OT-Computer Science or Computer Engineering Undergrad Colleges

[Knight Shift]

My son, currently a junior in high school is interested in pursuing computer science/computer engineering as a major.
Went to the EE/Computer Engineering Tour/Open House today. We were impressed. One of our tour leaders was majoring in computer engineering with minors in computer science and economics. She interned at Goldman last summer and, as was pointed out here, Harvey Schwartz loves recruiting Rutgers grads.

Anyway, think there are quite a few computer science/engineering types on this board.

1. Can anyone give any comments or tips on majoring in computer science versus computer engineering? It seemed to us that computer engineering would be a better route to go as the degree provides a broader base than computer science.

2. We think our son wants to go to college in the DC/Northeast. Any comments, thoughts on the following potential colleges for computer engineering/science?

-Rutgers-one of the student felt RU gave more practical and industry opportunities than some of the more prestigious schools on this list.
-Cornell
-Columbia
-Princeton
-Penn
-Stevens Tech
-Maryland-was surprised Maryland was very highly rated
-Johns Hopkins

 

[soundcrib]

Ex-CEO of Oculus, Brandon Iribe has pumped so much money into Maryland Computer Science. They’re very fortunate.

 

[coldsprings_rivals]

My son, currently a junior in high school is interested in pursuing computer science/computer engineering as a major.
Went to the EE/Computer Engineering Tour/Open House today. We were impressed. One of our tour leaders was majoring in computer engineering with minors in computer science and economics. She interned at Goldman last summer and, as was pointed out here, Harvey Schwartz loves recruiting Rutgers grads.

Anyway, think there are quite a few computer science/engineering types on this board.

1. Can anyone give any comments or tips on majoring in computer science versus computer engineering? It seemed to us that computer engineering would be a better route to go as the degree provides a broader base than computer science.

2. We think our son wants to go to college in the DC/Northeast. Any comments, thoughts on the following potential colleges for computer engineering/science?

-Rutgers-one of the student felt RU gave more practical and industry opportunities than some of the more prestigious schools on this list.
-Cornell
-Columbia
-Princeton
-Penn
-Stevens Tech
-Maryland-was surprised Maryland was very highly rated
-Johns Hopkins

My son just graduated from Maryland in computer science. Yes, UMD is ranked 14th in computer science but he was mostly unimpressed with the quality of the instruction (probably though not much different than most schools). He had a great summer job his junior year which helped to pave the way for great job opportunities with minimal time effort to receive an offer. UMD has a fine honors college and there are also opportunities to write a senior thesis if your son is thinking of grad school. A state of the art new comp sci building is under construction.

The campus is very nice and everything is on one campus. The one caveat is the housing situation. After his sophomore year, if your son is not exempt from the housing lottery because of a scholarship, he may not be assigned to a dorm. There are though many nice on-campus undergraduate apartments privately built in conjunction with UMD. Most junior/seniors prefer the apartments but they cost more than the dorms.

 

[ashokan]

In the computer forums I go to the people working in the field have been down on CS for quite awhile. A CS degree is seen as more theoretical/academic and not as useful as other things that could be studied. Here's a sampling of posts I've been reading for 10 years


"I speak as someone with a 4 year Honours Computer Science degree and 19 years experience in the industry, and as someone who also interviews. The academic departments teaching this stuff are so far behind industry that what they teach is pretty much worthless. Heck, the stuff they learned in year one is out of date by the end of year 3 or 4. Thing is, people with these degrees come out of uni thinking they're the *****, and where's their 80k jobs they've heard about online. I'd take someone who's spent 3 years in the field or working in a DC any day of the week. I'd also take any CCNP level or MCSE level person with nothing more than high-school diplomas over a degree too. This industry is a practical one. I honestly feel bad for them, and I wish I could have gone back and done something useful.

Computer Science degree... complete waste of time. They'd be better off studying maths.'

https://hardforum.com/threads/college-students-are-flocking-to-computer-science-majors.1940335/

Lots of same sentiments in rest of thread and many others just like it

 

[BOGDANOVICH]

Specialize in Artificial Intelligence,and you will be offered a $500K starting salary if you have a PH.D., according to the NY Times.
There are only 10000 specialists in AI in the world, and the demand is huge and will only grow.

