What are the best colleges for computer science?

sakky
Mon, 18 Jul 2005 13:17:51 +0000

GoBlue81, you might want to check your facts.



Yang of Yahoo fame had a PhD in Electrical Engineering.



No he doesn’t. Jerry Yang (and his partner David Filo) were both studying for doctorates at Stanford, but both dropped out to start up Yahoo.

http://boston.bizjournals.com/boston/stories/2000/09/25/editorial1.html



…was an engineerer. So were Bill (Hewlett) and Dave (Packard).



While I can’t find out exactly what they got their bachelor’s degrees from, it is notable that both Hewlett and Packard have BA degrees from Stanford, not BS degrees. There is no such thing as a Stanford BA degree in engineering or CS. If you get a bachelor’s degree in engineering or CS from Stanford, it will be a BS degree.



So you don’t need to know a lot of math to be successful in the computer or related industry. And not everyone who is good in computing has the aptitude to be a math major. For those of us (myself included) who don’t have a hang in abstract mathematics, a CS/CE degree from CMU or UC-Berkeley may be more practical.



Look, I never said that you absolutely needed to know a lot of math to succeed in the computer industry, or that you need to have a math degree to succeed in the industry. Heck, you don’t even need a degree at all to succeed in the industry - look at Bill Gates, Paul Allen, Larry Ellison, Michael Dell, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak (although Woz did later get his degree). I personally know people who have no degree at all and are successful in the computer industry. Not as successful as Bill Gates, obviously, but still doing fairly well for themselves. I know others who have degrees in the liberal arts who have successful careers in software and computers.

Look, computer science and computer engineering is a vast field. I think you will agree that certain parts of it are highly mathematical. Others, not so much.

My point is that if I was going to Harvard and I decided I wanted to prep myself for a CS graduate program, I’d probably approach it from the math angle. Harvard’s CS undergrad program is not superstrong, but Harvard’s math program is. I’m fairly certain that if you can do well in math at Harvard, you can probably do well in most CS graduate programs, especially if you choose to specialize in the more mathematical parts of CS. After all, look at all those Turing Award winners who did their undergrads in math. They seem to be doing OK.