Parent seeking advice on CS options

I work with tech companies a lot, and for career placement purposes, I would recommend going with a school near a city that is a tech center. Unlike many other fields, a lot of tech employment is with small companies and you usually get those jobs, which often turn out to be incredible, through word of mouth and alumni networks. While big tech hiring is down, small tech companies are still getting funding and expanding, and there are thousands of them. San Francisco, followed by Boston, New York and Los Angeles are the 4 biggest tech centers in the country, and it is a fairly sizable drop to #5. Bloomberg publishes the top cities for VC funding every year, and those 4 are virtually always at the top, with SF/San Jose at about twice the level of the other three, who are generally pretty close with each other. And because they have been in the same spots on the list for so long, the embedded technology communities in those metro areas are all pretty big.

Of the schools on your list, schools near Atlanta (Georgia), DC (Maryland) and Philadelphia (Penn State) are near secondary tech centers. UMass is almost two hours away from Boston, but there is a UMass big alumni network in Beantown and there are a lot of companies that get funded or have been funded in Boston.

If he wants to work for a smaller company, I would recommend UMass.

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Just a clarification, OOS Bama direct cost is 49k and full estimated cost of attendance 57k, so that 30 ACT is 24k merit/direct cost 25k/full cost 33k, and 32+ ACT is 28k merit/direct cost 21k/full cost 29k. Edit (thanks @tsbna44!): for an engineering major, you would get an additional 2.5k merit, so for 34 ACT, direct cost 18.5k/full cost 26.5k

He has a 34. I think maybe it was a typo and the 18k cost was calculated based on the 34, not 30. Just a guess, I admit I haven’t looked myself!

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Good point. I hadn’t really considered the UMass alumni network in Boston, only that it’s 2 hrs from UMass so I didn’t see that degree of proximity as a positive.

Reminder to please stay on topic to the OP. Side discussions about other schools not on the OP’s list should move to PM. Thank you.