Maryland vs UVA vs VA Tech vs Purdue for Comp Sci

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DD (Virginia resident) has been admitted to the following schools and we would love some input from the community. DD is showing interests in Cybersecurity and places good internship/job placement above everything else.

UVA (engineering - prepaid 529 with extra 10K tuition for engineering school)

VA Tech (prepaid 529 with extra 2K tuition for engineering school)

Maryland (direct admit to CS - 32K tuition)

Purdue (direct admit to CS - 31K tuition)

We can comfortably cover tuition at any of these colleges + housing and board (not included in the above numbers since they are about the same at each school), so would like to only focus on the strength of the programs and internship/job outcome.

Thank you!

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All will place well.

Cybersecurity at Purdue is actually in a different school. Va Tech also seems to have Cyber. It’s lower paying than regular CS at both.

I’d go based on preference here and frankly, while you can afford, I’d save the loot. Grad school. Roll into a Roth for the student. Whatever…

CS outcomes will be different today and maybe in four years than the past. We’ve seen a lot of kids at top schools write the CS jobs have slowed and are tough to get. I think personal hustle, even outside the schools is what matters today. Neither of my kids even used the school’s job listings - my son found the companies attending the career fair not what he wanted etc. still had 19 interviews and 5 offers by xmas with a 6th on his own. He was MechE. Kids today - even at great schools like these - need to supplement what the schools offer.

So I think you can look up outcomes but would worry less a lot them, especially given this list.

I’d look at curriculums and even Purdue’s cyber although you’d have to switch majors.

Here are some links

UVA shows 281 working last year with 11% still looking. How long after I don’t know.

Amazon and Capital One seem the big employers with $107k average salary but most look in the 90s.

Va Tech is Lockheed and Amazon but Capital One on there. Average is $92k with Median $87k. They also show a Cyber major with salaries in the 80s. And accounting firms the top employers.

You can do the same for UMD and Purdue.

I personally wouldn’t use career outcomes of this set as the deciding factor. The student will be on campus four years, day after day. They have to be happy. So make sure they visit. UMD is not like UVA which is not like Va Tech.

You can play with the charts below. Make sure they are set to the latest year, bachelor degree and major.

And don’t forget, salaries are more often the product of where vs school. St Louis isn’t gonna pay the same as DC, etc.

Good luck.

https://career.virginia.edu/CareerData/StudentOutcomes

https://career.vt.edu/outcomes/#!eWVhcj0yMDIzO21ham9yPUN5YmVyc2VjdXJpdHkgTWFuYWdlbWVudCBhbmQgQW5hbHl0aWNz

https://www.cco.purdue.edu/data

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My cousin works in cyber security at a law firm and says Purdue or Virginia Tech

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Is he suggesting them because they have a cyber focus academically I think OP can do at Ba Tech in CS but Purdue will be in a different program (in the Ploytechnic) / school from CS. That said I’m assuming one can be in Cyber directly from CS anywhere even if the academics don’t 100% line up.

We’ve all read @DadOfJerseyGirl who is a big UMD fan. He hires so is very reievant.

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By elimination Purdue or Maryland.
Eliminated UVA as its strengths like class sizes, research opportunities is not what OP is looking for.
Eliminated Virginia Tech primarily because it is not direct admit, but of course if that is not a concern it can be considered.
UMD has a cybersecurity track …
https://undergrad.cs.umd.edu/cybersecurity-degree-requirements

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A CS major can focus on security within the major. Some cyber security majors are less technical than CS is.

However, computer security also uses non technical knowledge that may be included in cyber security majors, such as how those cracking computer systems use social engineering to gain access.

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Op take these with a grain of salt as I don’t know the methodology - does it account for cost of living differences etc. and individual experiences will vary but in regards to placement, the Brown open source rankings show UMD at 16, Purdue 19, UVA 31 and Tech 46.

I wouldn’t make a decision based on that but it’s another data point. All four are strong.

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Yes, Purdue has a security concentration within the CS major. Purdue CS students can also take other cybersecurity classes in the college of polytech as free electives.

OP - the one piece not mentioned so far in responses is Purdue’s robust co-op program and career readiness focus. I’d encourage your student to reach out to Office of Professional Practice to get more information about CS co-op and internship opportunities.

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Would non-technical topics of this type be available to a CS major at Purdue in the same sense that other cybersecurity topics would be available?

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I believe they focus on academic placements in those rankings, but I could be wrong. There might be some correlation with industry placement, so probably not a lot of harm in using those.

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It would depend on what courses are offered and how accessible they are to non-majors (assuming that they are not in the CS department).

For example, at Purdue, possible courses of interest could include:
CS 36100
CS 52300
CNIT 37100
CNIT 42200
CNIT 53600
CNIT 55501
MSE 48900
PHIL 20700
PHIL 20800
SOC 32400

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