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

ucbalumnus
Tue, 25 Mar 2014 22:32:02 +0000

GLOBALTRAVELER:

Having said all of that…and YES, I sound like a broken record but you can attend a school in the Top-100 and be just as qualified when it comes to Computer Science. In software engineering, degrees are merely “check off the box” items.



Ranking is not so relevant as the presence of a CS department that offers the expected CS courses. Indeed, some schools with fairly high general prestige rankings have rather limited or overly specialized CS departments. Of course, some people who went to schools with weak CS departments successfully self-educate in CS, but if you are at the stage of choosing a school, you may as well choose one with a more complete CS department.

Between the schools listed, there is no issue about the quality of the CS department. Other factors like cost, other aspects of academics, whether one enters in the major or must apply to the major, non-academic fit, location, etc. can be used to decide between them. They may also differ in what more esoteric CS electives are offered beyond the “core” CS courses.