Want to move towards Software Developer career, colleges 20-30k for Minnesota resident?

College Majors Math/Computer Science Majors
1

I can’t really allow myself a larger budget than that, due to putting myself through college and being… apprehensive about larger amounts of loan debt.

I am a transfer student with basically all of my ‘generals’ done at a 4-year university which I exited with a 3.98 GPA (at MSUM). Was undeclared major there. Not intending to return there due to some personal reasons. (Also, didn’t care for the computer science professors that I interacted with, so I’m sure that would probably be a poor choice even disregarding my others.) I would like to apply to start Fall 2016.

Don’t have calc done, won’t have it done until I start school again where ever next fall, so transferring in must not require calc 1 completion.

Career goals: be swell to work in virtual reality or game development, but honestly, I’d just be pretty happy with a solid job, decent income to live alone on, and a regular (not waitress’ zero predictability) hour schedule. So, any school with coursework that would put me on the track to be in the aforementioned fields - huge plus! If the school doesn’t have it, but otherwise is a solid bet, I’ll take a look anyway.

Prefer school offering Japanese coursework (continuing personal study of interest), sub 15k student enrollment, dormitories for all year students (prefer living on campus), non-urban campus. Willing to give up those things if necessary for a program that routinely produces graduates known to be sought after, school with good internship relationships, etc.

Thank you for any assistance you can provide.

2

Have you checked all of the Minnesota, Wisconsin, and South Dakota public schools?

3

I am considering a few – but I lack any connections/understanding of college prestige in general, much less of this specific field. That is why I made this thread.

4

School prestige is not that important in the software field generally, although some industries (e.g. elite consulting and investment banking) may be generally school elitist.

However, recruiting at college career centers tends to show trends like:

  • local employers visiting the local colleges
  • big employers recruiting more widely than small employers
  • big schools attracting more recruiters
  • prestige in major can attract more recruiters from distant areas seeking graduates of that major

If you attend a small isolated not-well-known school, you may have to do more of your own searching than if you attend a big flagship university in a large metro area with many employers for the types of jobs you want.

5

If not prestige, then are any of them considered better - or worse - than others for their course offerings? I am walking blindly into school websites, not at all knowing what to look for or what should be a red flag.

6

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/18866045/#Comment_18866045 contains a list of a number of colleges and their offerings among the more common and important CS courses.

For other schools of interest to you, take a look at their on-line catalogs and schedules to see what they offer and how often.