College Transfer Advice for a CS Major

[yeedog]

Alright, well since there are alot of techie people here i figure this would be a good place to ask about this. I'm planning on trasnfering out of the dinky state school i'm going to and apply at a top school for Fall 2002. I've been looking at alot of the Top schools for CS to apply to like: Georgia Tech, Darthmouth and Cornell. Though i figure these schools could be a reach as they are very selective in admissions. So i was looking for a safe school where i had a good chance to get into and somebody dropped the name Arizona State University.

So my question will be, is Arizona State University any good as a school for Computer Science? I never really thoguht about this school as i'm from the North East and never hear anything about it, but it intrigued me when somebody shot that name out. What would the school be ranked aganst other top schools in Computer Science? How good of a school is it really? I read the schools website, but i sure alot of the information is biased towards the school as they want to put their best foot forward.

Any information on ASU and their Computer Science Program would be helpful. Thanks!

--Brian

 

[BruinEd03]

try usnews reports .

-Ed

 

[FatAlbo]

[cheap plug]
Well, there's always the University of Washington. Microsoft and Intel hire many UW graduates. The Computer Engineering program at UW is also ABET accredited. It's fairly easy to get into the department because they accepted me. They're also ranked #9 by US News for Computer Engineering schools.
[/cheap plug]

 

[habib89]

arizona state's supposed to be the hot chick capital of the collegiate world... i dunno.. i go to lowely san jose state where the girls in engineering are........ well... if i can't say anything nice, i won't say anything at all...

 

[manuelku]

I am in San Jose state too... CS major..

 

[auyong]

most girls in any engineering school are ... you know.... ugly... if you want pretty gals, go for business/communication/accounting school!

 

[habib89]

SJSU representin!!!

i agree with auyong... business definately has the hot chicks... however if you're just interested in education, the usnews site is good to look at.. here's a direct link to the best colleges page

 

[Sir Fredrick]

I prefer small schools that don't necessarily have a great reputation; I've found that schools with a reputation to keep up tend to do that by using weed out classes, so of course only the most dedicated and intelligent will make it through with the major, it no longer has anything to do with how much you learn while you're there.

My school, Eckerd College, has only 3 computer science professors, but they are all excellent and will teach you everything you should know, and then some. How do I know? Well, I'm taking a year off because I was going to graduate ahead of schedule, and I got a job working as a Software Engineer, started at $10.30/hour for a couple months on a sort of "trial basis" since I don't have my degree yet (but I've taken all the CS classes), they liked what I was doing so they gave me a raise to $17.50/hour + a $2500 bonus in May, plus benefits, with absolutely no experience working as a programmer. I work pretty closely with a recent MSU CS grad who's not a very good programmer, I'm constantly showing her how to do things more efficiently, in a more understandable manner, or even just showing her how to do things period.

I also have no interest in working for big companies for Intel and Microsoft, though, so I've never paid attention to where they're hiring from. I say, go to a few colleges that sound interesting, and meet the faculty. When I visited Eckerd, I was extremely impressed with the prof who is now my mentor. He's been called the smartest man in FL, and he is definitely a genius. What he lacks in hygene, he makes up for tenfold with his impressive knowledge and teaching ability. I've met a lot of other teachers at various Colleges and Universities, and haven't met any that seemed to have that level of intelligence and teaching ability.

 

[yeedog]

<< arizona state's supposed to be the hot chick capital of the collegiate world... i dunno.. i go to lowely san jose state where the girls in engineering are........ well... if i can't say anything nice, i won't say anything at all... >>



lol that's probably why my freind told me to got there. Yeah girls in Engineering and CS aren't well, ya it has been said by other people




The school i'm currenlty attending doesn't have the best teachers and i'm getting frustraded with them. Thus the idea to trasnfer. I really don't plan to work at Microsoft as i think they are the Devil, just my opinon tho, and big companies don't persuade my decison one way or another. I actually might have the opptunity work at Dean Kamen's offices over the summer as I am from Manchester, NH.

I'm just looking for a "safe" school that I can get into that has a good reputation in CS so that when I apply to all the Top schools and possibily get denied by all of them I won't be sitting in the creak without a paddle.

I really wanted to got UC Berkeley, but i decide to trasnfer too late and the application dealine has passed for fall/spring 2002.

I took a look at the USNEWS.com site and it is a very useful site on stats. It listed the top 20 Schools in CS which listsed 2 of the schools i was planning to apply to, GA Tech and Cornell. Surprisingly Dartmouth or Harvard wasn't on it, but then again Dartmouth is more of a DR. related school and Harvard is more Law and Bisuness.

I looked at the top Engineering Progrmas and noticed this:

43. Arizona State University * 3.3
Dartmouth College (NH) 3.3
University of Arizona * 3.3
University of Notre Dame (IN) 3.3
Vanderbilt University (TN) 3.3
Washington University in St. Louis 3.3
Yale University (CT) 3.3

This was something i didn't expect to see at all as Arizona State, Darthmouth and Yale all have bascailly the same rating in their Engineering Department. My current school didn't even make the list in anything except bisuness which was rated at 120.

Just more things to ponder about

 

[CanOWorms]

I think those rankings you're looking at are for the engineering graduate school. Since you're an undergraduate, shouldn't you be looking at the normal rankings?

BTW, I think some universities have computer science in the Arts & Sciences department.

 

[Soybomb]

There is a big difference between engineering and science courses there......you might want to consider the university of illinois at champaign-urbana if you want CS.

 

[yeedog]

<< I think those rankings you're looking at are for the engineering graduate school. Since you're an undergraduate, shouldn't you be looking at the normal rankings?

BTW, I think some universities have computer science in the Arts & Sciences department. >>





I was looking at the right one. Those stats i posted were for Best Undergraduate Engineering Programs (At schools with Ph.D. Programs). Though as Soybomb said, there is probably a big difference with Engineering programs and Computer Science Programs at schools and how they are rated where I figured there was not that big of a difference.