Hi,
I am a prospective computer science major who is struggling to make a decision between the following schools…
Drexel University (Pennoni Honors College)
Northeastern University
University of Maryland: College Park (Scholars)
New York University
Lehigh University
If you have input on which of the following schools would be the best for a computer science major who wants to have an easy chance at landing a job after college, please let me know.
Thanks.
Are you applying, or were you accepted?
How much $$$ u wanna spend?
(also if you are from PA, why isn’t Penn State on the list?)
CS is the great equalizer. Your school isn’t as important as grades and internships. All five schools will prepare you well. I believe UMD is probably the highest ranked on the list but I wouldn’t use that as the main criteria.
Which one do you like the best? Which one is best financially? Going into debt is a bad idea if you can avoid. When you picture the next 4 years which school brings a smile?
Both sons applied to Drexel. Different majors but we liked the school more than we thought we would. The kids we met from Penoni were top-notch. The Co-op is a big selling point. S20 also liked Northeastern. Their co-op program was a big selling point.
A big factor is your comfort level and ability to succeed at the school. You’ll have better employment opportunities with a solid GPA, graduating on time, etc. Have you had a chance to visit or deeply research all of them. That can often help make a decision.
From a pure reputation/ranking/quality standpoint, based on my research for a D applying to CS next year, UMD would probably be my top choice, followed by NYU and NE.
Financial considerations also obviously need to factor in.
If money isn’t an issue (at all), always err for the private side?
NYU is a great school and you won’t have to fight your way for a spot in class?
All of these will get you a job post-college and are of a pretty decent to high quality for CS. Based purely on CS program strength alone, I see a slightly bigger gap between UMD/NYU/Northeastern and Lehigh/Drexel, so I’d lean to those three to start and then pick between those based on cost and fit.
Personally, I had a similar list and chose Northeastern 7 years ago and would still do the same again (personally, again, see what fits in your case) and am happy to answer specific questions there!
CS has tons of strong public schools, so I don’t know if that holds here given UMD’s strength, at least in research and reputation. Not all public schools have issues with getting CS classes, though I can’t speak to UMD specifically.
I am sure it’s not the case at ALL schools. UMD is a fantastic school (and my DS22 will be applying there as well, but it’s CS department is balooning from what I am reading)
NYU is a fantastic school (I F Y O U C A N A F F O R D I T), their engineering dept and CS major are very strong. Can’t beat proximity to employers as well.
I’d have picked NYU out of the OP’s choices. Only reason my DS’22 won’t be applying there is that we want him out of NYC (as we live there) for at least 4 years. And maybe have a more traditional campus-college-experience.
All of them are fine. See if any of the schools offer specialty tracks that you’re interested in, e.g., CS + games. CS + business, etc.
Yes, almost. Only very few still place no restriction. Some set up separate barriers to initial entry into the major. Some use weed-out courses. Some limit the number of courses one can take. Some prioritize courses based on seniority. Some have long waitlists for popular courses. Some have enomously large lectures that are almost indistinguishable from distance learning even before COVID…
More than very few, if you look beyond the usual colleges that people on these forums focus on.
For example, the CSU system has 21 campuses that offer CS as a major. At 12 of them, CS is not impacted, meaning that the campus’ baseline admission thresholds (which may be competitively determined at the campus level) will admit to the CS major. At 9 of them, CS is impacted, but 7 of those have all majors impacted, which means that the major’s admission threshold is competitively determined separately from the campus or other majors at the campus.
It would not be surprising if this were the case for less selective colleges generally, since CS (like engineering majors) has a “hard” reputation that scares off many of the students at less selective colleges.
It is at colleges where selectivity is like that of popular state flagships where the number of students who want to study CS and are academically capable of doing so tends to exceed the department’s capacity.
Did you get direct admission to CS?
Limited Enrollment Program : University of Maryland describes what students need to do to change into CS if they enter without direct admission. It also describes what direct admission students need to do to stay in the major (but that is not hard, C- or higher grades in specific courses and 2.0 or higher overall GPA at 45 credits).