 

[RutHut_rivals]

Any idea of the class sizes for RU and Maryland Computer Science? Have a senior who's decided on CS. He doesn't want to go to a big school but I'd like him to take a look at RU. He's a solid student, but don't think he'd get into Princeton. Any thoughts on TCNJ?

 

[Beancounter88]

I like the schools that are located in tech centers like Boston and Pittsburgh, which would include Harvard, MIT and Carnegie Mellon. When we toured Carnegie, we ate in the Google Cafe located in the Gates Center and just outside they were testing wireless Uber cars. It was cool and intimidating at the same time.

 

[ashokan]

Specialize in Artificial Intelligence,and you will be offered a $500K starting salary if you have a PH.D., according to the NY Times.
There are only 10000 specialists in AI in the world, and the demand is huge and will only grow.

Quantum computing emerging as well...

How Quantum Computing Is Triggering the Next Industrial Revolution
https://themarketmogul.com/tech-megatrend-quantum-computing-industrial-revolution/

 

[soundcrib]

Specialize in Artificial Intelligence,and you will be offered a $500K starting salary if you have a PH.D., according to the NY Times.
There are only 10000 specialists in AI in the world, and the demand is huge and will only grow.

Iwork closely with a vendor with a PhD in AI. Brilliant and loaded.

 

[argofax]

What does he want to do? IT and Computer anything is a very wide field. If application development is something he wants to do then a four year degree may not be the right route. There are many disciplines within IT and technology that can be taught outside of traditional universities. I agree with the above regarding AI.

 

[iReC89]

Here is another thread on the subject from recent alumnit and mentors in the FRC robotics community
https://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=158981

 

[formerlyknownasrutgers100]

My son, currently a junior in high school is interested in pursuing computer science/computer engineering as a major.
Went to the EE/Computer Engineering Tour/Open House today. We were impressed. One of our tour leaders was majoring in computer engineering with minors in computer science and economics. She interned at Goldman last summer and, as was pointed out here, Harvey Schwartz loves recruiting Rutgers grads.

Anyway, think there are quite a few computer science/engineering types on this board.

1. Can anyone give any comments or tips on majoring in computer science versus computer engineering? It seemed to us that computer engineering would be a better route to go as the degree provides a broader base than computer science.

2. We think our son wants to go to college in the DC/Northeast. Any comments, thoughts on the following potential colleges for computer engineering/science?

-Rutgers-one of the student felt RU gave more practical and industry opportunities than some of the more prestigious schools on this list.
-Cornell
-Columbia
-Princeton
-Penn
-Stevens Tech
-Maryland-was surprised Maryland was very highly rated
-Johns Hopkins

Rochester, RIT, renslear poly tech. No offense to your son don’t know his grades and sat but even with top scores the Ivy’s are never a guarantee for a white kid not playing a sport at the collegiate level in this day and age, so while hopefully he gets into one of those Ivy’s it’s good to have some backups

 

[Big East Beast]

Iwork closely with a vendor with a PhD in AI. Brilliant and loaded.

I’ve been artificially intelligent for as long as I can remember.

 

[Knight Shift]

What does he want to do? IT and Computer anything is a very wide field. If application development is something he wants to do then a four year degree may not be the right route. There are many disciplines within IT and technology that can be taught outside of traditional universities. I agree with the above regarding AI.

Like most juniors in high school, he has no idea what he wants to do. He has been into programming/coding for several years now. The tour/visit to Rutgers today was a real eye opener, particularly computer engineering majors getting jobs at Goldman Sachs. Computer Engineering seems to be a versatile degree. My wife and I are both engineers, and in our opinions, an engineering degree preferred over a science degree. But neither of us is familiar with computer science/computer engineering.

I could not think of my son NOT going for a 4 year degree. I foresee that he would likely go the Master's PhD route. Our thought is that if he can get into RU Honors College and get some $$, it may be worthwhile to go that route and he can go to a prestige school like CMU or MIT for his graduate degree.

