<p>I received a full ride scholarship to Stony Brook but I have already been admitted to UT Austin.</p>
<p>Based solely on ranking, I would choose UT Austin, but is that right?</p>
<p>I am majoring in Computer Science and I got my major at both schools.
Other schools I've been admitted to so far:
Purdue University - West Lafayette
SJSU
Drexel University (with 19k/yr scholarship)
Texas A&M
Rose Hulman Institute of Technology</p>
<p>All for computer science.
What do you think?</p>
<p>I don’t know much (anything) about Stony Brook, but I do pay a large amount of attention to UT. A factor many people seem to gloss over on these boards is location. Austin is a cool city, and you would be in the thick of things. What about climate? Do you like the heat, or prefer colder weather? Plus, if school spirit matters to you then UT all the way! When I visited UT, I loved the feel of the campus. I’m sorry I don’t know more about academics at Stony Brook, but here are a few other things to consider. Good luck!!!</p>
<p>Go for Purdue</p>
<p>Stony Brook has an excellent CS program, excellent. In fact, I would say UT Austin and Stony Brook are on par, at this point, it comes down to location. Stony Brook might offer you better opportunities, since we have younger faculty.</p>
<p>Drive down to the list of faculty on both sites, along with courses offered per semester, and see what you like.</p>
<p>[Stony</a> Brook University - Department of Computer Science](<a href=“http://www.cs.sunysb.edu%5DStony”>http://www.cs.sunysb.edu)</p>
<p>We have great recruitment as well, from Google, Microsoft, Apple, etc.</p>
<p>This should not even be a question. UT Austin all the way. UT is a top 10 computer science program where as Stony Brook is not even a first tier computer science program.</p>
<p>I feel I am uniquely qualified to answer this question because I was an undergrad at Stony Brook and now I am a graduate student at UT. In my personal opinion, UT wins across the board. Tons of school spirit, athletics are big and very exciting, the campus is much more beautiful with much better facilities (recreational centers, etc), there are tons of places to get good food along Guadalupe, Austin is a wonderful city with so much to offer, the nightlife is orders of magnitude better, etc.</p>
<p>There is a different feel at both campuses. UT always has something going on and so many things to do, whereas Stony Brook is empty during weekends. The students attitude toward college is much different. I found more motivated students at UT whereas at Stony Brook it seemed that whoever I spoke to was only concerned about where to party on the weekend.</p>
<p>UT has many departments in the top 10 and many world respected faculty. I have been to career fairs at SBU and at UT and there are just many, many more opportunities at UT. </p>
<p>Sure SBU is cheap but UT has also been ranked as one of the most affordable universities so it’s not like you will be paying Ivy League price. </p>
<p>I could keep going on and on about the things I love about UT. I have spent significant time at both institution and I can easily say there is just no comparison.</p>
<p>^Don’t formulate lies, aside from Stony Brook usually winning ACM competitions, ranking first place in robotics competitions, winning and sometimes coming 2nd out of 67 universities in ACM competitions(defeating schools like Princeton, Yale, Columbia, etc), Stony Brook is ranked 17th in the nation according to Gourman Report and a top 30-40 institution according to US World News. Stony Brook has more faculty members, from the same if not better institutions. Stony Brook also has more place to do research, and is associated with a national lab, something UT doesn’t have. About the ‘more companies’ opinion of yours, you have no evidence for that. What we do have evidence for is the quality of Stony Brook’s alumni. From the president of Stanford, to the current global manager of C#, to the countless Google and Microsoft employees, I think it’s fair to say Stony Brook produces quality students, and has a quality program, with QUALITY FACULTY.</p>
<p>Scroll down the faculty list, and then question it. One last thing, Manhattan, which is an hour away, makes Stony Brook just as an attractive please. Please, don’t try to embarrass yourself by comparing Austin to NYC, spare it. Stony Brook has Google, Microsoft, Cognizant, Yahoo, and many big banks recruiting on campus. For the cost, and quality, both are great options. If UT-Texas is way more $, one would be a fool to choose UT-Austin.</p>
