<p>WJB: Thank you for your kind answer. My son loves MIT but as parents, we would like him to at least experience some other great schools before making the final decision. I really appreciate your post.</p>
<p>Agree w/wjb. Four years ago D1 was accepted everywhere she applied, including HYP, not 1 likely.</p>
<p>RE: Yale CS</p>
<p>As a current student who’s taken a lot of CS classes, I can shed some light on the situation: Yale’s CS department is an under-appreciated gem. It doesn’t have the prominence that some of the other programs might have because it is small with very few majors, but in all other respects, it’s incredibly strong. </p>
<p>The main impact of the department being small is that there isn’t a lot of variety in the classes, but this is changing as more students are becoming interested in CS classes (something like a 150% increase in enrollment in the introductory classes happened). On the other hand, the classes are very well-taught, with many of the professors being at the top of their fields. A large part of the faculty was recruited from MIT. If you visit, I suggest sitting in on the intro algorithms class. </p>
<p>Being a rickoid, I have many friends at MIT, and from our discussions, I can tell that MIT does a better job of teaching applicable programming concepts, but it doesn’t do as well at teaching the fundamental theory behind CS. </p>
<p>Another factor to consider is the opportunities after graduation: most of the CS majors I know are heading to Google, Microsoft, a startup or graduate school.</p>
<p>What does STEM stand for? Sorry for being so ignorant.</p>
<p>Science, Technology, Engineering, Math</p>
<p>Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM)</p>
<p>Google is your friend. ;)</p>