Which Computer Science department is generally known to have the better program? Are there specific disciplines within the CS major that may better at one of these universities vs the other?
Michigan is ranked far above Brown. The disciplines come more into play in grad school.
TooOld4Shool, while I agree that Michigan is significantly stronger than Brown in Engineering, in Mathematics and CS, Brown more than holds its own against Michigan. So if the OP is considering CS as a major, I do not think Michigan offers a distinct edge over Brown academically. I would go for CoA, and if that is not a concern, then I would go for fit.
Brown has better combined degrees for CS-Econ and CS-Math. This along with Brown’s open curriculum makes it a lot more feasible to graduate in 4 years. A sizable percentage of students at Michigan need at least an extra semester to graduate especially from Computer Science / Engineering
ForeverAlone, I am not sure I agree.
CS LSA + Econ or CS LSA + Math can easily be done in 4 years.
CS Engineering + Math or CS Engineering + Econ could require an extra semester or more, depending on how many APs one takes in high school. I took A Level Mathematics and A Level Econ in high school, so I was not required to take Math 115, 116 or Econ 101 and 102. Graduating in 4 years with a CS Engineering + Econ double major would have been relatively manageable.
@Alexandre, I agree with you if you are just considering CS. Given the relatively small difference in course selection, it might make sense for the OP to select computer engineering or computer science in the engineering school.
Son would like to do CS and Environmental Science not necessarily wanting to major in Engineering.
Michigan!
umsigmadom, Environmental Science and CS are both part of LSA. Your son could conceivably double major in 4 years without too much trouble. What Earth/Environmental Science is your son interested in? Michigan is arguably #1 in Geology.
Alexandre, I couldn’t disagree more. Your post shows clear naivety about the Computer Science programs at Michigan.
Read my post again. It is not about whether its impossible or not to graduate with dual CS-Econ or CS-Math at Michigan in 4 years.
It about the easiness of CS-Econ or CS-Math @Brown 4 years > CS-Econ or CS-Math @ Michigan.
Btw CS Engineering with either Econ or Math is an incredibly dumb idea since CS-LSA exists. A dual degree is not better than a double major for the same subjects. It requires many more credits (most likely another semester $$$) and stress. A dual degree makes more sense for another engineering discipline such as MechE or ChemE.
Brown University doesn’t have distribution or college-wide requirements that LSA or COE does. These classes take up a significant part of the curriculum at Michigan. Brown University has a 84% 4 year graduate rate Michigan is 76%. From my experience as an EECS major, it is relatively common for students to need an extra semester or two to finish a single major in Computer Science. Not only this, the size of EECS enrollment has more than doubled in the last 6 years. However, the faculty and staff could not grow proportionately to support this. More recently, students are prioritizing enrollment into almost any EECS fulfilling course instead of ones they are actually interested in. It hasn’t gotten Berkeley bad yet, but Michigan will either need to hire more faculty or weed more students out before it goes that direction.
In terms of company recruitment and campus resource, I still think Michigan wins in those regards.
Except that never happened. You don’t know how stressful it actually would be.
@Alexandre yes! It is actually Geology!
ForereverAlone, I am not saying it is easy, I am saying that if a student plans well, double majoring in any two disciplines within LSA is perfectly manageable in 8 semesters. If memory serves, LSA’s core is approximately 25-30 credits (3-4 in Race/Ethnicity, 6-8 English/writing, 16 foreign language). Other than that, the courses in the two majors will fulfill all the other requirements, whether it be the 30 credits required outside your major, or the QR requirement. That’s 90 credits one can take in those two majors. It requires planning from day one, but it is perfectly manageable.
By the way, Michigan’s 76%, four year graduation rate is impressive considering the size of our CoE. Do you know Stanford, Rice and Caltech have similar four year graduation rates?
As far as Engineering goes, I hope Michigan consciously decides to shrink enrollment. Growing the faculty would be fine too, but I think Michigan’s optimal size is roughly 20,000 undergrads. The current 28,000 is just too big. Or we could just hire more faculty.
umsigmadom, Michigan’s Geology department is amazing! But Brown’s is also very good. Tough decision.