 

[coldsprings_rivals]

In the computer forums I go to the people working in the field have been down on CS for quite awhile. A CS degree is seen as more theoretical/academic and not as useful as other things that could be studied. Here's a sampling of posts I've been reading for 10 years


"I speak as someone with a 4 year Honours Computer Science degree and 19 years experience in the industry, and as someone who also interviews. The academic departments teaching this stuff are so far behind industry that what they teach is pretty much worthless. Heck, the stuff they learned in year one is out of date by the end of year 3 or 4. Thing is, people with these degrees come out of uni thinking they're the *****, and where's their 80k jobs they've heard about online. I'd take someone who's spent 3 years in the field or working in a DC any day of the week. I'd also take any CCNP level or MCSE level person with nothing more than high-school diplomas over a degree too. This industry is a practical one. I honestly feel bad for them, and I wish I could have gone back and done something useful.

Computer Science degree... complete waste of time. They'd be better off studying maths.'

https://hardforum.com/threads/college-students-are-flocking-to-computer-science-majors.1940335/

Lots of same sentiments in rest of thread and many others just like it

Of course, they are somewhat out-of-date courses, but students who make it through top programs in computer science are signaling they are able to handle complex problems; firms are buying the demonstrated talent to learn and conceptualize. I assure you my son, who graduated, from UMD, received his first 80K offer by the time he made it back to his dorm after the interview.

 

[Knight Shift]

Rochester, RIT, renslear poly tech. No offense to your son don’t know his grades and sat but even with top scores the Ivy’s are never a guarantee for a white kid not playing a sport at the collegiate level in this day and age, so while hopefully he gets into one of those Ivy’s it’s good to have some backups

No offense taken. How do you know I am white? He should be fine on grades and SAT if he follows through with a similar result from the PSAT. The backups on our list were Rutgers, Maryland, Stevens.

 

[RutHut_rivals]

No offense taken. How do you know I am white? He should be fine on grades and SAT if he follows through with a similar result from the PSAT. The backups on our list were Rutgers, Maryland, Stevens.

Knight shift is whiter than Mitt Romney in a snow storm.

 

[RW90]

If value ($$$) is a priority, you might want to consider Rowan. My son is a freshman majoring in CompSci there and he likes it so far.

 

[formerlyknownasrutgers100]

No offense taken. How do you know I am white? He should be fine on grades and SAT if he follows through with a similar result from the PSAT. The backups on our list were Rutgers, Maryland, Stevens.

An assumption based on positing history. Sister did very well on sat over 2200 and had over 4.0 from elite nj public school, took many ap classes and very good at math (her current major) still didn’t get into any Ivy’s, but got big scholly to Hopkins, where she loves it. You never know Is all!

 

[Knight Shift]

An assumption based on positing history. Sister did very well on sat over 2200 and had over 4.0 from elite nj public school, took many ap classes and very good at math (her current major) still didn’t get into any Ivy’s, but got big scholly to Hopkins, where she loves it. You never know Is all!

Must have been all the pro-EMU posts that gave me away.
Not banking on the Ivies or CMU (which may be tougher than an Ivy). My son's school has a good history with Hopkins, which is one reason it is on our list.

 

[formerlyknownasrutgers100]

Must have been all the pro-EMU posts that gave me away.
Not banking on the Ivies or CMU (which may be tougher than an Ivy). My son's school has a good history with Hopkins, which is one reason it is on our list.

Beautiful campus and great school in Hopkins, she’s very happy there. Ps emu sucks they’re 2-7. Cmu very good school but known for grade deflation just something to keep in mind

 

[Knight Shift]

Beautiful campus and great school in Hopkins, she’s very happy there. Ps emu sucks they’re 2-7. Cmu very good school but known for grade deflation just something to keep in mind

Have a cousin who went there for PhD in Civil Engineering. Heard it is more difficult to get admitted than MIT. Think a lot of folks pass on some solid private schools because of the $$$ but do not realize that they give a lot of $$. Stevens Tech is pretty generous, but not in same league as Hopkins.

 

[RC1978]

My son got his CE degree at RU 2012. He now is a Senior Software Engineer at Lockheed Martin. I think one of the best decisions he made was getting PSM Degree or sometimes known as Masters of Business and Science.
Firms are looking for candidates that are not one dimensional and understand how the business portion relates to engineering part to move up the ladder in management.
Do not underestimate RU Engineering, if your kid can get into some of the bing name engineering schools like MIT, Stanford go for it.

