I can’t seem to decide 
… Both are ranked at #20 on US News. I need a school which has strong ties to the industry, so that job searching as an international students isn’t a problem after graduation … Brown is ranked #1 on LinkedIn’s rating for Software Developers, and USC is rated #15 on the same ranking … However USC has a better location (in California, the heart of all CS jobs), better weather, etc.
I’d expect employment prospects would be about the same for either school.
But still, I need something to break the tie …
Look into the universities’ International student support, specifically for job placement and the visa offerings of the companies that recruit at each location. For example, being in California may have more start ups, but most start ups I know can’t hire internationals. Of course the big companies that recruit at both, such as Microsoft, have no issue with this.
I might be able to provide a little more info if you state what specific field you want to go into and what role you want to have.
Have you been to Providence and seen Brown?
@psydent, I’m open to a vast types of software development, such as web or mobile or backend development. I have a preference to work in back-end rather than front-end, preferably in .NET, but these are not hard requirements. I want to avoid embedded programming though.
@SeattleTW, nope, haven’t been there physically. I think I’ve heard that the campus looks good.
Oh, boy, you had better visit both schools which are so different in size, layout, physical plant, etc. Do NOT rely on hearsay.
I’d love to do that, but I’m not in the US, so I can’t just come to see the schools physically
Book a flight
Correct me if I’m wrong, but based on my knowledge I have two notions I’ll operate with:
1. International students can only get merit-based aid, such as scholarships. Most international masters students in Viterbi pay full price, the two common ways being either they come from an affluent family or they take out very big loans.
2. Getting a masters in the US, usually on student visa, is one of the better ways to be able to get a job in the US and then qualify to stay in the US (possibly H1B or O1 visa). This is the goal for many international masters students in Viterbi.
Based on #1, if you, or your family, is willing to spend the tens of thousands of dollars to get a masters (possibly more than 100k if it’s a 2 year program), then spending the few thousand to fly and see Brown and USC for a few days may be a worthwhile investment. You could schedule in-person meetings with the Office of International Students to get questions answered, meet current students, and of course see the very different locations (everything SeattleTW said and more).
Based on #2, my previous point applies and I’m guessing you want to get a masters to ultimately stay in the US. Based on what you want to do, you don’t want to go into research or ‘advanced’ fields, such as machine learning. It sounds like you want to be a developer (like me!). I’d recommend specifically looking into the implementation required for the masters classes you’d take at both universities. Removing research-related pros/cons, I think Brown would provide better theory in it’s Master’s in CS than USC because you can get through USC with a mediocre (read undergrad) level of theory. However, this is less important if you want to be a developer. For a developer implementation, from architecture to programming, is more important, and I would venture a guess that Brown and USC are at similar levels of being decent, because Master’s in CS programs usually don’t focus on implementation. Therefore I’ll venture a guess that getting a Master’s in CS in the US is more a stepping stone to a visa than for actually learning what you want to do. I would rather hire someone with a year experience in full stack web app dev than someone with a Master’s in CS. With that said, look at the specific classes you can take at each university. If one of them has several back end (and related) classes, then you may get more skills and experience in your desired field at that university. I glanced through the CS class offerings at each for upcoming Fall 2015 and it looks like USC has better options.
I agree with psydent that you need to figure out what you want to study, and then look at how closely the offerings at Brown and USC match those. Each school will have things it does better than the other school.
Saying something like
makes me wonder if you’ve really thought about what you want to get out of graduate school. You don’t get a graduate degree in CS to pick up mundane software development skills.
If the objective is to eventually work in the US, generally it’s easier to find work on the east coast if you go to an east coast school (Brown), while it’s easier to find work on the west coast if you go to a west coast school (USC). But you can certainly find work anywhere in the US with degrees from either school.
I’d rate USC’s CS department higher than Brown’s. Both are very good. 20-30 years ago Brown was one of the best CS departments around. But CS is one of those specialties that USC is absolutely top-notch at. I get all kinds of alumni magazines and propaganda, and it looks like there’s a lot of very cool stuff going on in the CS department. And while I’m not a huge fan of CS rankings, ARWU rates USC CS as #11 in the world, with Brown between 76-100. US News ranks USC CS at #12 in its global rankings, and Brown isn’t even listed.
Personally, I don’t think you need to fly here first and look at the campuses.
@simba9, can you share the links of those rankings ? I’d like to see where USC’s CS is ranked #12 in the world …
Psydent, you’re correct that I assumed he’s got money to visit each. I did the same for law school. If you are spending a fortune to go to either school, it makes sense to see where you will fit in. I’ve been to Brown and both schools are vastly different all the way around. He might love Providence or L.A., but he owes it to himself to visit each. The high price of each school warrants the small investment.
Well I probably COULD have done this if I had time, which I currently don’t as I have to confirm to at least Brown, by 15th May … Travelling to the US now will create all sorts of other problems, like arranging for stay, flying across the country from one end to the other, etc … And frankly, I don’t think in today’s day and age where so much can be found out just by researching on the internet, requires travelling half way around the globe just for choosing a university. I mean, it would be a more practical idea if I was already in the US. Everything else is available on the internet these days. I can’t think of a single thing which I would figure out only after physically going to the schools, which I can’t do otherwise. Besides, to properly get a ‘feel’ of place, you need to stay there for a short while, get a lay of the land, talk to people, interact with the community, explore the city and its features, etc. All this requires time which I don’t have currently. Plus I also have my job, which just won’t allow such a big leave (2-3 weeks).
http://www.shanghairanking.com/SubjectCS2014.html
http://www.usnews.com/education/best-global-universities/computer-science?page=2
I think he would be happier at Brown since he knows very little about USC. Providence is a small town and close to Boston and NYC. I say go where you are leaning and don’t try to talk yourself into USC or living in L.A…
Best of luck.
There is a large International population [ read asian] at USC, so the OP might be more socially and ethnically comfortable at there than at Brown, whose student population is much more Caucasian.I mention this only if the OP might be from somewhere in Asia. Just a thought…
OTOH, I wouldn’t go anywhere and spend that much cash until I had tire kicked each. I think he’s being foolish.
hahah … I think this thread is going sorta off-topic now … No real tie-breaking suggestions, probably because the universities in question might really be equally good overall …
@menloparkmom, while that is a good point, USC doesn’t really help as my country’s presence there is just as limited there as it is in the case of Brown … In fact, searching on LinkedIn, I couldn’t even find ONE CS Masters graduate at either university who is from my country … There might be some in other programs, but one in CS at least … I prefer to not disclose where I’m from 
My younger sister is going to Yale for Master’s in Economics, and she’s very well versed in the academic matters. Although she doesn’t know anything about the CS field, she says that Brown is mainly considered as an Arts/Social Sciences school, and not as a tech/engineering school … She considers USC to fall in the latter category …
However, Brown is rated #1 here:
https://■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/edu/rankings/us/graduate-software-engineering?trk=edu-cp-rank-cat
USC is rated #15 on the same page …
UUUGGHGHH !!! Decisions, decisions !!