Computer Science major - MIT, Princeton, Berkeley, Harvard or Columbia?

College Search & Lists
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<p>So I’ve been accepted at these schools, and I don’t know where to attend. I’m going in as a Computer Science major, but I plan on studying Applied Mathematics and Engineering (Mechanical and Electrical) at least a little bit. My other academic interests include linguistics, european history and economics. I also make electronic music and I attend a lot of concerts. For me the benefits and drawbacks for each school are as follows:</p>

<ul>
<li>MIT -
It is the best in EE, CompSci, Mechanical and very highly ranked in Math
Boston might have a decent music scene
The internship opportunities in MIT labs would be great
The internship opportunities with startups would be decent, probably not great</li>
</ul>

<p>-Princeton-
It is the best in Math
The isolation of the college town might help me focus
I liked it when I visited (during the summer, before I was admitted)
The internship opportunities in Princeton labs would be great
The internship opportunities with startups would be bad in Princeton, but maybe I could work in Philadelphia or NYC</p>

<p>-Berkeley-
It is almost equal to or equal to MIT in EE, CompSci and also highly ranked in Math
The Bay Area rules!
It’s cheaper (I live in California)
I liked it when I visited (during the summer, before I was admitted)
I might get less attention (large public school)
They’re funding has been cut dramatically (I might see a reduction in the quality of my education)
The internship opportunities in Berkeley labs would be great, maybe difficult to get though as an undergrad
The internship opportunities with startups would be amazing (Bay Area Tech Firms)</p>

<p>-Harvard-
It has the most prestige (I mean it’s Harvard) and a highly ranked Math program
Boston is a pretty cool city
I was kind of tepid when I visited (but I was being really critical)
The programs in most of the things I’m primarily interested in are not very highly ranked
The internship opportunities in Harvard labs would be great, but maybe difficult to get as an undergrad
The internship opportunities with startups in Boston would be decent, not great.</p>

<p>-Columbia-
NYC is the best place of all!
I liked it a lot when I visited.
I’ve been offered a place in the Egleston Scholars program (10,000 dollar stipend, priorities in Internships, counseling and more personal attention)
They’re programs in the things I’m primarily interested in are not very highly ranked
The internship opportunities in Columbia labs would be good and easy to get as an Egleston scholar
The internship opportunities with startups would be be very good (NYC is an emerging tech center)</p>

<p>Where should I go, given my interests? Which colleges, if any, should I stop considering all together? Which of these colleges would give me the best credentials for grad school? Any help at all is welcome, I honestly just have no clue how to choose at this point, although I’m kind of leaning Princeton/MIT.</p>

<p>Keep in mind that I am probably not going to get any financial aid (my parents have a large income), but that it’s not a big deal because they are prepared to help me pay most of my expenses.</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

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<p>Rankings from the latest NRC study of Graduate Departments</p>

<p>COMPUTER SCIENCE</p>

<p>1—Stanford
2—Princeton
3—MIT
4—Berkeley
5—Carnegie Mellon
6—Cornell
7—Harvard
8—UC Santa Barbara
9—Penn
10–UCLA</p>

<p>APPLIED MATHEMATICS</p>

<p>1—Princeton
2—Brown
3—UCLA
4—U. of Washington
5—Cornell
6—MIT
7—Northwestern
8—NYU
9—U. of Arizona
10–UC Davis</p>

<p>PURE MATHEMATICS</p>

<p>1—Princeton
2—Harvard
3—NYU
4—Berkeley
5—Stanford
6—MIT
7—Yale
8—Penn State
9—U. of Michigan
10–U. of Wisconsin</p>

<p>ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING</p>

<p>1—Stanford
2—Princeton
3—Harvard
4—UC Santa Barbara
5—U. of Illinois Urbana
6—Cal Tech
7—Georgia Tech
8—UCLA
9—U. of Michigan
10–MIT</p>

<p>MECHANICAL ENGINEERING</p>

<p>1—MIT
2—Stanford
3—Berkeley
4—U. of Michigan
5—Brown
6—Northwestern
7—UC Santa Barbara
8—Georgia Tech
9—Princeton
10–U. of Maryland</p>

<p>HISTORY</p>

<p>1—Princeton
2—Harvard
3—Princeton (different department)
4—JHU
5—U. of Chicago
6—Columbia
7—Harvard (different department)
8—Penn
9—Stanford
10–Berkeley</p>

<p>ECONOMICS</p>

<p>1—Harvard
2—MIT
3—U. of Chicago
4—Princeton
5—Berkeley
6—Harvard (different department)
7—Stanford
8—Cal Tech
9—Yale
10–NYU</p>

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<p>The Princeton area is a hub of high tech companies. NYC is only 45 minutes away.</p>

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<p>Honors @ Columbia? This is awesome - congrats!</p>

