From what I’m starting to see. Almost every state university and lots of medium/big private universities have great standard CS programs (Tufts, ASU,Georgia Tech, UVA , Uni Washington)
Of course there are those amazing programs in Harvard, MIT, CMU, and a couple others, but from what I’m seeing there isn’t a huge variation in CS program quality… just some might have more course offerings / more funding, right?
What about polytechnic or institutes of technology (Rochester Inst. of Tech, Illinois Inst. of Tech?)… do they have an edge in CS?
When it comes to those small liberal arts unis or small unis (Grinnel, Swathmore) they usually might have CS, but underfunded or not huge focus on CS that can take you to work at good companies, right?
So what I’m seeing here is small/small liberal arts colleges mostly are not good for CS… I should stick to medium/big colleges?
CS departments do vary in size and quality, but that is not necessarily consistent with the ranking or prestige of the school, and they vary even with a given school size range.
No, they aren’t. All CS programs offer the same basics (linear algebra, probabilities and statistics, discrete math, data structures, systems, computability and complexity theory, algorithms, etc.), taught at different levels to accommodate different types of students on different campuses. Some programs go significantly deeper than others.
What primarily differentiate various CS programs are the upper-level CS course offerings. There’re lots of subfields/tracks within a CS program: from the plain vanilla software engineering, to the currently popular artificial intelligence, to the exotic quantum computing, among many others. Liberal arts colleges, with the exception of Harvey Mudd, tend to cover only the basics (perhaps with a few intro AI courses thrown in). Research universities tend to cover many more of these subfields, but no CS program, including CMU, covers every subfield. Only one (or perhaps two) program covers quantum computing at the undergraduate level, for example.
I think international students can only work in the US for a year after graduation. Does the name of the school matter to companies in your home country? Make sure you attend a college that will make you competitive in the job market when you return home.
That’s a thing? I don’t think so. I think if you get a job in the U.S they vouch for you to get a work visa or sth. I have tons of friends who work in the U.S after attending college there.
@titanrey15: Here is some information in regards to the OPT program for International students. It is not very easy to remain in the US after graduation as noted by other posters, so do not expect this will be an option when you graduate.
Yes, it’s a thing. I work in higher education (specifically in CS) and deal with international students every day. Spend your money on a US degree if you want, but don’t do it with the assumption that you’ll be able to remain in the US permanently after you graduate. I don’t remember any student in recent memory who has.
Liberal arts colleges have the weaknesses already mentioned - primarily fewer advanced courses. But they do have strengths too - smaller classes, work with professors directly most of the time, more attention in general, usually.
The quality of teaching will vary. D’s CS courses at a top LAC varied from “wrote the textbook” amazing prof to “first year after PhD” awful. The former is tenured, the latter was let go after one year, and I suppose you can get a dud or a gem at a top U also.
I would not say Swat or Grinnell were underfunded, at all.
Swarthmore is running into capacity limitations due to the rapid rise of CS major popularity. I.e. those thinking that attending a LAC will escape these kinds of issues found at many large universities may be unpleasantly surprised. https://www.swarthmore.edu/computer-science/2018-19-changes-to-cs-major
Beyond the difficulties of finding and retaining quality CS faculty, many colleges, especially LACs, simply don’t have enough large size lecture halls to accommodate larger class sizes. Waitlisting, prioritizing, rationing, and other types of restrictions are very common in CS, especially the mid-upper-level courses. This is one of most important issues a CS applicant should focus on.
