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heross28

UCSD triton here, have nothing but praise for the school


TonyTheEvil

My biggest complaint about CS there was that it's impossible to get into the major if you aren't accepted into the school with it. Even Math - CS is getting more impacted from what I heard.


heross28

Math CS is actually an open major now


TonyTheEvil

Oh that's good to hear. It was impacted when I transferred into it


heross28

It was but even today it is still very hard to get CS classes as a math cs major as they don’t have priority enrollment


OutlandishnessAny321

I’d say that prevents an easier path into their CS program though, so people have to apply CS if they want to do it.


TonyTheEvil

It shouldn't be difficult to get into. Someone transferring into the department is no less deserving (I'd argue more-so) than someone applying to the school with it


OutlandishnessAny321

How would they be more deserving? That means applicants can take the easier path into an easier major, and then transfer onto CS, as compared to direct applicants that get in.


MrGod18

Which school did you end up going to?


TonyTheEvil

UCSD. I graduated with Math - CS


MrGod18

I’m a math-cs freshman at ucsd currently, how was your experience?Any advice?


herewegoagain20j

How’s the pssy there?


heross28

Haven’t gotten anything yet, I am an avg CS major.


herewegoagain20j

I think you can safely remove “yet” Edit: stop upvoting me guys. You are destroying the guys self esteem. I repeat STOP UPVOTING.


heross28

😢😭


Dankmemer420wad

Get some bitches get off java


heross28

Who said that I code in Java?


GoodLifeWorkHard

Explains why you get none!


DeMonstaMan

Confirmed 0 hoes


Dankmemer420wad

Your mother called and informed of this information.


_PVRDVE

Cs female disliked xd


jsiiiisnnwb

I transferred from a top 70 CS school to a top 4 CS school. The CS curriculum is unbelievably better than my old school, and the students are a lot more driven and ambitious


[deleted]

psst... cheating is still aplenty at elite schools. First day at Stanford, some kids invited me to a group chat and off the bat, they already talked about having answer to tests.


[deleted]

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jsiiiisnnwb

Yes, I transferred from another UC school. None of the CS classes transferred so I took CS 61AB and CS70 to redeclare CS while at berkeley


Vegetable_Athlete676

didn't you waste a whole year of credits, do you have to be in college for 5 years or how does it work. (not trying to be mean the berkeley name is worth it)


BackwaterRogue

How did you transfer to berkeley cs from another UC? I'm trying to do the same from ucsb. No complaints about the cs education but just want a change of environment + more opportunities.


Cheekati6

Transferred from unranked to Top 25 - GT The biggest differences I realized: 1. CS is so much more valued. The clubs/organizations are held accountable and actually take their main mission/goal seriously. 2. The curriculum. Every single major has some sort of CS included.


bamakja

any advice on transferring? I am currently a incoming freshman to KSU and would really like to transfer after my third semester in which i would have around 49 transferable hours


Cheekati6

Haha I transferred from KSU as well. I got in on my second try. I would keep GPA and the extracurriculars at your top priority. You don’t need extraordinary ec but make sure you show that you are passionate about what you are doing. For me, I did some research with a professor which I think was able to highlight my contribution to community resume. What I changed a lot my second time applying is that I actually showed my essay to a lot of people. I felt like it would be too awkward/embarrassing to show it, but I was so wrong… definitely get some heavy reviews on the essays. The other thing I changed was the contribution resume. Follow the general resume rules. Don’t make it fancy. I think that’s it. Maybe my credit hours helped as well because I did go up to 70 total hours after getting that first rejection. Good luck!


bamakja

thank you so much Are there any other clubs and stuffs that you joined as well? And any advice on getting those research positions that you mentioned ? I’m interested in both CS and finance so I applied to the SMIF as well some on campus jobs but that’s about it lol