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<p>@japanoko</p>

<p>I’m basing my rankings off of US News and ARWU, but this ranking system (I’ll admit I’ve never seen it before) makes Princeton look really incredible for me. When were these published? Also, what is the methodology behind these rankings? </p>

<p>Also, I was unaware that Princeton is a hub of high tech companies, which in particular are your referring to?</p>

<p>@ susgeek</p>

<p>Thank you very much! Do you think this makes Columbia a more attractive option than the others?</p>

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<p>Well I liked both the stipend and the internship opportunities. </p>

<p>I personally don’t put too much stock in rankings (to a degree). There is nothing that Columbia does that Columbia doesn’t do very well.</p>

<p>Of the schools you list, Columbia is, quite honestly, the only one I have visited, so I hesitate to weigh in too much. But what you have been offered is impressive.</p>

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<p>Also I used “they’re” instead of “their” a few times in my original post. embarrassing!!! (I was cut and pasting a bit too quickly I guess)</p>

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<p>junkmusic, the National Research Council rankings are the most extensive study done on the quality of individual university departments in the last 15 years and trumps any results that might come from the USNWR departmental rankings.</p>

<p>more details here:</p>

<p>[NRC</a> Rankings Overview: Computer Sciences - Faculty - The Chronicle of Higher Education](<a href=“NRC Rankings Overview: Computer Sciences”>NRC Rankings Overview: Computer Sciences)</p>

<p>and here:</p>

<p>[Find</a> the Graduate School That’s Right for You — PhDs.org Graduate School Guide](<a href=“http://graduate-school.phds.org/]Find”>http://graduate-school.phds.org/)</p>

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<p>susgeek, Columbia is a distant 5th for what the OP wants, particularly in the specific areas that he wants to study.</p>

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<p>I didn’t ask for this in the original post, but I would also love to hear which one you would choose if you were me, and maybe a brief explanation of your choice. I can see that susgeek would probably go Columbia and japanoko would choose Princeton, is that right?</p>

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<p>junkmusic, years ago I had a similar choice, except instead of Harvard and Columbia I had Stanford and Yale - All intended for ChE (Harvard had no ChE at the time and still doesn’t). I chose Princeton and never looked back. Some of the major reasons were that Princeton was just as good or better than MIT in ChE at the time, but also had top Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences departments - and the campus was the single nicest campus in the country. Princeton is also dedicated very much towards undegraduates, something which is questionable for MIT and Harvard and certainly Columbia.</p>

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<p>I would be careful about the NRC ratings as they are for GRADUATE schools, not UG. If $ is an issue, and it sounds like it is, my pick would be Berkeley for UG. If $$ is no object then go to MIT.</p>

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<p>@japanoko</p>

<p>wow, it sounds like your experience at Princeton has been wonderful! The fact that you’re an Engineering major and that you had all of those choices makes Princeton sound like an attractive place to go. You also make an excellent point about the undergraduate focus: it will probably be superior at Princeton than at any of these other schools.</p>

<p>@menloparkmom</p>

<p>Money is not a real issue, thank you for your advice.</p>

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<p>so menlo, say you want to find the quality of an undegraduate department such as Physics, Math, History or Computer Science. What do you do? Do you not think that a university that has a high ranking graduate department would also potentially have a high quality undergraduate deparment, particularly if the University requires all professors in the University to teach at the undergraduate school?</p>

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<p>junkmusic, I think that you might enjoy reading this:</p>

<p>[Princeton’s</a> Keller Center for Innovation in Engineering Education: About the Keller Center](<a href=“McGraw Commons – Online Platform for Course Blogs, Course Websites, and Course Projects”>McGraw Commons – Online Platform for Course Blogs, Course Websites, and Course Projects)</p>

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<p>Rankings can be useful when you’re just getting started, for a first pass at matching your abilities and interests. Now you’re looking at 5 schools that are among the best of the best in various combinations of the things you want. The difference between #1 and #6 or #2 and #10 in a graduate ranking is fairly irrelevant now, don’t you think?</p>

<p>If you’re tepid about Harvard then rule it out. I don’t sense any personal connection between you and MIT; if I’m right, rule it out too. Try talking to CS majors and professors about opportunities for research and internships, faculty interaction, and general quality of life at the other 3. I think Princeton has the best undergraduate focus and quality of life. However, if Berkeley or Columbia seem close, or stronger in other ways important to you, then maybe one of them should win on cost. Due to size and budget issues at Berkeley, for me it’d probably come down to Columbia v. Princeton.</p>

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<p>No one has ever been able to explain to me what undergraduate “focus” is, or specifically how Harvard undergraduates are supposed to suffer from the lack of it.</p>

<p>I was an undergrad at Bryn Mawr (tiny LAC) and Harvard, and then went to Harvard Law. I think this “issue” is bunk.</p>