CS at Penn State vs CompE at UMass Amherst
Hey I am an international student coming in the Fall of this year for my undergrad. The top 2 schools i got into were Penn State for CS and unfortunately i didn’t get CS but I got CompE at UMass Amherst.
I really am stuck between the 2 and cannot decide what would be a better program. The factors i care abt is not necessarily the upfront cost for these colleges as I wont be taking any loans or going into debt as parents will contribute entirely, but rather:-
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Industry/Career/Job/Employment outcomes
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Return on Investment (Penn State is 60K/Year vs UMass Amherst is 50K/Year)
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Social Life/Campus Life/Student Life (Are there parties, outgoing social school etc)
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Greek Life (Planning to rush)
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Idk if location will play a big role (Umass closer to boston vs penn state closer to philly. Guessing itll affect jobs? idk)
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Which place is warmer and less worse in the winter (I come from subtropical climate lol. I prefer warm weather so waiting on USC lol
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Work hard/Play harder lifestyle
TL;DR help me choose which college is more fun, more employable, less cold, better for jobs in tech industry etc. IK one college wont fit all of these, hence, I need your help in making an informed choice.
I also got into stony brook (50K/year), U of Arizona and Indiana University (60K/year), and ASU (60K/year). Not considering any of these for being worser programs or for having a terrible student/social life like stony brook.
I want u guys to weigh in and help me make a choice.
Still awaiting decisions from Purdue, UMD and USC.
The one where you can study what you want - and what fits you best campus wise. You are looking at a ranking - so thinking UMASS CS if you had but a ranking doesn’t make a program better. It’s an opinion or a combo of metrics - that someone made up, created.
If I want to study CS, I’m going to Penn State. If I want engineering, then UMASS.
Penn State is probably a better known world wide name - it’s a top name - in part due to its sports history, etc. The campus is large and beautiful - there’s an airport in town - but not a major airport. It’s hours from the nearest major cities. UMASS is a bit closer to a major city (Hartford) which also has an airport and for international Boston is a major hub - which is closer than PSU is to Philly. But that’s probably not a huge consideration. Umass is in a college town - with multiple other schools nearby.
Since you’re going back home, it’d be hard to measure outcomes. Don’t assume you are staying as an international student - especially in today’s environment.
UMASS is known for its food - and other posters have noted a vibrant muic scene in town.
Both will have fun and Greek life - but given your choice of majors, your fun may be very limited. Penn State if you want major sports.
Study what you want, not an alternative - so it sounds like PSU to me.
Good luck.
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Being from MA, your post reminds me that in-staters often do not give UMASS objective consideration. I may not have dumped IU so quickly as that will be a school trending in the right direction. Moving to your question-
While each school has a similar international population %, Penn State has many more international students. Even more importantly, Penn State has a large OOS population where UMASS does not. These two factors make Penn State the easy choice. You are not coming to the US to develop a narrow group of contacts and friendships IMO. Similarly, Penn States national and global reputation should give you an advantage when looking for a job someday, whether in PA, nationally, or internationally.
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I missed this - thanks @heavyweightcollege I agree, I’d probably not go Stony Brook - but I would not eliminate IU or if I wanted weather U of A - which is what I’d personally choose - but I also don’t know where you are coming from internationally (travel, etc).
I’m not sure anything is “worser” but I also think you’ve chosen very demanding majors - so you can have fun - but not likely as much as you think. You’ll be studying and learning and involved in clubs, etc.
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Wait until you have all your decisions in front of you!
I agree that you should go to where you’ve been accepted to your preferred major. Based on what you shared I think Penn State will be more your vibe that UMass. Neither is known for good weather (the Arizona schools win out there and USC if you get accepted). The rest of your list will have cold winters.
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Those are obviously overlapping, but really quite different majors. My understanding is Umass will not let people switch to CS, so bear that in mind. So make sure to keep that into consideration. That said, if you major in comp eng., you can become a software engineer (MANY do), but if you major in CS you aren’t an engineer. IMO comp e is actually somewhat more flexible and with AI killing a lot of entry level jobs, may be a better choice…
Penn State is WAY bigger than UMass and way more into sports culture and lore.
I think they both will feel cold for you, and you will get used to both:) Both have thousands of students from warm / hot climates every year, they all (or nearly all!) do.
UMass is closer to Boston, NYC, and not that much farther to Philly than Penn State. I HIGHLY doubt Penn State students are going to Philly with any regularity. UMass students are more likely to head to Boston (though still not going to be weekly;) I think UMass wins for location, personally, but that is personal choice. I love New England overall.
