<p>I have been accepted to a few places; which of these is the best for Computer Science? I'd appreciate it if you could rank them in order:</p>
<p>1.Colgate University
2.University of Pennsylvania
3.Williams College
4.Amherst College
5.Johns Hopkins University</p>
<p>I'm quite sure I want to do CS, and what I'm looking for are:
1.Quality of CS program
2.Repute - yes, the name is important; employers do take this into account
3.Grad school opportunities
4.Overall quality of education </p>
<p>Thanks so much for helping!</p>
<p>I've posted this in the Engineering forum as well, not sure which is more appropriate.</p>
<p>I’d drop Amherst from your list. They are going through the transition from a relatively easier program to a rigorous program and some of the process has been confusing to students.</p>
<p>My personal opinion on CS is that you are better off at a university that also has an engineering department as there are more resources for the hardware part of your degree than in universities without engineering departments. I feel that a decent understanding of circuits should accompany a CS degree.</p>
<p>You didn’t list these but schools like MIT, WPI, Stanford, Princeton, Dartmouth, Brown, etc. are better known if you want to eventually wind up in software engineering.</p>
<p>I would choose John Hopkins or Penn. Small colleges offer a great nurturing environment, but they do feel quite limiting once you develop your academic interests. As much as I love attending Bryn Mawr, I would go nuts if I was not able to take advanced undergraduate and graduate classes at Penn.</p>
<p>Take a look at the course offerings of all the colleges on your list - not just the course descriptions but the actual schedule of classes. Some courses on the general course list might be on a two-year rotation, and others may have not been offered in 10 years. You want to know how many options you have in any single semester. John Hopkins seems to offer the greatest number and variety of CS classes, followed by Penn.</p>