Wellesley vs UC Berkeley for Computer Science

juillet
Sun, 23 Apr 2017 18:19:14 +0000

How difficult is it to get internships\jobs back in the Bay though? That is my main concern, and also the fact that I’d have to commute to Olin/MIT to take advantage of the resources there, which takes time. My parents want me to go to Cal because it’s world renown for CS, and my dad says the only reason I would go to Wellesley is to be less stressed out- if I’m going to Wellesley for MIT classes, why not just stay at Cal, since the class difficulties are similar too?

Not hard at all. I work in the tech industry - in Seattle, but still the same industry. The big SV and Seattle tech companies recruit from EVERYWHERE. We can’t rely only on PNW and Bay Area talent! Think of all the great CS schools that are not even on the West Coast! You won’t be disadvantaged by going to Wellesley, especially since you know up front what you want your career to be. Seek out summer internships with big tech companies on the West Coast. I daresay that if you intern at a big company like Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon, etc., you’ll be a shoo-in for a big West Coast tech company in the future. (And Boston has a lively little tech community as well, so you could do a one or two day a week internship there, too.)

Also, don’t underestimate Wellesley’s own computer science offerings. You’ll be majoring at Wellesley; you may take some supplemental coursework at Olin or MIT or Harvard or whatnot, but the vast majority of your coursework will be at Wellesley. But Wellesley has a good CS department, too! The faculty have their PhDs from some of the top CS departments (MIT, UCSD, Dartmouth, Rochester, Chicago, Tufts, UW); they conduct research in CS; they have a wide range of courses. The Wellesley CS department website has a list of the jobs that have been taken by Wellesley grads in the last few years and they include companies like Microsoft, Google, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, Apple, Lehman Brothers, and Credit Suisse - and that’s just in the last four years. They’ve also interned at the same companies, Booz Allen Hamilton, Redfin, Morgan Stanley, and done REUs across the country.

You don’t need a lot of CS clubs on campus; you can only belong to a few at a time. Hackathons can be fun but since they only happen a couple times a year, you can travel to MIT or Olin for that. Or maybe you can organize your own on Wellesley’s campus!

Berkeley is a huge draw, too. It’s obviously got a great CS department and excellent opportunities. Really, you can’t go wrong with whatever you choose, and getting Berkeley at in-state prices is a big deal too. Will you go into debt at all for Wellesley? Do you think you’d have a preference for small classes and a more intimate learning environment?