<p>To be honest, I laughed at your post since you don’t even know what 1st-tier means, yet you are here spewing nonsense about a top-notch department. With the new CS building that Stony Brook has going up soon($100 million), along with the old CS building, CEWIT, Brookhaven National Lab, don’t be childish by saying the department is not competitive.</p>
<p>Notice how I am not downplaying UT-Austin, I know UT is a good school as well, but let’s not act like the very same companies recruit on both schools, so it is up to the student and his interests. Since we have more faculty, from the same prestigious schools, and are actively hiring, only the student can make the difference. </p>
<p>Educate yourself,
[Stony</a> Brook University - Department of Computer Science](<a href=“http://www.cs.sunysb.edu%5DStony”>http://www.cs.sunysb.edu)</p>
<p>See the difference between me and you is that I have been a student at both schools. BNL is a great asset, I worked there for 2 years. Manhattan is NOT an hour away, rather 2 hours by a train with a transfer. UT just opened a brand new Bill and Melinda Gates Computer Science building and UT is not much more expensive than SBU. It all depends where one is from and whether they can get in state tuition or not. If the person posting is a Texas resident then UT will be a much better choice.</p>
<p>I know exactly what 1st tier means and I know for a fact that SBU is NOT. I struggled tremendously and had to put in a lot of work at SBU to get work and research experience. There just aren’t as many opportunities at SBU.</p>
<p>And lets not even talk about social life because that is not even a fair topic. I have met so many students at SBU who are just not happy with life there but I have yet to meet an unhappy student at UT. BTW I was not comparing Austin to NYC, I have lived in NYC for 12 years and there is no better city, I was comparing Austin to Stony Brook.</p>
<p>Either way, I am sure the person who posted will make the right choice.</p>
<p>Just in case you want to educate yourself,</p>
<p><a href=“https://www.cs.utexas.edu/[/url]”>Department of Computer Science;
<p>There are facts, which you can’t hide from. You can dance all you want, but here comes the cold facts.</p>
<p>1)SBU CSE has more faculty members, which implies more opportunities to conduct research in their labs, and we are still hiring 5 more faculty members, the goal is 100 strong faculty members.</p>
<p>2)SBU has the same amount, if not more(since we have a strong finance scene as well, and I can tell by my 11 internship offers)companies recruiting on campus for CSE students. From Google, to Microsoft, to Apple, Morgan Stanley, BOA, you name it, for the most part, we have it.</p>
<p>3)SBU has far more research opportunities, as you mentioned you yourself were employed in a prestigious national lab, only 4 exist. Aside from that, we(along with you) have a brand spanking new CSE building coming, we already constructed a state-of-the- art CEWIT building for our research, and we are building a new Advanced super computing institute from an anonymous grant(~$30-50 million was anonymous donated).</p>
<p>4)SBU CS has producted top notch graduates, and is as old as Stanford and other departments. From Stanford’s product, to the leader of ICANN, the list of alumni just does not end. </p>
<p>5)We have the largest enrollment of CS students in terms of public universities.</p>
<p>6)We kick ass when it comes to ACM competitions. We usually either win it outright, giving schools like Yale, Columbia, Princeton, and 67 others a run for their money, or we come 2nd, this implies are students in CSE for the most part are dangerously kick-ass.</p>
<p>7)Yes, SBU is a tough school, our suicide rate is a bit above average, and students are not generally happy because of the tough courseload and tough projects. The motto of our department is ‘We make you build things’, and building is not easy. Don’t expect to smile when you have a segmentation fault while building your own shell from scratch in C. This is life, and there are plenty of folks smiling and happy in the other colleges(i.e, Psychology majors, Sociology majors, etc).</p>
