Hey, so I’ve recently been accepted to 3 great schools (Cornell, Virginia Tech and Cal Poly SLO) and I can’t decide between them. I’m interested in engineering, specifically computer science. These are some of the pros and cons I see for each:
Virginia Tech:
-In state tuition
-strong alumni network
-highly rated for engineering
Cal Poly
-highly rated for engineering
-good location for silicon valley jobs/internships
Cornell
-ivy league (impressive for jobs)
-one of the top CS schools in the country
-impressive other departments (in case I change majors)
-expensive
What do you guys think?
Cornell is definitely worth it. Unless you know your student loans will be a huge burden in the future, i’d go with Cornell. In Cal Poly, you['ll be competing with Stanford, UCB, UCLA, graduates in the silicon valley job market. It will most likely be tough, but possible. Virgina Tech…well I don’t know too much about that one.
California Polytechnic and Virginia Polytechnic will have some similarities by the nature of being large land grant public universities originally focused on engineering. Cal Poly will probably have an advantage with smaller silicon valley companies that don’t recruit widely. The giant companies though hire VT CS students for internships and full time positions. With a little self marketing you can promote yourself to the smaller silicon valley companies from anywhere in the US. So, I’m not sure whether the OOS cost of Cal Poly is worth the location benefit. Keep in mind that in addition to the in-state tuition VT is generous with AP credit. If you have significant AP credit from HS you are likely to graduate from VT in less than 4 years. I have two at VT in CS - one will graduate in 3 1/2 years and the other in 3.
Cornell certainly has cachet. But, you may be paying an extra $160,000 for the degree? The difference will be greater if you can graduate from VT in less than 4 years. Check the Cornell web pages to see which companies recruit at Cornell. Are there some that you are interested in that recruit only from Cornell? If so, are you willing to forgo $160,000 for the opportunity to interview with those companies?