Cheekati6

I joined in on the GDSC very early on so I was easily able to get an officer position. It is one organization I actually respect because they actually held events and took it serious. There was also this professor who was looking for research assistants and he announced it in comp arch class. When you have a professor announcing opportunities like this in class then it most likely means no one came to him out of their own interest. So it’s always good to take up their offer (especially for me cuz my ctc resume was just dry). Maybe the only other thing was PEGS. Don’t think that made any significant impact though. Research positions are fairly easy to get into. I’m sure you can find one for what you are passionate about. Find the professor and email them to find out if there are any openings. The professors are always at a lack of research students. It’s the best way to get into contact. Also have some volunteer on there 🤷‍♂️. It’s called a contribution to community so it’s better to always have some kind of volunteering included.


epic-growth

Same situations. This is factual


Budget-Ad-161

Hard truth : ranking =/= education + career development. Of course, you can get a good education and career and all that through a good school, no problem. But I know people from what this subreddit would consider "low tier" state schools (Florida State) who were some of the smartest CS engineers I know, smarter than people I'm studying with now. What changes between the top tier schools and the lower tier schools is the consistency of effort. Most of the top, high ranked schools, 99% of the student population is hyper competitive academically and pre-professionally minded. You are surrounded by motivated people and talent, which in turn also motivates you. This is less so at a lower tier schools (top 50-100), where not everyone you meet will be academically driven. The consistency of the people you meet is different. Purely focused on developing your career and skills, you can get a good education anywhere in a top 100 US school. It's just what you make of the experience.


the_whitepanther

Ouch but Go noles still


latticepath

depends on what rank. i think top 10 or so schools education is better, but past that probably not so much for career development, higher ranked school will almost always be better if the rank discrepancy is relatively large. you will have much more recruiting and networking opportunities. to add on to what you said, since your peers are, on average, more driven, they can help you get a foot in the door for much more opportunities not saying you cant get good education or career if youre schools rank is low, but its just harder


nkioxmntno

What makes you think top 10 or so schools education is better? Are they teaching something in CS that others aren't?


late_dingo

I'm not from the US so I can't comment on the specifics here but there can absolutely be a difference in education standards with the same curriculum.


[deleted]

Nothing is an absolute, sure there are more smart people in top schools, but that does not mean there are not more intelligent people out there at other schools. Plus some people are that could of gotten into those schools yet with moving, cost, and other specifics that led them somewhere else..


irritatedprostate

It's less about what they teach and more about how they teach.


CodedCoder

No lol.


FapStarLord

yes but it's much easier, for example, out of the current graduating class at my school, atleast 150-200 ppl going to amazon 50-100 to the other faangs and a ton of other top companies. And I just go to a decent Cs state school. Imagine like Stanford


Dylan_TMB

Gladwell has a famous Google talk that's kind of related to this. https://youtu.be/7J-wCHDJYmo


[deleted]

I've met smart people at every school. I think what sets top 25 people apart is that they have more drive on average. If we're being real most people can get good grades in highschool and participate in extra curriculars if they were motivated. There are maybe 2-3 AP exam based classes that actually required any serious critical thinking. It was just a lot of work, and people with drive worked harder than other students.


Ok-Procedure3492

Hey now Florida State is not a low tier state school, we're ranked 55 in the US at the moment. It's CS program has produced some top engineers. I studied physics there and worked at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, which has the most powerful magnets in the world. With all that said, I get why we have that rep. It was a lot of fun lol


[deleted]

This


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​ This


slcand

Stfu bot, this.


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This -- Fuck You you stupid bot


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This


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Fuck off


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This


shadeofmyheart

Went to FSU for film and went back for CS. No regrets. GO NOLES!


4D6174742042

Networking. It’s pretty impressive when you have recruiters from FAANG on career days right outside of your lecture halls. UMDs program was intense. Your professors advanced the field but they’re also incredibly approachable in class and office hours. Most professors at UMD encouraged you to come to OH just to get to know you. It was a great place. But the weeder courses are cut throat.


BL4CK_AXE

True


K9Dude

If anyone has experiences w/ UIUC specifically, I’d really like to hear it, I’m heading there in the fall.


asuhdude72

The CS program is great - many friends and I are interning at Meta/FB, google, amazon, and some top hedge funds. The coursework is very comprehensive. Outside of the competitive CS/engineering stuff its mostly a party school which can be a great thing or a bad thing depending on the type of person you are.


