colleges to apply to - CS - are there ones ds should add?

[Roadrunner]

15 minutes ago, EmilyGF said:

I can't believe how much mail Yale sends. Besides the regular brochures, postcards, etc, they sent a book about the school. Bizarre. 

We have never gotten anything from Yale! Hahaha! Yes from Harvard, yes from MIT, yes from Princeton…. I could keep going. Zero from Yale. 🤣

[bibiche]

4 hours ago, crazyforlatin said:

And I hate it when Yale and Harvard think we’re so gullible to apply. I’m not contributing to their 99% rejection rate.

To be fair, their rejection rate is only 95.54% and 96.87%. 😜

[Roadrunner]

1 hour ago, bibiche said:

To be fair, their rejection rate is only 95.54% and 96.87%. 😜

That really changes things. 🤣🤣🤣🤣

 

[Library Momma]

17 hours ago, crazyforlatin said:

It really does sound like a great school! DD’s friend is attending as a freshman and is loving it. I would enjoy walking underground between buildings. But the tunnels don’t go into the academic buildings right?

There are tunnels under the dorms and tunnels under the academic buildings but the two sets of tunnels don't connect.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

On 10/15/2022 at 4:57 PM, EmilyGF said:

So, we just got a big magazine in the mail from RIT and it totally turned my son off! He was planning to apply because they had offered him a waived application fee, but now he's changed his mind. 

The long, glossy magazine highlighted student life and told him absolutely nothing about academics. It didn't even have anything about tech or engineering. He said, "I want to go to school with kids who are interested in what they are studying." 

Mailers are created by enrollment marketing companies. They may have input from the college, but are marketing not a representation of what academics at a school are necessarily like.

I suggest departmental web pages for the academic side.

[*LC]

On 10/12/2022 at 5:57 PM, AEC said:

sorry for the late reply, here.

For context, I have a BS CS, have worked in both startups and big-tech for 25 hears, and regularly hire and interview both new-grads and experienced CS folks. A few thoughts...

- when starting out, where you go to school matters more than it probably should. This will be especially true if/when hiring tightens up. It's tough to get through the weeding out process at medium and larger tech co's as a NCG if you aren't coming from a known university that they hire from. Same is true for the internship opportunities - which DC should definitely, absolutely, plan to take advantage of once they get to that point.

- ML/AI is especially math heavy. And the teams on the forefront of that tend to be, IME, a bit 'elitist' about academic background - so here again, location matters more than it probably should.

- always, always consider cost of attending. That said, if there was a field where it'd be worth, IMO, taking on 40k of student debt to attend a top-10 university vs the unknown local U, this is probably it. For reference, summer internships at big tech for juniors (and sometimes sophomores) may roughly 30k for the summer and often end with a job offer 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I stumbled upon this old thread when looking at open tabs on my phone. I hope the OP’s son is having a wonderful freshman year exactly where he wanted to go.

I am responding to this old post, because I know people search for old posts when researching colleges and making decisions.

I have two college grads who are software engineers, and their experience is completely different from what this post says.

They both had great tests scores and grades in high school, but both knew where they wanted to go before senior year. Both went to a top 100 public university that they knew before applying would accept them with scholarships. Between them, they have worked for/interned for or been offered jobs/internships with all but one of the FAANG companies even though their university is far from Silicon Valley and offers merit scholarships.

The oldest has been promoted 3 times in 5 years with a FAANG company. The younger was working with a startup in college and did not intern like the oldest. Covid changed things with the startup, so this one ended up working for a fortune 50 company for a 1-1/2 years before being hired by a FAANG company and has had glowing reviews in the first year. There has been talk of an upcoming promotion. Both survived well-publicized layoffs at their companies.

Both have college friends working at FAANG companies. Older alums from their top 100 college are/were in the c-suites at FAANG companies. So, our experience has been different from that of the previous poster. Yes, it would have been easy to for my kids to pay back 40,000 in debt, but they knew there was no reason to take on debt to work for big tech companies. 

 

 

 

[gstharr]

When is he taking the SAT/ACT.  Most of the highly selective schools claim to be test optional, but are really test biased. Also, ED or EA apps have a significant admission advantage.

[Frances]

7 hours ago, *LC said:

I stumbled upon this old thread when looking at open tabs on my phone. I hope the OP’s son is having a wonderful freshman year exactly where he wanted to go.

I am responding to this old post, because I know people search for old posts when researching colleges and making decisions.

I have two college grads who are software engineers, and their experience is completely different from what this post says.

They both had great tests scores and grades in high school, but both knew where they wanted to go before senior year. Both went to a top 100 public university that they knew before applying would accept them with scholarships. Between them, they have worked for/interned for or been offered jobs/internships with all but one of the FAANG companies even though their university is far from Silicon Valley and offers merit scholarships.

