Does it really matter which uni you go to for CS?

ucbalumnus
Mon, 24 Mar 2014 18:38:39 +0000

You can get a good CS education (including research opportunities) at any of the schools you named. There may be academic fit differences specific to the student (e.g. what non-core CS elective courses are offered, what non-CS breadth courses are offered or required, what types of CS research is being done, etc.).

Where the quality of CS education differs is the situation of a school with too small a CS department to offer all of the usual expected CS courses. Note that this does not necessarily track the general prestige level of the school (some generally prestigious schools have rather limited CS departments). Research opportunities depend on both the size and quality of the CS department and how research-oriented it is.

For employment, among schools with good quality CS departments, location matters. A Silicon Valley computer company can much more conveniently recruit at Berkeley than at Purdue, for example. But Purdue or Wisconsin may be more convenient for midwest area companies.