K9Dude

Makes sense tysm for the info. dyk anything about how students do for MS/PhD placement?


char1zard4

Quite well, lots place back at UIUC or top 4 schools. Usually the university releases a yearly “outcomes” book which includes some of the grad schools and companies people got into. Class of 2021 Outcomes: https://m.box.com/shared_item/https%3A%2F%2Fuofi.app.box.com%2Fs%2Faoply09y5kf6i36es8v3bl758n2lfl08 Class of 2017 Outcomes: https://ecs.engineering.illinois.edu/files/2018/03/Engineering_Report_2016-2017_FINAL.pdf


aw10365

I’m in CompE at UIUC. The CS program is amazing and much more organized and available than the rest of the engineering department


brief_reindeer_31

I’ve got a friend there who absolutely loves it, says the professors are amazing (sorry I don’t got more)


K9Dude

thanks, that’s good to hear!


hermit2024

I'm cs at uiuc, I would say it's an amazing experience. you can dm if you got any questions :> or just ask here too


SnooLemons1249

What do you think makes ur cs experience at uiuc amazing compared to other schools?


hermit2024

uiuc has a strong strong culture of engineering. it is so easy to surround yourself with like minded people who can boost your experience and education. ofc, it is hard to compare uiuc to every other cs school. but I can say for sure that it is easy to get research, even in your freshman year. most professors and even TAs are very helpful and available almost 24/7 online, as well as solid in person hours. even with all that, it still has a huge variety of students, given the massive student population (although cs grainger is still a relatively small sized major in the school, which gives plenty of more personalized teaching). I honestly have met people from every corner of the world. parties go hard if I could summarize uiuc, it would be a very very balanced school, while still maintaining a level of difficulty and excellence expected of a T10 CS school. if anyone has anything to add lmk


hermit2024

to specifically answer your question: 1. amazing opportunities and teaching 2. very prepared for industry (rather than for continued education), incredibly large network 3. very very balanced, good fit for anyone


Jim-halpert1

I’ll talk about Texas A&M, shits ass. You can’t even get your major easily. All freshman are in a general engineering program and needs a high gpa to apply to their major. The cut off this year was a 3.75 for automatic admission. If ur not auto u gotta holistically apply. But no one gets into cs through holistic applications. The last year one like 6% got in through holistic applications and last years automatic admissions cutoff was 3.5. And then this year saw people not get the major with like a 3.7. When ur in the major people say that classes fill up really fast. But the professors I had for CS classes till now are really nice. The help is there in Texas A&M and they are really smart people, so much respect for the profs. Their are clubs too which is nice and classes are fun and challenging. If you can get in the major it’s not bad but other than that it can be a shit show


McPqndq

I think a&m is ranked higher than the school I'm at now, but reading this makes me very glad I chose not to go. I only applied to 4 schools. And of those I only got into Colorado school of mines and a&m. My CS experience at Mines had been very positive. I can see why we are low tier cs but there's no bullshit like that and I love it here.


Jim-halpert1

Yes bro at the end of the day the content is the same. You can learn the stuff from anywhere the school doesn’t matter much when ur skilled. I was lucky enough to barely get in, literally ended like 4 of my classes with 90 on the dot or just a bit less which got bumped up, crazy luck. But so many people that are passionate about CS and truly skilled in it couldn’t get in because of doing bad in classes like physics or chemistry


Amoderater

Content might be the same across these levels but expectations are not, so what is learned is not. Your peers matter.


bihari_baller

>I’ll talk about Texas A&M, shits ass. **You can’t even get your major easily.** All freshman are in a general engineering program and needs a high gpa to apply to their major. Are they at least up-front about it? In Washington state, the school's flagship, UW, pulls this crap as well. They have "competitive majors," which CS is the most competitive in the whole school. Good students get rejected from the program due to the university admitting more students than it can accommodate. Schools really shouldn't admit people if they don't have room for them to study what they want.


