Hello,
I have admits from two colleges. First is Champlain college in Burlington, Vermont. The second is St Johns university in Queens, New York.
The Major that I chose is Cyber Security.
Which college is better? I need your views?
Looking forward,
Thanks!
Can you afford either school?
Does Stevens provide Transfer students with generous Merit scholarships? I am an international transfer student, applied for Spring 2017 and waiting for the decision. <<<
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You’re an int’l transfer student unlikely to get much/any aid. Will your parents pay all costs of either school?
Of the two mentioned, St John’s is probably more well known, but don’t know about its Cyber Security.
St johns has offered 16,000 per year in scholarship and Champlain has offered 14,000 per year in scholarship. What do you think?
Also, I am waiting for my decision from Stevens. so suggest me, which college should I attend?
In my opinion, St. John’s has a better reputation overall.
This is also going to depend on the kind of environment you want. Queens is in New York - it has a little more suburban feel than, say, Manhattan, but it’s still the city and still has access to all the amenities of the city. It also has the downsides - like expensive housing, for example. St. John’s is really diverse - not many international students (about 5%) but racially diverse otherwise. They tend towards more traditional-aged students from New York, although they do have a pretty robust transfer program.
Champlain, as a career college, is much more pre-professional. It’s also a lot less racially diverse. The students are on average older - average age at Champlain is 23, whereas the average age at St. John’s is 19 - and a higher percentage are part-time (27% as opposed to St. John’s 2%). It’s pretty small. Burlington is a small city - can’t compete with Queens in terms of amenities, but likely to be far cheaper.
Cybersecurity is a pretty specialized, narrow major. Why not computer science?
@juillet Actually I have a strong background in Cybersecurity and I already hold a diploma in computer science, so why not do a specialization next, right? Also, there are lot of job opportunities for cybersecurity experts these days which pay far better than just being a computer engineer. What do you think?
How about Stevens? Is it better than these two?
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, information security analysts (formal title for cybersecurity experts) make about $90,120 a year on average. Job growth over the next 10 years is projected at 18%. Software developers earn on average $100,690 per year and are projected to grow 17%. There are also way more jobs for software developers - over 1 million, compared to just over 82,000 for information security analysts.
I’m not saying don’t for for cybersecurity, though, simply that you should be armed with the facts when you go in. A lot of computer science-related majors at universities are “CS lite” majors that don’t really give you enough training in computer science to make you effective. However, the cybersecurity program at St. John’s actually looks pretty legit - it requires some of the same programming and computer science fundamentals classes that a CS major would, but also has classes that specialize in information science, data structures and data security. So it seems more versatile than a more limited major would be.
The Champlain College major looks like an IT major with a specialization in cybersecurity. If I went there I might add a minor in computer science and/or make sure I took a lot of solid CS programs.
@juillet How about Stevens Cybersecurity undergrad major? Is it better than these two?
Looking forward.
I have no idea. Cybersecurity isn’t my field, and it’s often difficult to compare individual undergraduate majors because typically, majors aren’t ranked - entire universities are. That’s because most undergrads enter a school as a freshman and stay all four years, and if that’s the case the entire undergraduate program of education is more important a factor than a specific major or program.
My earlier assessment is based simply upon looking at the course requirements of the cybersecurity majors of each school and comparing them to what I know about computer science majors. You can easily do the same by taking a look at the classes offered in the Stevens major and compare them to the classes in the computer science department there, and to the cybersecurity majors at Champlain and St. John’s.
My other two cents is that St. John’s is a more traditional comprehensive university; Champlain is a career college; and Stevens is a pretty specialized technical institute. The experiences and undergraduate focus are going to be very different. So think about what kind of experience you might want.
St. John’s in Queens is better than Champlain college, but Stevens is certainly better than both.
@RobinPuri, I don’t know anything about Cyber Security at either school, and I know nothing about St. John’s, but I would think that Steven’s has a better reputation for Computer Science than St. John’s.
Stevens is well known in the area for tech(it is a tech school), but I wouldn’t have even known that St. John’s offers Computer Science. I’m not saying it’s definitely not good, I’m just saying that most people probably don’t think of Computer Science when they think of St. John’s. It could be different for Cyber Security, but it would surprise me.
Do you mean you already have an undergrad degree?
@“Erin’s Dad” Its a 3 year course which is typically pursued after 10th standard here in India. So basically I have High school + One year of undergraduate equivalence. Which is why I applied as a transfer student. So I should be completing my bachelors in 3 years.
Wow. I’m surprised you were offered that much for grants as a transfer. Good luck.