The grads of other schools also make the same money at the same companies. I’m pretty sure it is different than the business degrees where certain schools mean getting the top jobs. One can go to many flagships with top CS programs and work for the big name players- eg Google, Amazon, Facebook… In fact, some schools known for business may not be the best for computer science (likewise some elite colleges/U’s do not have the top CS programs). There are also big name electronic medical records companies. There is a job market out there for those who want to be at the forefront of product development- secret until launched sometimes. This is different than many who do strictly business management. Two different worlds out there. It is highly useful to distinguish between the two and point out different paths that may be chosen based on one’s interests and abilities.
The type of CS work you do will dictate the people you meet. Remember the blind men and the elephant- views are dependent on what one experiences.
Good colleges definitely feed the soul! There is so much more than “book learning”. This happens regardless of majors. In fact, a lot goes on after hours. I’m sure I and my friends are not the only ones who attempted to solve the mysteries of the universe into the wee hours. Family starts the nurturing but the outside world finishes it. It begins with exposure to peers in daycares and schools and kids’ worlds expand far beyond their parents, siblings and other relatives. It would be a very limited world if we could not expand beyond family. College exposes young adults to many different cultural norms. People in the US are products of immigration, some first generation while others are many generations removed. Somewhere someone left the family and discovered a wider world.
The bottom line is that any college should be chosen for the whole experience, not just the major. Many different paths with every major. Many good choices for different types of personalities. Job searches can involve desire to leave/stay in one’s home region. So many variables.
Do kids with 3.75 and 33 ACT have a chance of getting into some of those colleges listed? Unless one’s EC’s are out of this world good or the kid has a hook worth of Captain Ahab, I don’t think places like Chicago or Hopkins are all that reachable.
There’s also the logic of spending $150-200k+ on a CS degree just because it is from Such And Such school. In CS it is all about skills and tool knowledge, co-ops, and the like,
Re: Post #18, by @MiamiDAP - I also think a much larger set of job opportunities exists in business/CS/IT world, for students with good communication skills and the willingness to be flexible and a self starter. My kid is only a junior in hs, not with CC-type over the top stats, but he already does freelance work, for pay, managing some portions of a small business’s IT system. I don’t see him in the theoretical CS world, or landing up in Google etc. because he doesn’t have the stats for the top universities. But he enjoys what he does, is pretty good on math and coding, and gets along with a lot of different types of people. He will most likely go to a nearby state tech school, and most likely end up in the line of work Miami describes. BTW, small businesses are too small to hire H1-B people for IT , so they look for local talent, and complain that many kids don’t want to work for them, because they want to work for the big companies. Interestingly, the big companies pawn off more mundane tasks to the army of H1-B workers from abroad, thus saving themselves billions of dollars. They seem to recruit from top US universities only for the more higher end jobs.
Edited to add: H1-B visas are for temporary workers from abroad to work in the US for a limited amount of time.
Most H-1B employees are now hired by outsourcing companies. The top 10 in this list of largest H-1B visa employers are outsourcing companies: http://www.myvisajobs.com/Reports/2015-H1B-Visa-Sponsor.aspx . Note the difference in pay levels between the outsourcing companies and the companies that hire H-1B visa holders to work on their own stuff.
Correct - and then companies like Microsoft, Google etc. contract with these companies to provide the lower end services. Note the number of visas to Infosys and TCS. The number that is directly for Microsoft is much lower-presumably higher end talent is directly hired by Microsoft
While I have lived in the US since I was a child, I have many extended family members who work through Infosys for Microsoft and other large firms. These workers are paid less and expected to work a lot more hours.