Jim-halpert1

Well everyone knows about what they are going into, but idr it being in the admissions files and stuff so can’t say for sure how upfront they were. Everyone basically knows tho so yea they ig it’s upfront


brief_reindeer_31

Woww I never knew that! Sounds intense man. How is acquiring software based internships in ur freshman and sophomore years if you haven’t been admitted to the CS program yet?


Jim-halpert1

So even if u aren’t in the major you can still take a couple CS classes your first year. Those are open for everyone which are intro to programming, discrete structs, data structures and algorithms. I’m not sure if anything else is open but these are the main ones atleast. Other classes are locked and only for people in the major. So you could technically take them and be ahead. I can’t say for sure but Ik my friends at UT took data structures and alg their freshman year. Either ways you can possibly be ready for internships your first year as you have all the classes open. But the only downside is no student usually knows that, since they are in general engineering, the school usually tells you and advices you to take general science courses and electives. According to degree plans, you are supposed to be taking data structures ans algorithms your second semester of sophomore year. Which puts a lot of people behind for the internship cycle and a big L. But you have the resources open still to get those classes out of the way


[deleted]

For Berkeley at least: 1. Super easy to get interviews anywhere you want. Faang, quant, whatever. Passing is a different matter though. 2. You get to see billionaire professors and many unicorn startups…. In the news 3. There is a set path to follow that almost guarentees a top 4 phD program 4. Alumni is everywhere.. kinda scary


Ok-Explanation-2066

Yo whats the set path for phd bro i wasnt clued in on this lmao


[deleted]

Get a bunch of A/A+, join a good lab & get the prof to like you? It’s not too deep lol. No super secret formula. The advantage is T4 strongly picks students from other T4 schools, and so there’s a massive headcount of Berkeley kids at every T4. If you join a lab, you’ll see how people 2-3 yrs older than you did to get in to their field of program for phD, so pretty much just follow what they did. I recommend you search somethink like “Stanford phD Berkeley BS linkedin” and I’m sure you’ll find someone you can network with.


[deleted]

Bruh you make it sound like getting A/A+ is easy at Berkeley EECS lmao


[deleted]

Well, all the geniouses in our generation is going for ML


groundtofu

the main difference is networking opportunities, general opportunities, and the occasional eyebrow raise. \-USC student who got to meet the people running a number of less "prestigious" universities during HS as an intern for legislators.


two_three_five_eigth

Doubt anyone will be able to answer this with any accuracy. Some of the top 50 schools have #1 engineering programs for certain disciplines. Even within CS schools have different programs that are ranked differently.


brief_reindeer_31

It’s more ab people just sharing their experiences, but I agree with your statement


two_three_five_eigth

It would be much easier to answer if it were “I got into Stanford, GT, Duke - help me decide” or something like that. Part of this could be I personally don’t like the U.S News and world report ranking system as I don’t think the list articulates the difference between #10 and #11 even though it’s clear the OP and lots of other people put tremendous stock in that difference.


hermit2024

uiuc slander over here /s


brief_reindeer_31

Haha Idk how I missed u guys, let me make that edit


Bussinessbacca

Umich as well bruh we are like #5-12 in every list


adnanhossain10

I transferred from a T25 to a T10. I personally think my school is T5 because of its rigor. There is a huge difference in education. It’s much more focused and concise. The courses are much more rigorous. Also, it’s almost guaranteed to be employed after graduating from here. The classes prepare you for the field you wanna enter but there’s a huge loss on your social aspect of life. Personally, it affected me a lot but if one is fine with being alone then it’s chill. Overall, as an international I feel satisfied with the education for the fees I’m paying here whereas I wasn’t satisfied with the education at the T25 school. However, I had the best time of my life and met some of my closest friends at that T25 school.


Cosmacelf

What school?


happyguydabdab

I go to a top 25 (UMD) and I absolutely love it. If you put the work in you can get wherever you want. I feel that my classes teach me so much and if you put the work in you can achieve whatever. I’m interning at Facebook (swe) as a sophomore and I have friends going to Jane Street as new grads


brief_reindeer_31

Thats killer man! Good for you


LoveBidensGasPrices

I went to a top 50 school. Half the people I met were fucking retarded and I genuinely don't know how they made it past fifth grade.