The oldest has been promoted 3 times in 5 years with a FAANG company. The younger was working with a startup in college and did not intern like the oldest. Covid changed things with the startup, so this one ended up working for a fortune 50 company for a 1-1/2 years before being hired by a FAANG company and has had glowing reviews in the first year. There has been talk of an upcoming promotion. Both survived well-publicized layoffs at their companies.

Both have college friends working at FAANG companies. Older alums from their top 100 college are/were in the c-suites at FAANG companies. So, our experience has been different from that of the previous poster. Yes, it would have been easy to for my kids to pay back 40,000 in debt, but they knew there was no reason to take on debt to work for big tech companies. 

 

 

 

Your son’s experiences match those of all the Oregon State CS grads I know. Honestly, given the number of CS jobs out there and how we are always hearing about the shortages of qualified US citizens to fill these jobs, it’s hard to imagine the top 10 CS programs having such a lock on coveted CS jobs. Besides, there’s an awful lot of excellent schools and excellent CS programs between the top 10 and the “unknown local U”. 

Edited September 30, 2023 by Frances

[catz]

I know this is an old thread, but I'll update anyway since we have recent experience with a CS grad.  I have a kid that was just hired to a what I would call a FAANG adjacent software company with a CS degree.  1-3% hiring rate, 6 figure+ offer, reloacation + stock option package.  He is actually starting this week!   He graduated  spring of this year from a state flagship in the midwest.  He had high school stats to apply anywhere, we were limited by finances.  CS new grad hiring is tight right now, lots of FAANG layoffs.  My spouse also works for different east coast software company (and no, he wasn't involved at all with getting kid this particular job).  

Having a kid just through the hiring process, I actually think in some ways his hiring process was at least somewhat more meritocratic than college admissions.  Your income or percieved income doesn't come into play.  Everyone had to take a 4 (!?) hour technical test and a personality test.  This is a company that hires and rejects T20 students, but hires and rejects students from a bunch of schools.  Most people get dumped during the test round of the hiring process.  They are clearly screening for a certain kind of nerd.  

My husband works for a company out of bean town with that tech school everyone wants to get into.  They get grads from there, but they get grads from a bunch of other schools too.  I do think in terms of recruiting, you are more likely to see your closest options recruting at your colleges.  But I know plenty of people who have launched or been recruited to FAANG/FAANG adjacent companies on the coasts from the midwest.  My spouse gradauted from a state flagship and has been involved with hiring for many years.  I used to work in CS too and did some hiring/consulting too.  I just don't see that the debt is necessarily worth taking on.  Especially over federal loan limits which would require a parent loan or cosign.  As always, check placement out of programs.  

I follow some of the college boards loosely on reddit and there was a hilarious post recently related to this, I'm sure it was a high schooler posting.  But someone posted surprised San Jose SU regularly places CS/Stem grads to silicon valley FAANG companies with a link to current data.  So weird that would happen from a regional school in SAN JOSE CA.   🤣  I think some teens imagine launching to a dreamy, prestigious college and never mixing with the commoners again.  Smart, motivated students land on their feet.  

Where we have seen CS students flounder often during a hiring process is soft skills - communications, obvious team work. etc.  I especially think more students are struggling with this post covid.  

And on a completely different note, strongly dislike the acronym FAANG.  It doesn't work anymore since Facebook=Meta.  And big tech is in disarray right now.  Wish we had a better way to describe current leaders in tech.  

Edited October 2, 2023 by catz

[Lori D.]

Thx for that great detail on the applying/hiring process. That is sure to be helpful to others.

And esp. -- congrats to DS!! 😄 

[catz]

3 minutes ago, Lori D. said:

Thx for that great detail on the applying/hiring process. That is sure to be helpful to others.

And esp. -- congrats to DS!! 😄 

Thanks so much!  Definitely feels like winning the parental launch the college kid lottery!  🤣

One thing no one talks about is the costs to launching as a new grad to a new city, new housing, etc.  Kid in the last month bought a new car, rented a new apartment, had to get a new phone after limping along on one a couple years that needed constant reboot/recharge, ikea trip for kitchen basics, scrapping together thrifted furniture pieces (work in progress, living with minimal furniture at the moment, I have a thrifted couch in my garage now though lol!, etc.  

I can imagine how much harder all this would be with student loan payments breathing down your neck and I can see how it could limit your geography options, etc.  

[Kassia]

48 minutes ago, catz said:

 

One thing no one talks about is the costs to launching as a new grad to a new city, new housing, etc.  Kid in the last month bought a new car, rented a new apartment, had to get a new phone after limping along on one a couple years that needed constant reboot/recharge, ikea trip for kitchen basics, scrapping together thrifted furniture pieces (work in progress, living with minimal furniture at the moment,

My dd (also a recent CS grad) just went through this last summer - moving far away for a new job.  She was a bit overwhelmed by it all - needed a car, furniture, apartment, phone (for the same reason as your ds), etc.  She graduated debt free with a nice savings and a good salary to look forward to but she was definitely a bit freaked out at first by all the expenses at once.  You're right that it would have been much harder with student loan debts.