Comparing private schools in computer science and finance

College Search & Lists
1

<p>My sister applied for international transfer for undergraduates and she is going to major either on finance or computer science.(she is a really hard worker :)>- )
She gets into the following schools:
Boston University, New York University, University of Rochester, and University of Southern California.
Which one shall she take for either financial mathematics or computer science?
Can you also explain why? Thanks :)) </p>

2

<p>Great choices. Is she directly admitted to a particular program? What school in NYU? USC?</p>

3

<p>Any ideas on life/career goals or geographic preference?</p>

<p>CS and fin math give you different skills (and thus different job outcomes).</p>

4

<p>Is she certain to be able to pay for these schools? </p>

<p>I’d suggest URochester for its strengths in both areas. However, as an international student she might want to go with a school with a more int’l reputation like NYU, USC, or BU. I don’t think of USC or BU as particularly strong in either area. Perhaps someone will enlighten me.</p>

5

<p>USC has a decent CS program but it is probably becoming more well known due to it’s proximity to “Silicon Beach”- a new-ish startup area in LA/Santa Monica. I can’t attest to how good the academic program is. Of course some will say that the USC CS dept has contributed to the rise of Silicon Beach, who knows.</p>

<p>I don’t think NYU or BU have particularly strong programs.</p>

6

<p>I disagree with @jkeil911‌ in that from an outcomes perspective, I don’t think Rochester is stronger than the rest (I’m quite familiar with CS and somewhat familiar with fin math and, while I won’t say it’s bad, I don’t see Rochester as being at the top in either). It is strong in econ.</p>

<p>NYU Stern has ties to Wall Street and NY and LA both have tech startups. I will say that fin math would be more limiting (you’re really only trained for the financial industry), while with a CS degree, you’re not tied to any particular industry.</p>

<p>Oh, and USC has a famously strong alumni network.</p>

<p>Without knowing the particular schools within the uni as well as goals/interests, however, it’s going to be hard to provide advice.</p>

7

<p>ARWU rates USC’s CS department as #10 in the world. If it’s known for anything, it’s things like games, broadcasting, and film applications.</p>

<p>For finance, nothing beats being in NY though.</p>

8

<p>USC has decent CS program, I’m not sure it’s top 10. Obviously I don’t read too much into these rankings. However, it has a really good finance concentration as far as I can tell by looking at the textbooks in the bookstore. It’s not a surprise to me because USC Marshall is known for strength in business so its finance department is probably just as strong. I’ve just heard the math department and economics are not as good. One person on CC whose husband taught math at USC was posted here. </p>

9

<p>OP, is your sister looking at a quantitative finance career emphasizing computers?</p>

10

<p>Been looking into summer internship support programs at some lesser known CS depts (Carleton, Grinnell, etc) and took a look at linkedin. If you search for current title: “software intern”, USC is 3rd on the list:</p>

<p><a href=“https://■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/vsearch/p?title=software%20intern&openAdvancedForm=true&titleScope=C&locationType=I&countryCode=us&rsid=35448771405184378241&orig=FCTD&pt=people&openFacets=N,G,CC,ED&f_N=F,S,A,O&f_ED=17971”>https://■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/vsearch/p?title=software%20intern&openAdvancedForm=true&titleScope=C&locationType=I&countryCode=us&rsid=35448771405184378241&orig=FCTD&pt=people&openFacets=N,G,CC,ED&f_N=F,S,A,O&f_ED=17971&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>UCB is #1 and CMU #2. Unscientific of course, but an interesting datapoint. Stanford probably does not make the top 5 because they are all out starting up their own companies. :-)</p>

11

<p>According to this article, depends on the company, MIT and CMU are both feeder to Google.
USC is feeder to Yahoo.</p>

<p><a href=“Tech company feeder schools: Stanford to Google, Washington to Microsoft, SJSU to Apple.”>http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2014/05/23/tech_company_feeder_schools_stanford_to_google_washington_to_microsoft_sjsu.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;