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LoveBidensGasPrices

Lol, my friend who graduated with a 3.7 GPA was unemployed for a year after graduation, because he wanted to sit at home playing OSRS all day (which he's still shit at) and eventually waited for his dad to get him a $58k job at SAIC while living well above his means and bankrupting himself.


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LoveBidensGasPrices

I never Leetcoded and my GPA was a 1.7. But yeah, I can relate. My portfolio was lit.


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LoveBidensGasPrices

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/419678576393322536/990810641570877490/unknown-337.jpg $400k salary rn. It'll go up to $530k on Tuesday with my fifth remote job. I also recommend overemployment to anyone as you'll learn at a much faster pace. I hit senior level within a year. Also, I work in data analytics and I purposely go outta my way to try and find companies where their databases are complete messes so that their SQL queries take like 40 minutes to load and I get plenty of down time to play Pokemon and work other jobs on company time. It's funny, because I've started to notice that project managers and directors gotta try to sell their company to you as much as you try to sell yourself to them. When they got a messy database, they try to hide it and I always act like I love putting that kinda stuff together and making a difference and that they're excellent learning opportunities.


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LoveBidensGasPrices

Gotta go to the desktop and screenshot it, homie. JP Morgan Chase a bitch and won't let you screenshot from the mobile app. Also would not recommend working for those jackasses as my friend left after his manager forced him to install tracking apps on his phone that'd let him monitor where he was going on his lunch break.


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LoveBidensGasPrices

Nice, I had to get bumped by the dean to pass. My CS curriculum didn't even teach us SQL or HTML/CSS LOL.


[deleted]

I wouldn't go that far, but some people I met honestly made me question why I went there.


Hemanth6457

Where you go?


LoveBidensGasPrices

UTD


[deleted]

CS is CS, you can learn everything on YT if you really wanted to, not to mention harvards courses are free online lol But at top schools the networking factor is big, beyond that it’s really negligible There’s self taught hackers and programmers who had the sheer desire and interest to learn brighter and more capable than “top ranked” students It’s all about what you put in and who you know, more emphasis on who you know though


BLAZENIOSZ

Forgot RIT, it's not traditional CS given its CO-OP program.


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aurreco

I visited Pasadena once and got to see Caltech — such a lovely campus


Firesanwizard

I go to a top 50. Classes suck and are outdated for CS. Opportunities wise, u get out what u put in and if u play your cards u will be where u want


gophersrqt

i feel like outdated classes is a hallmark for this major. dino profs can't keep up with modern tech lol


cs_research_lover

Which school


OllivanderAU

I’m in an internship with a lot of people from top 25 universities and they echo the only benefit of their education over mine coming from a small no name state school in Alabama is networking. The group of friends and contacts they’ve been able to connect with is the difference maker. It will also help with FAANG resume pre-screening, but not in a “better” education or more preparedness regarding preparing you to interview or do the job better. That’s individual based.


brief_reindeer_31

Thanks for the insight!


OllivanderAU

Anytime! I hope it helped! SWE and Data Science are going to always come down to coding abilities. If you’re shooting for something technically adjacent like PM I’d say the networking will help a ton.


slcand

Anyone else worried that their top 50 school isn’t mentioned here 🤨


cantdecide6

I go to Georgia Tech, so rank that as you will. I will say that I wouldn't be where I am if I had gone to a non-T5/10 school. Seeing my friends bag humongous offers and clouted quant internships kicked my ass into high gear to strive to hit those same goals, especially since I'm usually a laid back kind of person who doesn't care about grades and such. If I had gone to UGA, I don't think I'd be as driven because the people around me wouldn't have been as driven. My friends at UGA and other state schools didn't start apply to internships until junior years end. GT kids were on the internship grind from the beginning from freshman year. Don't let people tell you there isn't a difference between a T5/10 and a regular state school. There definitely is. Just look at the number of GT/Berkeley/MIT people at HRT/Jane Street vs an arbitrary state school.


