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Don’t go bankrupt on an undergrad. Don’t saddle yourself - or him - with insane amounts of undergrad debt. Scores will get him serious looks, but he should also look beyond academics. What will he do in his free time? Does he like the people he’s met? Does he want to be out of region from everything he’s grow -up with?
University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign! Underrated but excellent CS program and many alum are now major players in Silicon Valley (Yelp, YouTube, PayPal, Oracle, etc founders are alum of U of I).
Real talk: I went to rutgers University and I had a few friends that majored in CS. They ended up getting jobs at amazon, Microsoft, and a few other technology companies. With the scholarship that I got I could graduate ~30k in debt which I paid off in a year while living at home. Looking at some friends that went to expensive private schools who are riddled with debt I am so thankful that I didn’t go to one of those expensive schools. There are some fields (ironically, the one I am in strategy consulting) where there is a huge leg up in hiring for ivy leaguers...but with CS as long as you’re good you can get most jobs.
Definitely look at Ga Tech
But for Comp Sci your school matters less, skills matter more. I went to a mid ranked state school and comp sci majors were still being hired to google and other top tech companies.
You only get to do college once, I’d make sure it’s somewhere your kid likes and thinks they will fit in
Consider Canada. Dirt cheap in comparison and same opportunities as the best US schools.
Another advocate for Georgia Tech!
Another vote for 🇨🇦. Waterloo and McGill have great CS programs. Montreal is infinitely more fun than Waterloo though. What does he like doing for fun?
Just finished our 8th college visit this past week with my son who is also a junior. No matter where he ends up applying, I would echo those saying he should visit local schools. It is easy to come up with top ranked schools - but what is right for your son? My son came out of the visits with knowledge of what was important to him IN ADDITION to the academics. The size, the extra curricular activities, the breadth or majors offered, etc. Definitely take a few tours and that will help solidify the target list for him.
University of St. Andrews. Great computer science program
Def CMU
RIT is another option
Other schools I’m not seeing on here for CS: UC system, UWashington. Worth asking if he sees value in new area or if he just wants to continue his life as it is
I wouldn’t underestimate the importance of a name. Sure - it might not matter a whole lot of consulting at Big 4 - but some companies (even BCG, Bain, McK, FB, etc) only recruiting at big name schools. It’s important to take that into account.
Gatech!
Georgia Tech
NSCU
Penn State is a great choice, tons of NJ kids there because they didn’t want to attend Rutgers.
CMU Robotics undergrads are pulling 200k offers from firms like Uber, Ford, Volvo, etc. for the self driving tech.... I’d def give CMU a hard look
Disclaimer: I’m partial since I went to CMU
I went for my bachelors in holland.. tutition was 4K euro a year.. and you have right to work part time (i earned 1.2k euro a month) which is more than enough to live on as a student... https://www.bachelorsportal.com/study-options/268452121/computer-sciences-netherlands.html
P2: Do you have data to back your anecdotes. Because in my anecdotal experience at CMU, over 90% over the people I spent time with finished with the major they started with.
OP, two things before I answer that question.
The CS degree at most good schools will be fine for software engineering jobs, with most top programs having Amazon/Google/etc recruit for software engineering roles. Given my friends’ experiences, the PM roles are much less accessible the farther down the list you go - which is worth thinking about and asking about at visits. If graduate school is in the picture (my bf is a CS PhD now, so hoping I can explain this remotely well...), it’s definitely worth considering schools that are known for strong graduate school placement - which again you’ll find that most of the top programs are. A lot of this hinges on quality of professors (and where they have connections) and opportunities available for undergrads to do sustained periods of research with them. So even within one major, there are a lot of career options, and it’s good to do a holistic assessment of the schools you visit in case your son’s mind changes. I say this bc my bf worked at Google in SE, didn’t find it intellectually stimulating, and ended up going the PhD route (to be fair, he went to college thinking he’d be premed, so definitely didn’t diligence this aspect before going...and also went to a school where you kind of had all doors open).
NC State has a great engineering program