<p>8)SBU has top notch CSE faculty. The person above who posted, will be reading Steven Skienna’s book, algorithm design manual, when he prepares for his interview, that’s just one example.</p>
<p>8)SBU is ranked 16th in the nation according to Gourman, in the 40’s according to USWORLDNEWS, our USWN ranking should be increasing, since we are now hiring more and more MIT and CMU faculty members, our oldies retired which was why we dropped from our all time peak ranking of 22nd in the USA.</p>
<p>The fact is this, don’t downplay the department, and recognize and I am not downplaying UT-Austin, and know that it is a great school. Don’t formulate lies to make it appear as if we are a rag-tag department, when in reality in various groups we can kick your behind, and our alumni might end up as your boss.</p>
<p>Best,</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Since when does the large number of faculty members correlate with a strong dept? Caltech has possibly the lowest number of faculty in every dept, yet they rank top 5 in almost everything. I’m sorry but 100 faculty for one dept just sounds absolutely ridiculous. I will take quality over quantity any given day.</p></li>
<li><p>Sure SBU can have recruiters but I guarantee UT has at least 10 for every 1 at SBU. Again, I have been to career fairs at both schools. </p></li>
<li><p>DOE operates about 17 national laboratories, not 4. [United</a> States Department of Energy National Laboratories - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Energy_National_Laboratories]United”>United States Department of Energy National Laboratories - Wikipedia)
Sure BNL is next to SBU but exactly how many students get a chance to do research there? Not too many as I recall. It is not easy to get the SULI internships.</p></li>
<li><p>OK.</p></li>
<li><p>Once again a large number of students would raise a red flag for me and does not correlate with the strength of the dept. </p></li>
<li><p>Very nice. </p></li>
<li><p>There is no reason not to smile anytime. It is just harder at SBU as I recall. Not a lot of escapes where you can forget about work for a second and relax. </p></li>
<li><p>A quick search gave me the list of this Gourman report (from 20 years ago?), UT is 10 while SBU is 16. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>ARWU (2011) ranks UT 8th, while SBU is unranked. [Computer</a> Science Rankings | World Ranking Guide](<a href=“http://worldranking.blogspot.com/2010/02/computer-science-rankings.html]Computer”>Computer Science Rankings | World Ranking Guide)</p>
<p>NRC ranks UT 7th and SBU 31. [NRC</a> Rankings in Computer Science](<a href=“http://www.stat.tamu.edu/~jnewton/nrc_rankings/area29.html]NRC”>NRC Rankings in Computer Science)</p>
<p>US NEWS ranks UT 8th in computer science, but I can’t seem to find SBU on the list. [Best</a> Computer Science Programs | Top Computer Science Schools | US News Best Graduate Schools](<a href=“http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/computer-science-rankings]Best”>http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/computer-science-rankings)</p>
<p>US NEWS ranks UT 5th in computer engineering, SBU 58th.
.</p>
<p>Overall I believe SBU might be a good dept, but UT is overall better.</p>
<p>Both schools are great for computer science. If both schools cost the same, I would choose UT Austin. But if I have a choice between Stony Brook for practically free or UT Austin for $20,000+ a year, I would definitely choose Stony Brook.</p>
<p>1)A large number of faculty, from top-notch institutions like UIUC, CMU, MIT implies more opportunities for research, great courses, more funding, etc. It’s common sense, think about it more rationally.</p>
<p>2)That’s a lie. I just checked our career center, we have 500 companies recruiting for CSE majors, are you trying to say you have 5,000 companies? No need to lie about things which are common sense. Truth is, we have a great tech scene and finance scene. You might have the same #, but not 10x for each one, that’s just false.</p>