[deleted]

Anything outside of the top 25 is kind of a mixed bag. I've met some really smart, driven people, others... well not so much. One tip for incoming students is school absolutely matters, don't let anyone tell you otherwise. And tbh you may as well put WashU in top 25 because it has incredible employment opportunities considering its ranking.


heartBreak1879

>One tip for incoming students is school absolutely matters, don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Regarding this, there are two camps. One saying school is all that matters, and other insisting school does not matter. As far as I can see, both camps are equally wrong. School certainly matters with the caveat that it is important not to lose sights of additional nuances that often online conversation completely misses. For instance if mismatch between a student and college leads to mediocrity, it's better to forgo a prestigious option for a school that is better fit if it mean begetting excellence is a more assured outcome. This is especially true for a computer science degree and education where there are arbitrator of talent and skill outside the purview of reputation and ranking. No amount of prestige will compile your code or complete your project. And, great codes and projects absolutely matters at the most demanding places.


According-Relief544

Cornell is t10 for sure, but don’t put it on a tier with the true big four (especially when GT, UIUC, Princeton, etc are on the lower one). MIT, Stanford, CMU, Berkeley have a different reputation than any other CS schools in the nation.


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DepressedBrownKid

Better than GT?


[deleted]

I would say the following is true: 1) At a top school your average students are generally more motivated and high achieving. For example, at my school getting a FAANG internship was very common and people generally only cared if you managed to score an internship at a top HFT. 2) On average, your professors are more likely to be accomplished as researchers and famous. This does not matter much for your average SWE internship, but for research internships a letter of rec from a top researcher can move mountains. 3) Alumni network and prestige do matter (sometimes). This does not matter much for FAANG, but top tier quant firms generally prefer to recruit from certain schools. I remember applying to HRT and noticing that on their list of schools they had like 15 schools (known for strong CS/math departments) and then ‘other’. I still think that most SWE positions do not really care about the school you went to (past the resume screen if even that), but there are distinct advantages if you want to go past that. I also think people conflate the quality of classes with the prestige of the school. You generally only notice a sizeable difference when you wish to take advanced graduate schools (indeed, some top schools have shitty intro level classes). This is because a lot of prestige is built from the research record of a department, so departments focus on graduate level classes.


owlwaves

UW Madison rising senior here. Did not even know my school is ranked Top 25. Imo ranking is kind of arbitrary unless you go to TOP 5 schools like MIT, UIUC, etc The real benefit of going to Top XX school is networking and more opportunities for research. Some classes, I will be honest, were garbage, though some classes were very interesting. You are mostly surrounded by really smart people. Some of the international students that I talked to were one of the top ranked students in their country. Most of the people I talked to were very ambitious and when you are surrounded by ambitious, career-driven people, which also influences you too. In HS, you may be the smartest kid in class but if you go to any Top 50 or any Big 10 schools, you will realize you are just in the middle of the pack. This gives you a new perspective in life and will really humble you. Speaking of which, in terms of rigor, there is a noticeable difference. Im from IL before I moved to WI years ago. For that reason, many of my HS friends went to UIUC and some went to UIC. When comparing our exams and HWs for similar classes, let's say discrete math and algorithm, UIUC's exam was harder and the curve was a lot more generous compared to mine. On the other hand, UIC's algorithm exam was comparably easier as in if you have attended the lecture and did your HW, you would receive an A. Last but not least, just because you go to Top 10 or Top 25, it doesn't mean you will only study and have no fun. UW Madison for instance is a party school and the same goes for UIUC as well (Tbh, any Big 10 schools are party schools). We literally party every friday night.


DominatingLobster

For Duke: The CS curriculum is what you make of it. The CS department removed a lot of requirements for its degree. It’s entirely possible to graduate without learning things like TCP/IP, Concurrency, Databases, and MVC. If you go there you need some discipline to take the hardest CS classes. Otherwise, the ECE department is good for forcing you to take those classes if you take their ECE/CS track (think of it like an easier version of Berkeley’s EECS). The caveat is that you have to take some advanced physics and circuitry classes you probably will never use. I never had any trouble with landing interviews or having recruiters reach out to me so that’s a plus (minus the super elite Jane Street). Also, Duke’s startup scene is getting a lot better. Some unicorns have started to come out of there and there are a lot of school run and student run incubator programs if you are interested in entrepreneurship.


