CS/Cybersecurity: UMD [$55k], VT [$45k], Purdue [$56k], UVA [$49k] [and UMass $45k]

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I’m interested in computer science, with a focus on cybersecurity, though general CS is great too. I want good job/internship placement at the school I go to, but I’d also like to go to a place with generally cool people, and one that feels “special” (though it is hard to describe what that means; I think a mix of campus and people and clubs and such). I know much of the experience is what I make of it, but I’d like to set myself up as best I can for success.

Assuming I don’t get accepted to any of the Ivies/ivy-equivalents (very likely, given my rejections/deferrals from GT, UDub, and UIUC), I’ve been accepted to the following schools for CS:

Purdue - 56k/year

Purdue is the most prestigious general STEM school on this list, but it’s not necessarily my dream school. I plan on visiting later this month, but I’ve heard mixed things about campus life, leaning towards it being a relatively quiet and anti-social school.

University of Maryland (ACES honors college specifically) - 55k/year

Academically, UMD is perfect. It’s got a bunch of ACES classes I’d desperately like to try, and it’s very solid for CS generally. It’s connected federally quite well, and my dream is to do federal offensive cybersec, so that’s great. It also has the CyberCorps Scholarships for Service program, which is full ride tuition and a 27k stipend for two years in exchange for two years of federal work (win win!), but I don’t know the chances of me actually getting it. If it was guaranteed, UMD would be the instantly obvious choice.

I’m just worried about the social life there, since I’ve heard off and on that it’s not the greatest.

University of Virginia (instate) - 49k/year

UVA is great for everything I care about except the CS program, which is a bit lackluster compared to the others. Otherwise, I think I’d be happy there.

Virginia Tech (also instate) - 45k/year

VT feels like a backup school. It’s got a great environment, and many of my friends are going (in the NoVA region), but it’s probably the worst CS-program-wise on my list, I’d be able to transfer the fewest credits, and I don’t know if its worth it.

UMass Amherst (honors college) - 45k/year

For some reason, UMass just doesn’t call to me at all. When I visited some other schools, I was able to instantly get a vibe about whether I liked it or not, and while I haven’t visited UMass, I’ve done plenty of online tours and I really just have no passion for it. That being said, it’s definitely not a bad option in any respect.

Any advice on what to pick and how to decide would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much!!!

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My D had a fabulous experience at Purdue. Big 10 vibe, tons of school spirit, and very friendly and social. I’m glad you will go visit!

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Not sure what that means - that could be anywhere.

That was likely most places til recently and now CS has become difficult although some schools are still producing great results but maybe not the schools you think.

Not sure these are the top schools for CS in general anyway - but I wouldn’t let one school’s decline determine what other schools will say. I don’t know your profile but they are making independent decisions.

Are you domestic or international? Where did you get Purdue at $56K or are you looking at full COA? I’d encourage you to look at tuition, room and board only. Things like books, travel and personal are different from each school - so hard to compare. OK - I see you are from Virginia. But used tuition, room and board. This is Purdue’s estimate for CS - which has a premium -I assume for next year. Maybe this - the point is, for apples to apples comparison, you’re using the wrong #.

I think you’re over thinking that you can’t have fun at any - Purdue, UVA, UMD, UMASS (exceptional for CS but not a big sports school) and Tech (not a back up school by any means). UMASS and Va Tech have the top rated college food in the country. Is good food important to you? It doesn’t mean the others aren’t good but they are known to be exceptional. UVA has a different feel than the rest. My son loved Purdue - it’s huge but the campus isn’t. Personally, I think Va Tech is the nicest in America. UMASS - I’d give it a fair shake - go visit - it’s in a college area and from what others write - lots of music in town - if that’s your thing.

I think your I hear is nonsense - you will find partiers at all these schools and not partiers, etc.

Now - for Cyber Security - as an example, you can do CS but Cyber is in the Polytechnic School at Purdue. So CS is not in the same area I don’t believe. UMD has in CS. Does UVA have? I see clubs but not the major. Va Tech has different versions in engineering, computer science and business - so might be worth a look. I put the link below. UMASS has an institute - and certificate.

I’d look more into academics - who has what I want.

CS jobs - likely have cooled. Some schools have changed curriculums due to AI, etc. but I’d check to see - does someone have what I want?

