Hi I’m an international student majoring computer sciences. I am transferring this fall. I’m still waiting for few more decisions, but the deposit for Brandeis is due by end of this month. Which is the better choice?
Do you like a huge and bustling university (Wisconsin) or a relatively small university where you will be in a higher percentage of smaller classes, have more contact with professors, and know a higher percentage of the people on campus (Brandeis)? Brandeis combines a small, tight-knit community with a short college van or train ride to Boston, a major city.
Perhaps other posters can speak more about the computer science majors at each, but I am sure you will have good opportunities at both.
Both are excellent colleges. It depends what you like.
U-Wisconsin’s CS is more robust than Brandeis’
Either is fine.
What does that mean?
Wider array of CS courses. More research opportunities.
More classes available, a larger faculty to draw from for research purposes, more peers and institutional focus on the program. In this case, likely also far better industry connections.
Search these for class offerings:
https://www.cs.wisc.edu/courses/current
http://registrar-prod.unet.brandeis.edu/registrar/schedule/classes/2018/Spring/1400/UGRD
https://www.brandeis.edu/computer-science/undergraduate/courses.html
Only 5 CS courses are required for a BA in CS at Brandeis as far as I can tell - the full degree is really hard to find. Compare that to UW-Madison which requires at least 9 courses for the BA as well as math. While not important like engineering, the program is not ABET accredited, suggesting likely a lack of either required math, physical science, or CS courses.
As with any case, fit and financials are important and both are good schools a CS grad will do fine at. But if all else is equal, I think UW-Madison offers a lot better resources for CS and a fuller curriculum.
Here’s a better description of the requirements for CS degrees at Brandeis. They do make it hard to find.
https://www.brandeis.edu/registrar/bulletin/provisional/courses/subjects/1400.html
You can only take so many classes as an undergrad, so I don’t consider breadth of classes as the be-all and-end-all factor. Things like class size and personal attention also matter. You need to balance all those.
Appreciate you finding that, that does look like what a CS
It depends on the person though - for example, I find no difference personally between classes with 20 and 50 students. Even larger than 50, it doesn’t really affect how I learn. I’d put that under fit for the OP, indeed important. Personal attention works in a similar way.
Breadth of classes isn’t the end-all-be-all, but it doesn’t just affect class options but is also often reflective of the department in other ways such as research opportunities. As always I think we’re more or less on the same page with a slightly different angle. The primary motivation of the original post was simply to point out that “more robust” does have meaning here. It’s not everything, but should be a consideration in addition to fit and cost.
@PengsPhils Yeah, I think we generally agree. But I always get concerned when people write comments that imply that a program is better simply because it has more class offerings. That seems to happen all the time when people compare CS programs between schools. My personal bias is towards programs with smaller classes and more personalized attention, just because that worked so much better for me.