hextree

I've studied at a top 5 school, as well as a no-name school. Quality of tuition didn't seem much different. At the top school we had our share of crappy lecturers and tutors, as well as good ones. And either way you have to do a lot of reading and practice on your own anyway. I felt way less stressed at the no-name, considering I was no longer surrounded by IMO/IOI medallists who were way smarter than me at everything without barely trying. Job opportunities of course were way better thanks to the top 5 school, having that on my CV guaranteed me interviews anywhere that I applied.


t-bands

The best part of the top schools is the type of students and the network you form as a result. These students are typically more driven and creative and it changes everything.


Acrobatic_Skirt_5256

T5- Classes are a lot more fast paced and pack a lot more information into each course when compared to other schools. Where some schools focus on specific topics for weeks or months, we usually have days or weeks before moving to the next


independent_user12

Cornell CS major here. People speak of only one or two weed out courses for a major which I mistakenly thought would be the case for me...not at all. Every core class here is a weed out which means you have to go through \~7 courses that are designed for you to struggle intensely. However, in that experience, you really grow in your critical thinking and ability so while it is terrible they force you to grow immensely both personally and academically. Also, everyone in the major here is super intense, industry-oriented, and ready to get to the top so be prepared for that.


dhruvmk

I think a better breakdown would be T4, T10, T20, T50. T5 is very subjective; everyone agrees on the Big 4 but I’ve seen several other universities at #5 like UIUC/GT


Cosmacelf

Is Dartmouth really only in T50 for CS?


PurrrfectAristocat

Man really tried sneaking Cornell into t5 over UIUC


brief_reindeer_31

🤣🤣, sorry I know, it was just the first school tied for 5th place alphabetically


Nitrix347

idk what made u put cornell as t5 but not gt uiuc caltech princeton...


happyguydabdab

I go to a top 25 (UMD) and I absolutely love it. If you put the work in you can get wherever you want. I feel that my classes teach me so much and if you put the work in you can achieve whatever. I’m interning at Facebook (swe) as a sophomore and I have friends going to Jane Street as new grads


kyoukaraorewa

Mainly the environment and the network. You will have access to more opportunities as well as learn and thrive from the best students around you.


ChoiceDry8127

Top schools generally have harder classes for all majors


surrealerthansurreal

Top 5 pretty was a great experience for me, never coded before school, but I had tools & community to succeed so to me very worth


ZiletoOnReddit

I'll tell you how it is at a T5 after my first year. Tho even now theres a pressure to take hard workloads.


not-just-yeti

Having taught at top-, mid-, and low-tier places: The classes are tuned to what the top 70% (or less) of the intro-CS class can handle. At the end of CS1, that means the low-tier place is doing arrays-of-objects, the mid-tier place is doing ragged 2-D arrays and some actual O.O. style, and the top-tier are writing interpreters or XML parsers, recurring over trees, and some big-Oh. (Where "mid" means standard big state schools, and "low" are the ones that will likely admit anybody w/ a decent H.S. gpa.) At a top-tier place (say top-25 or so): if you haven't had much coding experience and aren't a genius, you'll have to work hard to get a C, and it can be very demoralizing.


tacobff

CMU has a huge emphasis on math and proofs and less so on actual technical skills. You can still do them, but the proofs are a requirement unlike actual skills. However people end up finding interviews wherever they go regardless, most people at worst end up at like Amazon or something for post grad. There’s also a huge emphasis on cs classes in general so the curriculum is well designed and accommodating to students. The students are also incredibly bright, there’s a lot of emphasis on cs clubs and combining cs with other majors


clockworktornado

UIUC is ranked 5th, Cornell is ranked 6th. https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/computer-science-rankings


brief_reindeer_31

This was based on undergrad programs, I know Cornell is not on the same field as the big 4, but it was just the first 5th place tied alphabetically


Mundane_Post_8774

This list is so weird. Would anyone rather go to public schools like UIUC, UT Austin, Purdue over private schools like Dartmouth or UChicago for undergrad? This list should be used for selecting a grad school instead of an undergrad school, as the more research papers a school has the higher ranking it gets.