In the end, finding a job, etc. is up to you - I know a student who went to Penn State, supposedly at the top for cyber, and was over a year and I think the job he finally got wasn’t great. Kids from top schools today are striking out but others aren’t, etc. and no one knows how the world will be in five years.

So hopefully you can visit all these. Stop kids on campus, in the dining hall. They’re typically open to talking. Ask them questions. If you visit, make an academic appointment with the departments. These schools are so big - you are missing much of the picture when you say - I hear.

And ask each department of the career center for outcomes. Or you can find them online. Here is UVA’s as an example. Not just who is making how much but are they in the areas you’d enjoy? All that said - the CS world seems to be changing daily.

Good luck

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Cybersecurity Education Programs | Cybersecurity | Virginia Tech

Academics | Cybersecurity Institute

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You seem to have positive vibes on the academics at UMD. It is as good a CS program as others on your list. They do offer concentrations in CS, even though cybersecurity is not one of them as far as I know.

There may not be room for a lot of cybersecurity courses in a traditional undergraduate curriculum. Depending on the credits you have, you can possibly take some of these courses in your senior year with permission from the instructor.

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Both Virginia Tech and Purdue participate in a new pilot program with the fed gov’t called the Defense Civilian Training Corp program. new, separate program from the SMART Scholarship for Service or the Cybercorps scholarship program. You must be attending 1 of the 4 DCTC program’s universities, must apply for the program when you’re a sophomore, and the scholarship & program pays for 2 yr of full tuition & fees + a living stipend. In exchange, you work paid in the summer at a fed gov’t location and must work for fed gov’t for 2 yr after graduation.

So if something like that interests you, then I’d pick Virginia Tech or Purdue.

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Interesting - does it differentiate between CS and Cyber at Purdue - as they are not in the same school? Not sure if you know.

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also more info from fed gov’t website on the topic:

https://dctc.mil/

(Disclaimer: I found out about this DCTC program because my kid is going to attend U of A this fall as a cyber operations major and U of A is 1 of the 4 pilot universities for this program.)

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From what I’ve seen on U of A’s website on the same topic, the DCTC program does not appear to be limited to a cybersecurity-related major. The info I can find online about it mentions a range of different areas they need people for, STEM & computer science/engineering/cybersecurity being one.

BUT right now, this program only exists at 4 universities. This means that the applicant pool is a lot lower than the nationwide SMART Scholarship For Service or the not-quite-nationwide Cybercorps scholarship program (in which you must be a cybersecurity major at a Cybercorp-participating university; fed gov’t has a website that lists all of the schools).

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Looks really awesome.

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@tsbna44

If you’re talking about the schools I’ve already listed, probably not. The schools I’m waiting on though are all very much “the” places to be. CMU, Stanford, GT, Columbia, etc.

The numbers are all correct COAs, they’re from my aid estimates. The FAFSA decided that my family can contribute literally 100% of our takeaway salary after taxes and mortgage, so we didn’t get aid anywhere. Food isn’t that important, but I’m a vegetarian and I need something. I assume most food will be acceptable, though.

I’m looking for a CS major, I just want to focus on cybersecurity. I feel like the major is safer to be broad in, and experience will be the thing that gets me jobs anyways.

@sfogooner I’m coming in with ~46 AP credits, I believe, and they do have both a cybersecurity track for the CS major and ACES-specific cyber classes.

@sbinaz DCTC looks awesome! I checked it out for Purdue, and it seems to be 12k/year, rather than full tuition, but it’s still something that changes the equation a bit. I also ended up finding other similar scholarships for VT, too. It is definitely not cyber-only, which means it will be a bit more exclusive, but it’s worth keeping in mind.

Thank you all for the help!

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Will UMD accept these credits? If so, will you be able to graduate early? Which would save some money and/or maybe allow you to get a masters in four years. Not all the schools on your list are going to accept these credits, so that’s something you might want to weigh in your decision.

Congratulations on the admits so far, and good luck with the rest of your decisions.

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They should accept them, yeah. I think UMD and VT both let me skip 45ish credits each, while UVA is 29 and Purdue is lower. Should that be a significant factor? I don’t want to graduate too early, because I’d like to enjoy college for most of the time, at least.

Do any of those numbers sound like enough to get a masters too in 4 years? Would that even be worth it in the current CS world? I’ve seen that it can be helpful to skip some payscale steps in government jobs, but I don’t know how much else it’ll help.

Thank you!

