at other schools like Duke and State via the bus system.</p>
<p>Lastly, I read here at CC that UNC is going to the Common App this year. Other posters have said that schools in other states that moved to the Common App had a big rise in applicants and a big drop in acceptances.</p>
<p>Not only should you apply to both, but I hope you have more then two colleges that you are applying to, especially if you are an out of State student. NC state colleges only accept 17% of OOS students, which means that those students are going to have pretty good stats, especially at UNC Chapel Hill.</p>
<p>My son is majoring in Computer Networking and Information Security and we were surprised at how few schools had a security major, but whenever we tell someone his major, everyone agrees that it was a smart choice with a good future.</p>
<p>Here are my thoughts, I would like to know if you all agree: I want the best and highest paying job I can get after graduate school. To do this, I should get my graduate degree(s) at the most prestigious graduate program(s) possible. To increase my likelihood of being accepted into these programs, I should pursue a degree from the most prestigious undergrad school/program within reach. Because UNC is ranked higher than NC State as both a CS program and as a school as a whole, I feel it would be a better idea to pursue UNC. However, I still can’t help but desire NC State’s game dev concentration, which is considered among the top 15 game dev programs, so it remains a difficult decision. I have no idea how much prestige matters to graduate admissions, but it is definitely a deciding factor for me at the moment unless someone can prove me wrong. Anyone?</p>
<p>You may want to look at the job listings for software developers at computer game companies. Generally, those which specify a degree being preferred list a bachelor’s degree; a master’s or doctoral degree is not commonly listed.</p>
<p>You may also want to note that games are only a small part of the computer software industry, and computer game companies are looking for other software specialties as well as the usual game ones (AI, graphics, user interface) – most of the other ones are those in common with the rest of the industry (operating systems, networks, database, security).</p>
<p>For some reason, game design seems to be the most popular specialty that intended CS majors seem to mention – far out of proportion to the actual number of people working in game design relative to the total number of people working in CS.</p>