 

[RUnTeX]

You may even want to consider adding NJIT as a safety school to the list. Lots of strong grads come out of there and do well, and computer science and computer engineering are likely among the two most popular majors so it can be very competitive. Rutgers name on the degree probably carries farther in most circles but NJIT is no slouch. Both are probably better value propositions than Stevens, unless they throw some serious $ your way to offset their crazy tuition.

If limited to Northeast/Mid-Atlantic, aside from schools already mentioned in this thread, you might also have your son look at Stony Brook and Lehigh.

 

[RUScrew85]

My son, currently a junior in high school is interested in pursuing computer science/computer engineering as a major.
Went to the EE/Computer Engineering Tour/Open House today. We were impressed. One of our tour leaders was majoring in computer engineering with minors in computer science and economics. She interned at Goldman last summer and, as was pointed out here, Harvey Schwartz loves recruiting Rutgers grads.

Anyway, think there are quite a few computer science/engineering types on this board.

1. Can anyone give any comments or tips on majoring in computer science versus computer engineering? It seemed to us that computer engineering would be a better route to go as the degree provides a broader base than computer science.

2. We think our son wants to go to college in the DC/Northeast. Any comments, thoughts on the following potential colleges for computer engineering/science?

-Rutgers-one of the student felt RU gave more practical and industry opportunities than some of the more prestigious schools on this list.
-Cornell
-Columbia
-Princeton
-Penn
-Stevens Tech
-Maryland-was surprised Maryland was very highly rated
-Johns Hopkins

Well as someone in the field for the last 30+ years. Salaries are down for the last 20 years due to outsourcing. Tell him to find another focus for his career.

 

[RUnTeX]

CE degree

Hey, CE is for us civil engineering guys....it's CompE for the newbie field, LOL!

 

[RUevolution36]

Carnegie Mellon should be on that list...

 

[RUnTeX]

never a guarantee for a white kid

And apparently even less than never of a guarantee for an Asian kid.

 

[formerlyknownasrutgers100]

And apparently even less than never of a guarantee for an Asian kid.

Also correct

 

[seels2662]

Graduated with a Computer Science degree with a minor in applied mathematics from NJIT, in the field for 20 years. The degree is there to get your first job, after that its all about experience. And for the poster above that say the degree is worthless, I have too interviewed many people, I wouldn't say worthless, at least they are better than the grads from the tech schools like Chubb. They teach programming but don't even teach them basic SQL I couldn't believe it. A master's degree though I agree is a complete waste of money. Two more years of experience is 20 times better than two more years in school.

 

[Knight Shift]

Carnegie Mellon should be on that list...

May be the toughest program for admissions.

 

[RU-ROCS]

My son just graduated from Maryland in computer science. Yes, UMD is ranked 14th in computer science but he was mostly unimpressed with the quality of the instruction (probably though not much different than most schools).

That's interesting, as my son graduated from the "top-20" U. of Maryland Smith School of business and had a similar experience. He really liked the University, but was very disappointed in the level of instruction at the B School, as well as their placement efforts.

 

[Knight Shift]

That's interesting, as my son graduated from the "top-20" U. of Maryland Smith School of business and had a similar experience. He really liked the University, but was very disappointed in the level of instruction at the B School, as well as their placement efforts.

Placement has traditionally been a a complaint about RU too. This is not saying anything about your son, but I tend to think kids have do a lot of their own heavy lifting to succeed in getting a job.

 

[eceres]

Feel free to message me if you have further questions.

I'm a Rutgers 04 in CS. I currently work for one of the larger tech companies as a software engineer.

Rutgers: CS department is part 100-200 level courses are 60-200 person lecture classes., 30 0 level courses are like 30-60. You only get to small doses at 400 level electives.

If you want a good internship at Rutgers you need top grades (3.9+) from my experience.

Most of the college grads at my compost come from better private schools, and start with a six figure income.

I have spent much of my career at startups, and have always been paid well and been able to find a job.

