Hey everyone. I’m currently choosing between Yale and UT Austin Turing Scholars for CS and desperately need advice please.
Just a note to start, cost is not a factor in my decision. I’m looking to major in CS, but I enjoy the humanities and might pursue a minor in History, or the equivalent of a minor in coursework at Yale. I’ve visited both schools and loved both of them, so I’m very torn on where to go.
Thoughts on UT Austin:
Academics: Honors program is excellent, 50 students and honors classes, but it has a weaker liberal arts programs, and it’s harder to get classes
Location / Campus: Great campus vibe, weather, location, opportunities
People: Good community vibe, huge school so I can basically make my social life what I want it to be
Thoughts on Yale:
Academics: Amazing liberal arts programs, with no strict course requirements. Weaker CS program by a good margin - it’s a good program, but it’s not great
Location: Really good campus vibe, but not great location and garbage weather
People: Great community vibe, excellent students, and I love the residential college system
Any thoughts on which school I should choose / why?
How do you figure that?
USNWR graduate program rankings (FWIW) has UT at #10 and Yale at #20.
That isn’t such a big margin. And it does not necessarily translate to undergraduate programs.
Do you see specific courses you’d want to take that are available at Texas but not at Yale?
Are you aware of specific, fantastic professors available to undergrads at Texas with nobody comparable at Yale?
YALE. People can talk about “fit” or whatever, but if you got into Yale, it will always be on your resume. Now, people can say “out in the working world, nobody cares where you went to college,” and maybe that is true in some fields. But in my field (law) and my husband’s field (medicine) it absolutely does matter, and matters for a very very long time. And having an ivy league school like Yale on your resume opens doors you’ll never imagine. Both my husband and I went to public universities and ivy league graduate/professional schools, and I can’t tell you how many doors those names have opened. It’s a fact. I wouldn’t think twice about this decision. If cost were an issue, I may counsel you a bit differently, but you said it is not, so I’m telling you straight. Go to Yale.
OP is going into the computer field, not IB or Law. And in the computer field,Turing is priceless. Beyond compare. Any of the FAANG tech giants will compete to get a Turing kid almost as soon as you are on campus, so get ready to choose your employer starting fall freshman year. There are plenty other Ut computer kids at each of the tech giants,(far more than Yale, not really that well regarded for undergrad cs), but as Turing, you will write your own ticket. Congrats.
And I did check with my relatives who went Ivy for CS and are now at FAANG. They agreed, no question, become a Turing. When do you want to start at Google??
I would advise my child to avoid a place you know is “not a great location and garbage weather.” No one is guaranteed another day on this earth, so do you really want to spend 4 years in a place like that?
Also, suppose having Yale on your resume matters somewhere. Do you really want to work with people that that matters to?
Yale for prestige, rigor, flexibility, size, connections and residential system.
For people who say they see more UT hires, UT has 50,000 students just on their main campus, obviously they have higher numbers for everything.
If money was a huge factor, UT is fantastic but not the best option for people who have choices. If money is main driving force then UTD has a decent CS program and a student like OP can attend for free. UT doesn’t give merit. If aid is available then Yale is even a better choice.
I know Turing kids that did not get internships freshmen year. Turing kids tend to be ivy smart but not all Turing kids can actually program or know the tools out of high school so they do not readily pass the technical interviews. You still need to be competent. They do have a better chance at landing an internship than a common CS student. Chance of getting an internship as a common UT CS freshmen ~20%.
Stats:
Around 140 students are offered Turing. Avg SAT 1560. The yield rate on Turing offers is 45%. ~60 students per year. Only 30% complete Turing. 70% drop it. So lots of kids pass on it or quit. The utility of the program is over after the second year.
Another thing is that the first year of CS even for Turing will teach you no more than what you learned in HS CS… if your HS had a decent CS program. So you might be bored.
UT Austin has 4 and 6 year year graduation rates of 70% and 83%, although I would imagine they’re higher in the honors college. Yale’s 4 and 6 year rates are 87% and 97%. I can’t give you advice about the strength of the departments but I do think graduation rates are always something to consider.
