I have looked around the web and applied to many schools but I was wondering if anyone could give me the names of good computer science and systems engineering schools. The only major limitations are they have to be in the northeast (Conneticut, Pennsylvania, etc) . I am a solid B student unweighted. Any suggestions
How about RPI (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute)?
*Originally posted by 3_14159265358979323846 *
:eek: What a User ID!
RIT has a good CS program, if you like snow.
The only schools I know much about are the ones in New York, but I can tell you that RIT, RPI and Clarkson all have excellent computer science programs. If you’re looking for something a little more cost effective though, you could look at the University at Buffalo(UB). They’re a state school which makes the tuition much more affordable, and they still have excellent academic programs for computer science.
Carnegie Mellon, my alma mater. Second only to MIT in computer science (by U.S. News, I think). E-mail if you want the recent grad’s perspective.
What constitutes a good school will be a matter of opinion, so I’ll move this thread to IMHO.
When you go to evaluate a school, don’t just look at the CS/systems department. Look for a school that’s good overall. You may decide you like something else better, and no one really cares where you went for your undergrad degree (that is what you’re looking for, right?).
When you go to evaluate a school, don’t just look at the CS/systems department. Look for a school that’s good overall. You may decide you like something else better, and no one really cares where you went for your undergrad degree (that is what you’re looking for, right?).
There are CMU people around here, besides me and Green Bean? Sweet! Yeah, for CS, go to CMU. It’s one of the best schools in the country, and it’s great in other fields, as well, such as Drama and HCI. Good luck!
MIT, Stanford, Caltech, and UC Bekeley are all good choices.
A couple of points:
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As a solid B student you might have trouble getting into Carnegie Mellon or RPI. Point being no matter where you want to go, have solid backups. Whether you get in to a given school or not depends on a lot more factors than just your GPA, of course.
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“…no one really cares where you went for your undergrad degree…” is not true as a general statement. If you want to work for a prestigious company straight from your Undergrad program, then they will care. Again, this depends on a number of factors. If you are top ranked coming out of a program then it might not matter, or if you continue on for an advanced degree. But some companies only recruit at certain schools for new grads. This is as much a matter of recruiting budget as anything else. So you may wish to target certain schools depending on where you’d like to work. As general advice I’d suggest you look at which companies recruit from the schools you are interested in attending.
Er, Urban Ranger? Last I looked, Stanford, Caltech, and UC Berkeley, while very fine schools, were not in the Northeast, unless you live in Hawaii.
Unless things have changed at CMU, it’s going to be hard for a “solid-B” student to get into the CS program (unless you nail the SATs or get great recommendations.) At least back in the 80’s (when was the last time I had solid info about it), it was a very competitive admissions process. Realistically, almost any state school can give you a fine CS background. You might consider the University of Massachusetts, Rutgers, UConn, etc… For an undergraduate degree, what’s more important is what you put into the program. (It used to be that the higher-echelon universities would have better equipment, but nowadays you’ve got everything you need for an undergraduate CS degree sitting on your desk.) While getting the degree, try to get involved in research programs being carried on at the university and/or look for good summer internships. Schools such as UMass have very good research programs and getting involved in those would be a good start towards getting some good experience and letters of recommendation for grad school/jobs.
In fact, one thing I’d suggest is that if a school has a graduate program that you might be interested in, consider getting your undergraduate somewhere else. Often schools are not enthusiastic about taking on their own undergrads as graduate students, as they feel (probably correctly), that you should get experience at as many different places as possible.