<p>Are MIT, CalTech, Berkeley, or Carnegie Mellon popular graduate schools that students from UVa undergrad go to? </p>
<p>If I go to UVa, do I have any chance of getting into these highly ranked computer-engineering/computer-science schools?</p>
<p>I can’t answer the first part, but I will try to shed some light on the second. Graduate school admissions, as I have been learning in my own grad school pursuits, is a horse of another color than undergrad admissions. Undergrad prestige may factor in, but it’s really not the most important thing graduate committees look at.</p>
<p>Graduate programs are looking at a slew of other variables, including past research, your statement of purpose and how that school will help you accomplish your professional/academic goals, professor recommendations (pertinent ones to the program you are applying to), and how well your interests match the graduate program’s faculty, and whether that professor is taking on any new students. </p>
<p>You could be the top of your class at UVA or Penn or Harvard, but if your interests/goals and other things don’t mesh well, it won’t matter what school you went to.</p>
<p>2 of our CS female majors went to Berkeley 2 years ago, both had math minors and tons of research. One of the male majors from last year went to CMU, had won 3 awards here. Don’t know about the other two schools, though. Also “UVA” versus “UVA CS” is entirely different re:grad school admissions.</p>
<p>thanks. It’s good to know there’s some chance. </p>
<p>@hazelorb what do you mean by "Also ‘UVA’ versus ‘UVA CS’ is entirely different re:grad school admissions. " ?</p>
<p>If someone in classic literature ugrad gets into Harvard what relevance does that have for you as a CS major?</p>
<p>right,</p>
<p>I was just wondering about UVA Engineering or CS specific students</p>
<p>divideby: I’m not sure from your responses whether you clearly understood hazel’s message. If you earn good grades and involve yourself in good research work (either with the faculty, or doing co-ops or internships, or both) you will have better than “some chance” at a good graduate school. You will not be subjecting yourself to any sort of crap shoot or second-rate status based on school prestige. BTW hazel, I had communicated with you a bit last year about the CS program there and I think specifically about discrete math. If you are still TAing some of the lower-level CS courses, there’s a good chance my son is in one of your classes (small world, or I guess not really). I met the recent graduate you mentioned who went to CMU at one of the engineering open houses. He seemed to have been very pleased with the UVa program. So, I guess I would also advise divideby not to draw too many conclusions about the undergraduate experience based on rankings that have more to do with grad school reputation and faculty productivity than with anything else. Undergraduate focus should be (in my opinion) one of the most important parts of your decision.</p>
<p>Grad schools I know some EE/CpEs/CSes are attending:
UVa, Harvard (Law), UT-Austin, MIT, Virginia Tech</p>
<p>Jobs: everyone I know has a job doing something they want to, at places like: IBM, Accenture, Lockheed, General Dynamics, Naval Research Lab, and small but prestigious companies (companies that barely higher new grads and focus on recruiting industry’s current best)</p>
<p>You can’t go wrong with postgrad opportunities here, even with semi-decent grades the sky seems to be the limit</p>
<p>A friend of mine who was in the e-school at UVA is currently getting her PhD in civil engineering at Stanford.</p>
<p>I am still TAing. I have been TAing 101/101e now 1110/1111 for 5 semesters and will be TAing again next semester, but that is the only class I work with. In any case I know a bunch of the 216/2150 TAs and am close with the professors who teach the lower level classes (the “teaching track”). They are all a great bunch of people. :)</p>
<p>Thanks for the info! I guess it’s more about what you make of it, rather than the misunderstood prestige. I’m visiting UVa soon so I’ll definitely consider UVa!</p>