[spearfish]

Hey ---

I'm a high school student, sophomore year, and am heavily considering going into computer science. My school doesn't offer any CS classes - but I've been teaching myself bit by bit.

So I'm at the point where I need to start looking into colleges, though I fear my school probably doesn't know too much about CS schools because, well, they don't have people coming out of their CS classes - since they don't exist.

What are some good US schools (maybe Canada, in case Hilary wins ;-D) for computer science? What college did you go to? What should I look for in a college?

Any help would be great.... right now RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology) is the only one I like.

[Nykc]

MIT - Hands down.

Stay away from University of Toledo - Good School but not for CS

[MorphiusFaydal]

Texas Tech University has a decent program.

[spearfish]

Texas Tech's website is terrible --- I can't find out how much it costs to go there, what their curriculum for CS is, or how to request information.

Maybe they need to spend some time on DIC ;-)

[MorphiusFaydal]

http://www.cs.ttu.edu/ <-- CS Department's main website.

And it's not that expensive. I want to say that I paid about $2500 for Fall '07. Classes only, I have an apartment off campus.

[spearfish]

That's great - because I'm 100% on my own for paying (no parental support)

[MorphiusFaydal]

Student loans will become your best friend for a while....

[spearfish]

Haha figured ;-)

Those and scholarships. How's the recruitment there --- my sister is studying physics at BYU and they had many, many people come in and try to recruit the physicists into internships.

This post has been edited by spearfish: 12 March 2008 - 07:03 PM

[MorphiusFaydal]

Dunno. Haven't got that far.

[inf4my]

Umass Amherst has a decent one for a state school.
I goto Wentworth Institute of Technology the CS stuff is good but all your non major classes blow.
I hear Northeastern's CS is alright but easy because it is a heavily engineering oriented university.

[MStone]

I'm going to Florida Inst. Of Tech at the moment, and they have one of the better programs as well. It's quite an expensive school (it's a private college), costing the uppers of $35k a year for CS, or any other engineering major. As for 'Top Schools' FIT has been rated within the top 5 for CS/Engineering the past 6 years in a row, right below MIT (FIT was actually started by MIT..), and I'll let you know now that it's a horribly hard school, but if you walk out of here with a diploma, you wont ever need to find a job, they will fight over you.

Also, this is a BIG Microsoft campus, we have three Microsoft labs where we test products, as in they give them to us to destroy, which we do, lol. But being a CS or Compu Eng, or Elec Eng here will get you noticed by Microsoft and they will swoop in and pick you up as soon as your skill has reached their level (normally you're given an internship by your sophomore year). But they're not the only big name, we have so much more. Also, this campus is small, normally 25-35 kids per class which makes for a much better learning environment, and we also have a fully staffed Academic Support Center that is always open to your needs.

Check it out, and I hope you make the right choice for you!:
ww.fit.edu
or
www.cs.fit.edu <-- Compu Sci Main Page

[spearfish]

Thanks, that's something I'll consider, though the $$$ is a lot. We're talking BIG student loans.

[bflosabre91]

RIT is def one of the best. i have heard of people getting job offers is 6 figures before graduation. I'm not sure if it was CS or engineering, but its pretty expensive

[spearfish]

I live right near there, so I'll definitely be visiting there.

Apparently 97% of their engineering students find a job within two weeks of graduating.

[awag22]

Teaching yourself "bit by bit" huh? Hehe pun intended?