texasex

I have a junior who has decided to major in computer science. He is not interested in the electrical engineering end of the spectrum as much as web software applications development or similar. We are located in the Boston area. We are just starting this whole process, so I would appreciate any advice relative to specific schools that we should consider, within 350 miles of Boston, because of their good Computer Science programs. My son is intelligent, but not enough to get into Harvard, MIT, etc., so we're focused on good public universities or less exclusive private universities. I tried to find some kind of school rating for Computer Science over the internet, but came up empty. If anyone knows of one, let me know.

Thanks!

barrons

U Maryland

jessiehl

Northeastern, Tufts, NYU have good CS programs.

RIT has an undergraduate software engineering major, which sounds like a better fit for him than CS (but there are not many schools offering software engineering majors yet).

fireflyscout

Also RPI, WPI, Northeastern, Stevens Institute of Technology.

weldon

I would second RPI

collegehelp

I would second U Maryland

innocentbystande

I went to Holy Cross and majored in mathematics and computer science and was able to land a job at Microsoft where I have spent 11 great years. Microsoft thought highly of HC's program.

ricegal

There is no rating for Computer Science undergraduate programs - only for graduate programs (and that's related to the research going on and papers published, etc.). The last undergrad rating was the Gourman report in the mid 90's. If you search on this forum you will find it. I used Rugg's Recommendations when beginning the search for my son. I got it from the school counselor, but our library also had it.

collegehelp

Gourman Report undergrad comp sci ranking:

MIT
Carnegie Mellon
UC Berkeley
Cornell
U Illinios UC
UCLA
Yale
Caltech
U Texas Austin
U Wisconsin Madison
U Maryland CP
Princeton
U Washington
USC
SUNY Stony Brook
Brown
Georgia Tech
U Penn
U Rochester
NYU
U Minnesota
U Utah
Columbia
Ohio State
Rice
Duke
Northwestern
SUNY Buffalo
U Pittsburgh
UC Irvine
UC San Diego
U Mass Amherst
Rutgers NB
Indiana U Bloomington
Penn State UP
UC Santa Barbara
Syracuse
Iowa St
RPI
UVA
U Michigan AA
U Iowa
U Conn
Southern Methodist
US Naval Acad
US Military Acad
U Houston
U Kansas
Washington U St Louis
Mich St
Stevens Inst
Case Western
Texas A&M
U Oklahoma
Kansas State
Vanderbilt
Washington State

Theotherguy

woah, UT is really high up there!

Now I don't feel so bad if I don't get into Carnegie Mellon, I could get into UT for sure!

JWT86

Only if you live in Texas - and even then it's not quite that easy!

midmo

That Gourman report's date is 1998. That is pretty dated for a field changing as quickly as computer science, isn't it? That is longer than most research grant cycles, so programs could move up or down significantly over that time period.

Also, does anyone know how the evaluation differs between graduate and undergraduate programs?

Is another report due soon?

QW553

As a field, CS changes quickly. But the top schools don't change much, because most of the changes in CS came from the top schools' researches and their graduates.

roderick

another ranking of cs pgms

Google-based Ranking of Computer Science and Engineering Departments

liu02bhs

UT is difficult to get into if you are OoS. The high acceptance rate is because of the top 10% rule, which Texas is cutting back on. CS in-state is not a sure shot if you can't get in CMU.