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Only if it’s important to you!

Ha, I get that!

You would have to do some research on each school’s website and talk with the chair of CS dept, academic advisors and/or career advisors at each school. Hopefully some of the posters who work in CS/tech will also weigh in.

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Nice to know they have the cybersecurity option. A lot can change (both on your interests and the technology side) in the 4 years when you graduate.

More than coursework, internships and projects are more important for hiring these days. Here is an example of a CS student asking critical questions about his degree.

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You won’t know what each school will accept - but often it won’t be close to that. My daughter went to a regional schools with 33 or 36 credits and could only use 9. Sometimes others will be taken as “general” electives but sometimes not. And sometimes multiple HS classes all feed the same college credits (happened to my daughter).

You already have FANTASTIC acceptances. So you’re in good shape regardless - but your APs will likely be more helpful at publics than privates, etc.

I see the note now after - that you have “credit acceptances” from some schools - but my son, as an example, in engineering, started as a sophomore. But still took four years because of the engineering curriculum. So credits might get you standing but not further along in your curriculum - if that makes sense. The other thing - some will recommend if you are getting credit in a major type class (example in CS - a math class), you might take it again at the college level. My son didn’t listen - and had to WD a class.

Good luck - you’re in great shape!!!

Best of luck.

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How much can you and your parents actually pay without loans?

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For AP credit, it should not be hard to find out, since most schools (or their divisions or majors) have AP credit listings showing credit, subject credit, and advanced placement for each AP score. Of course, you also have to look at whether any subject credit is actually useful – for example, AP statistics credit for an introductory statistics course may not be useful if your major requires a calculus-based statistics course.

It is also the case that the credit for an AP score may vary between schools. For example, one school may give 3 credits, while another school may give 4 credits, for the same AP score on the same AP exam.

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Retaking a course whose material you know well is a waste of time and tuition. If you have AP credit for a course which is a prerequisite for another course you will take, it would be better to try the college’s old final exam of the course which you may skip to allow making a more informed decision about whether to skip.

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My first reaction reading your post is that you have been accepted to a moderately long list of universities, ALL of which are very, very good for computer science, and probably also very good for cybersecurity. You can do very well with a degree from any of the schools that you listed in your original post.

If I am reading this correctly the schools vary by a maximum of $11,000 per year. Whether this matters to your family will depend upon your family’s budget. I will admit that one of my daughters did spend this much more than was absolutely needed, found a great fit, and we were fine with this much ($44,000 in total over 4 years) extra cost. Not every family would be okay with this, but at least on the scale of what universities cost in the USA this much difference might or might not be important.

If we ignore cost, this is indeed a tough decision, but a tough decision simply because the schools are all very good. I have worked with a small number of software engineers from all of these schools, and a very large number of software engineers from U.Mass (I spent most of my career working up here in the northeast of the USA). The best engineers that I have worked with from U.Mass are just as good as the best engineers who I have worked with who graduated from MIT and Stanford, and that is very, very good (“world class” in some cases).

Internships do matter quite a bit, and will be available at every school on your list.

In terms of the schools that you are still waiting for results, I am not sure whether I would prefer Columbia over the schools that you have already been accepted to. CMU and Stanford and Georgia Tech are of course very well known and excellent for CS. IF you get in they might be expensive (unless you qualify for a lot of need based aid), and IF they are expensive it is not clear whether they would be worth the extra cost given that you are comparing very good schools with very good CS programs.

I would try to get some math background as well. I happen to know a couple of cybersecurity experts and my recollection is that there is some math in what they do (I was a math major so to me math is mostly fun). Again you can get a good math background at any of the schools that you have been accepted to.

I did get a master’s degree, but in a subfield of applied mathematics rather than in CS. For me it was worth it. However this was a long time ago and prices have increased. Also I got my master’s degree at a university that today is rather expensive (Stanford). The other students in the same program had by the way gotten their bachelor’s degree at a huge range of universities, including some of the ones that you are considering.

To me I think that in most cases it is worth getting some work experience before getting a master’s degree. Admittedly not everyone is going to agree with this. While the majority of students in the same master’s program with me had some work experience, several students did not and they generally seemed to do fine in the program, and with getting a job afterward.

Perhaps my biggest reaction to your post is that you should take Virginia Tech seriously. It is very good for your intended major.

This is a tough decision, but you have multiple very good options.

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