And it shocks most people to learn that most Ivy schools aren’t that highly regarded in computer science. They were relatively late to the game, seriously underfunded at Yale,and lack the breadth of some of the big public powerhouses. So overall as a university, Yale is far better, but for computer science, UT, particularly with Turing, is much better. Don’t expect to find summer jobs either your first or second year at Yale CS-my relatives classmates didn’t, even from the top 20% of the class. Yes, he was pretty shocked too. Thought the results would be much better. If however you may not stay in computer science, then Yale has good alternatives. And no, the number of UT folks at FAANG isn’t due to its size, it is simply a better computer department, just as Wharton is overrepresented in Wall St for the strength of its finance dept. Departmental strength matters a lot.
If this was a decision between Stanford CS & UT-Honors Turing Scholar, then my answer might be different, but Yale is not the equivalent of Stanford CS, & Yale CS is not on the same level as UT-Austin Honors & Turing Scholar for CS.
If OP was uncertain as to CS as a major & career goal, then Yale would most likely be the better option. Based on what OP has shared on CC, UT-Austin Honors & Turing Scholar is the better option for CS.
P.S. Plus, OP might be a Texas resident & entitled to in-state tuition at UT-Austin. Even though OP wrote that cost is not a factor, we do not know why. Is it due to extravagant family wealth, substantial financial aid grants or a family intoxicated by the name & prestige of Yale & therefore willing to mortgage the farm for Ivy League prestige.
@Greymeer: That is too broad of a statement regarding large public universities. Everything is relative & needs to be examined in context.
In this case, it is between a very well respected large public university’s outstanding CS department with university honors & special status for a CS major as a Turing Scholar at $50,000 per year if full pay, non-resident and an elite Ivy with a lesser CS department at $70,000 per year if full pay.
Idea that UT Turing is so much better known and more prestigious among employers than Yale just shows how disconnected CC is from the rest of the world. I think its safe to say that over 99% of the public and employers don’t know anything beyond the school names, and don’t give a hoot about it.
Regardless, when it comes to CS entry level jobs, school names matter little for companies like FAANG, applicants all have to take the tests and go thru the same process. That’s why schools like San Jose State and U of Phoenix have more graduates at FAANG than Princeton in that regard. I highly doubt Yale’s perceived “weakness” in CS dept would have any material impact on OP’s learning CS at undergrad level and preparedness for good CS jobs.
But the four year college is about more than acquiring some vocational skills; its about the experience—forming life long friendship and building professional connections. I imagine if OP is going to someday pivot to the business side of CS such connections and college experiences will become important.
Good luck in choosing the college and let us know what you finally decide.
Seems to me that this comes down to how serious/certain you are about CS. If you go to UT and end up bailing out of CS, you may end up wishing you’d gone to Yale. (It’s not like you can just switch into Plan II at will if you decide you prefer an elite liberal arts program.) But if you go to Yale and end up laser-focused on CS, you may wish you’d taken the Turing spot. Tough call, because not everyone can foresee how they will feel about major/career until they have some college-level experience under their belt. Congrats on having two amazing options, though!
Mom here of a Yale 2018 grad in CS and Music. If you are looking for an incredible college experience, I would say that Yale is the school for you. My son was upset that his sister wasn’t accepted at Yale because he feels like she will miss out on the many traditions and experiences that Yale offers that have nothing to do with the academics. Mind you, she was accepted at Stanford, Columbia, and top-tiered LACs, so it wasn’t that she didn’t get into phenomenal schools. It is just that he feels like Yale offers an exceptional college experience that is difficult for other schools to replicate. Of course, take that with a grain of salt as he has only been to Yale! ?
FYI - The company where he works paid the tuition for him to take an eleven-week, intensive Hack Reactor class in San Francisco before starting his job. As someone stated above, applicants for these jobs go through the same process. My son’s first round of interviews was basically solving logic problems.