Boston / Cambridge, MA is a big very big Tech hub. All big tech companies have decent-sized to big offices, lots of biotech, lots of robotics, a fair bit of defense, etc. I know a LOT of people in high-level tech, none ever lived in PA – they bop from Bay Area to Mass and back and occasionally DC.
UMass’s nickname is Zoomass - both have party school reputations. I don’t know about Greek Life specifically. Engineers and CS both are known for tons and tons of work, though.
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U Mass Computer Engineering is probably the better choice as CS is being overtaken by AI.
Both are party schools.
If interested, look for AI & ML courses.
U Maryland CS & Purdue CS or anything related to engineering would both be outstanding options.
Penn State students do not make the over 3 hour drive to Philadelphia frequently.
Boston, Massachusetts is a high tech hub for employment.
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Be sure to check if you are in the major or if there is secondary admission based on college courses and grades.
yes penn state has a requirement of a 3.8 gpa and taking a few courses to get into cs. but im already got my intent so i just need to maintain this to get CS and complete ETM requirements. if i cannot complete these etm requirements, there is no guarantee i would fare well at computer engineering at UMass either. hence its not really a deal breaker. Plus every student at penn state has to complete ETM requirements to get secondary admission into CS. I looked into cs electives at UMass and turns out i need override and permission from the CICS college to take them such as data structures and AI electives. I really wanted to study both but the umass ce curriculum is very focused on hardware/electronics and a few cs classes sprinkled in (only programming no theory). Wheras at penn state I can study AI/ML/Mathematics electives so I think the best choice considering what I want to study plus my choice of major and my interest alongside the greek life, social reputation of penn state and state college as a whole over amherst with a much larger chunk of out of state and international students coming to penn state compared to umass amherst with amherst being a smaller college town with lesser to do, and considering that umass is only really recognized in the new england region wheras, penn state is nationally recognized across the states. the choice I am leaning towards is CS at Penn State.
Make sure you are considering what “recognized” here means, too - there is “name recognition” for sports/ name and employer/academic prowess…
Name recognition of, say, Brown/Dartmouth is actually very low across the country compared to Penn State or Michigan State, even though they are Ivy League schools. However, if you want to work in NYC on Wall Street, that is irrelevant, obviously. You may be better off with an economics degree from them. Generally, as someone who grew up in New England and also has lived in the mid-Atlantic, I never considered PSU any sort of academic powerhouse notably better than UMass or Rutgers (certainly nothing like a UVA or UNC or something), and I have several PSU alums in my family. 
It was just another big state flagship with a big football team - in last 15 years-ish PSU (like Umass) it has very much jumped in academic reputation is my feeling….(n of 1 here) along with a lot of other flagships since US News started considering new things 
(In the 1990s the took things like class size, and % of alum giving into consideration and now they don’t - this hurt big flagships…the move towards other metrics helped them! )
I am not sure exactly job type you want (and am not sure you do either!)
Long story short, I don’t really think there is a clear winner there, honestly, in terms of reputation… I would pick which major and school seems more fun to you, honestly….
Amherst is a smaller town, but it is much closer to more big cities. UMass is a smaller school, but not a small school. Comp E and CS are different majors, with some overlap. etc. etc. PSU has more school-sports atmosphere (by far)…etc. You seem to have been leaning PSU the whole time, I am not sure there is a super strong case against it (though I started off saying I think comp-e is a more flexible major, which I do think is still true, but not if you don’t want it!)
Very good point - there is no better one here - but likely wherever home is, they might see some Penn State sweatshirts where they likely wouldn’t near as many UMASS - thanks to the Penn State football brand (or former brand) - it’s not what it once was.
But academically - they are subs.
There’s two different majors here. I’d pick the major I want assuming price isn’t an issue - and go to that school.
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3.8 GPA in college is much more difficult than 3.8 GPA in high school.
However, Computer Science, B.S. (Engineering) | Penn State University Bulletin says that the threshold is 3.2. That is not as difficult as 3.8, but should not be seen as automatic or anything close to automatic.
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Somewhere in the link below it is explicitly stated CE majors cannot double major in CS. So Penn State is probably the better option. Though it is worded ambiguously.
“Note that students admitted to some majors are not eligible to join the CS major as part of their admission conditions. This is currently the case for some students admitted to the Computer Engineering major.”
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as a practical major I suspect double majoring anywhere in these 2 things is VERY hard, but if you can do it at PSU that is amazing..
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Agree. But sometimes the majors are in different colleges with different gen ed requirements and it is hard, but other times both are in engineering school and it is easier. But it is it worth it? That is another question.
For example, RPI told S25 it is fairly easy and it is done quite frequently.
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