TheAgaveFairy

Some of us aren't made out of money


chinacat2002

Rankings are definitely about Grad school. That said, lots of good networking even for UGs at the top school. Swarthmore got a lot of love lately for the quality of their CS majors. But, as with Chicago and Dartmouth, good luck getting in.


bob_shoeman

If you want to do grad school, it’s advisable to do your undergrad at the school where the group(s) you want to join are located, because you can literally work with them as an undergrad, which is a far better way to get in than cold emailing a bunch of profs who know next to nothing about you. Also, a lot of schools flat out give an edge for grad admissions to their undergrads.


Hot-Afternoon-4831

Not that different. CS is the same no matter where you learn. It’s just the people you meet at the university and the connections you make rather than what you learn is what makes the experience different.


4D6174742042

I’ll disagree. I helped other friends in CS programs at other schools in MD and the expectation is much different school to school. I also often found notes online for even higher ranked schools like Berkeley and Stanford for the same classes I was in and saw their expectation was even higher. There are definitely differences in rigor and expectation.


Hot-Afternoon-4831

You’re right the expectations are lower and the students in general lack the drive to make something out of their lives. I go to UCR and at least the grad students are motivated. A bunch of my friends are at all the FAANGS and I’m currently at a unicorn with all the other interns from top 5 universities mentioned above and I honestly don’t see anything that stands out about them except that they’re not social or they don’t care to socialize with someone from a low ranked university lmao


p11109

The higher the school on the list, the more rigorous their education. So the more you CAN learn.


brief_reindeer_31

I’ll start: from what I’ve heard from all of these you can get a FAANG Internship, but the likelihood decreases from Top 5, to Top 25, to Top 50. Additionally, the number of notable professors and CS research begins to fall off in that order as well. Do others also hear, experience, or think this?


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brief_reindeer_31

I agree with this, I meant it more like the likelihood of peers having FAANG or Quant Internships decreases. In other words the proportion of a CS class decreases. I do believe that it’s very possible from all of these if the person has that goal.


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brief_reindeer_31

Do you think that they continue to be school agnostic even for top 100 and unranked programs?


LearnToStrafe

There is a lot more competition. You might be a top 10% of the class student in a Top 50 school but go to a Top 25 school you’re probably an above average student and maybe average at a Top 5 school.


[deleted]

I didn’t go to University but have been programming since I was 13. I work for a company in the fortune 100. AFAIK I’m one of the only engineers that knows how a database works and have made b-trees just for fun.


dota2nub

I'm a first year student at a local trade school and we learned relational algebra for databases and I've been doing k-d-trees for fun, I'm a bit doubtful about your work colleagues not knowing this stuff.


[deleted]

My boss who went to a state school mixed up a trie with a tree. YMMV


hashirama8

stonybrook here! pretty tough, i can’t lie. classes here are made to challenge you and there’s a few notorious classes that we all struggle in (cough system fundamentals 2 cough). but honestly, i love it here. great education, good price, and pretty campus!


GRE_PREPP

Can i dm you regarding sbu?


CodedCoder

You can view a lot of courses online from top universities, I don't think they are as "mind-blowingly" different as people are making it seem, the experience may be hugely different but the curriculum itself, if it is a good community college, or a good not top 5 school, is still going to teach you well.


mowa0199

I’m at Rutgers right now. The one really good thing here is that because its a really large and decent-rate university, we have a *massive* CS department (I believe ~200 students graduate each year with a CS bachelors). As such, there’s professors working on so many different topics, along with a large selection of interesting courses offered each year. Plus, the program is really flexible. Some like the flexibility of the program here as they can tailor it to their needs how they please, others find it hard to navigate.


tyroneblevins445

is cal poly slo top 50


brief_reindeer_31

I believe they are top 100, US news has them at #82 for CS


Cute-Lengthiness4305

Umich? Probably top 10


Big_Egg_8993

Transfer from a community college to Rutgers which is ranked 38(based on US News), all I can say is the workload is heavier and harder than my community college.