If he wants to code software, CS is better then CE. If he wants to work on hardware or near hardware (coding chips) then CE is the right steering job. You see CE in one development roles, but they Isuzu started in chip coding and then moved over.

All those posts off CS degree not being right if you want to be a software developer sound crazy to me. Having a CS degree does not make you software developer, but it gives companies the idea to make you one. Plenty of people leave college with CS degrees but can't be developers. Many go into It or other related computer jobs.

Entry level software development hiring is all about problem solving skills and basic coding. Good internship is an amazing head start.

I doubt the benefit of UMD ranking is worth the extra MONEY. CMU is worth with the extra money. If grad school is really a definite then under grad is less of a concern, and getting a good GPA & recommendations for a top grad school is important.

Finally, if your son does go software development, he should look for a tech company not a bank /finance job. I know plenty of people that went finance.

These are all personal opinions and not reflective of any current or prior employer.

 

[RuRahRah]

I have an MS in comp sci and have been in the IT field for 2 decades. Either major is fine as experience trumps everything in technology. The more useful choice might be electrical engineering. (My son is an EE major at the Air Force Academy and they are positioning him very well for a wide open technology career. Plus he'll have the ability to be a pilot should he choose that route. You also can't be the price!)

 

[RUScrew85]

That's interesting, as my son graduated from the "top-20" U. of Maryland Smith School of business and had a similar experience. He really liked the University, but was very disappointed in the level of instruction at the B School, as well as their placement efforts.

Tell us were the kids properly trained in safe spaces and SJW? Just curious.

 

[RobertG]

Well as someone in the field for the last 30+ years. Salaries are down for the last 20 years due to outsourcing. Tell him to find another focus for his career.

I agree with this as I've been in the field for the last 28 years. But, I wouldn't suggest that getting another career, what I would suggest is that he be prepared to not be a engineer his whole career unless he gets into a very specialized field or he works on research. He will need to focus on management, sales etc.

After about 5 to 10 years as an engineer he can be replaced by a new guy or H1B.

 

[eceres]

I agree with this as I've been in the field for the last 28 years. But, I wouldn't suggest that getting another career, what I would suggest is that he be prepared to not be a engineer his whole career unless he gets into a very specialized field or he works on research. He will need to focus on management, sales etc.

After about 5 to 10 years as an engineer he can be replaced by a new guy or H1B.

I'm going reply to this thinking, not the specific post.

The thing with technology is its ever changing. As should be obvious of you think about your computer /phone. Trying to stay up to date is hard, and if you need to find a new job & have out dated skills it can be hard.

However, getting into management, design, sales, product etc. Is very easy and will naturally come. The industry is hungry for experienced people. The risk is you might find yourself at a position change in your 50's and not be hirable. You will get 20 years of work without a problem if your competent. After they is murky.

As for salaries, out of college you can get six figures from a top school and 70+ from an okay school with an undergrad. While people aren't making 250 an hour like in y2k days, it is still a well posting career that gets into 6 figures with out a problem.

I am title a Senior Softeware Developer at 13 years out of college, but do more design docs then coding personally.Ihave also done manager role at prior jobs.

 

[jellyman_rivals307848]

My cousin's kid is very into computer science, the software behind AI, computer engineering and robotics. He looked very closely at Carnegie Mellon, and he and his Dad (my cousin) told me Carnegie Mellon is widely acknowledged as the #1 Computer Science/Computer Engineering school in the US.

HOWEVER ... they were advised by several Computer Engineers and AI people they knew, who ALL said that it was GRADUATE STUDIES work that developed the skills in AI, Computer Engineering and Computer Science more than UNDERGRADUATE work.

My cousin's son is at Yale, now, though he was accepted to Carnegie Mellon - he decided he would have broader educational opportunities at a school that had a broader range of outstanding programs, rather than the exceptional Computer-related programs at Carnegie Mellon ... and yes, he chose between CM and Yale.

 

[Beancounter88]

My daughter is at Carnegie Mellon. Their computer science is #1, but the Tepper School of Business is also extremely strong - top 10, especially in quantitative analysis and MIS. Very innovative school - Google has big campus in Pittsburgh and Amazon is considering Pittsburgh because of CMU.