<p>3)Many get a chance to conduct research there, provided that you are a US national. Many also get a chance to conduct research in CEWIT. In fact, just about every CSE course in which I’ve done well, I’ve been offered to work with that professor in his lab. A good friend of mine just got accepted into MIT, since his published two papers as an undergrad, and if you really press me on the aforementioned, I can PM you his name. Things are pretty transparent. As a matter of fact, UT-Austin gladly embraced you because you hail from a similar-tier department. If you would’ve been applying from a community college, there would be more questioning involved. Again, think about what I am saying. I concur that UT-Austin is a great department, I just don’t like our belittling attitude where you are trying to downplay a top-notch department, who has produced amazing computer scientists like SBU. Like the poster above said, if SBU offers a full-ride, and UT-Austin charges even 10K-20K per semester, one must be on some good drugs to choose UT-Austin.</p>
<p>4)Glad you agree.</p>
<p>5)A large number of students implies more competition, more good brains(since unlike UT-Austin, where any Tom Dick and Harry can be a CS major, at Stony Brook you must take CSE114 and CSE215, get a B average, and then you are in. At UT-Austin, even my Grandma can be a CS major(she might not be able to finish it, but at SBU being a CS major is a trouble-some stressful thing, since you they expected a B average in OOP programming and Discrete math, and courses are curved so it’s not easy, but that’s another discussion. This is done to make it more competitive and only allow the brightest minds, which is why our ACM team is so dangerous, and generally it gives a sweat to Columbia, Princeton, Yale, Cornell and others, since we usually either win it, thanks to our bright Algorithms folks, and one of the best Algorithm people no earth, Steven Skienna, or we are ranked 2nd. In short, we get respect and have alumni everywhere that you can think of, since we are from the 60’s).</p>
<p>6)Cool.</p>
<p>7)Look, I know SBU is a hard school. I’m suffering as I type this, but that is exactly why Google, Microsoft, Apple, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, MathWorks, and hundreds of others do on-campus recruiting for CS students. They know that if you did CSE at SBU, where students have fainted in a class like CSE219 where you are expected to deal with 20,000 lines of code, or a class like CSE308 where students have built projects that they sold for millions of dollars, and a class like CSE305 where students built a competitor to Facebook, and Google drove 60 miles to check out what they built and gave out tablets and awards to groups. In short, we have alumni and are respected. If Google can spend 2 hours on the LIE to give us awards, get the point.
Evidence in case you question me:
[2011-Google</a> Panel to Judge Stony Brook University Computer Science Students](<a href=“http://www.cs.sunysb.edu/about/news/GoogleContest2011.html]2011-Google”>http://www.cs.sunysb.edu/about/news/GoogleContest2011.html)</p>
<p>8)The most recent NRC, National Research Council, ranked us as top 20. Again, I’m not saying we are the best. I’m just saying we are tough, and produce as good grads as any other top schools</p>
<p>These rankings are based, importantly, on factors as “what does peer institutions think of you”, etc. Like I said, to say UT-Austin is ‘better’ it requires logical reasons. The classes we take, we build things just like(I assume)UT-Austin. </p>
<p>I’m not kidding when I say I have 11 offers, which is why I am so patriotic about our department. I have a crazy lab due in 3 days, so if I don’t respond, that is why. In all honesty, you have a game programming concentration, we have it. You have information assurance, we have it. You have MIT folks, we have a bunch. You have CMU, we have a bunch of CMU professors.</p>
<p>Scroll down our professors list in all honesty, look at where their Ph.D’s are from, and rethink your initial diatribe as to how “SBU is not first-tier”.
[Faculty</a> Directory](<a href=“http://www.cs.sunysb.edu/people/faculty.html]Faculty”>Faculty | Department of Computer Science)</p>
<p>Everything I am saying is transparent. You can literally get educated by visiting our courses, for example, <a href=“http://www.cs.sunysb.edu/~cse306[/url]”>www.cs.sunysb.edu/~cse306</a> [CSE</a> 219 Home Page](<a href=“http://www.cs.sunysb.edu/~cse219]CSE”>http://www.cs.sunysb.edu/~cse219) , </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.cs.sunysb.edu/~csecode#[/url]”>www.cs.sunysb.edu/~csecode#</a></p>
<p>Look at the assignments, and then ask yourself if we go through the same, if not more pain than UT-Austin. </p>
<p>Best,</p>