Here are some tips for selecting schools, based on an analysis comparing each school to all others across dozens of factors:
Schools Concentrating On Software Engineers For Systems
- Focus: For schools with a focus on this career area, look at Manhattan Community College, ASA Institute, La Guardia Community College, and Nassau Community College.
Fastest Response From Schools
- Request Info: For the fastest information for prospective students, look at the Spotlight schools on this page.
Student Body
- Part-Time: For schools emphasizing part-time studies, consider Maria College, Farmingdale State College, Touro College, and New York City College of Technology.
- Female: For schools particularly welcoming to female students, consider Barnard College, Maria College, Mildred Elley School, and Daemen.
- Diverse: For a diverse student body, consider Medgar Evers College, Monroe College, Monroe College-New Rochelle, and York College.
- Adult Learners: For lots of adult learners, consider Maria College, Mercy College, Sage College, and Medgar Evers College.
School Setting
- Out of State: For geographic diversity, take note of United States Military Academy, Columbia, NYU, and Vassar.
- Dorms: For a residential campus environment, take note of United States Military Academy, Hamilton College, Vassar, and Union College.
Excellence
- SAT: For students with high SAT scores, look at Columbia, Cornell, Hamilton College, and Vassar.
- % Accepted: For selective institutions, look at Columbia, United States Military Academy, Cornell, and Baruch College.
- Class Size: For small class sizes, look at Vassar, Hamilton College, Union College, and Yeshiva University.
Student/Alumnus Reviews of Schools for This Career and State
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CUNY Queens College • Flushing, NY
Studying Computer Science And Applied Mathematics (completion in 2013)
• 7/12/2011
"I was very happy with picking the college. I picked it over more nationally known schools. They helped with financial aid and all staff members were very nice."
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale
| Characteristic | Rating | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Would Recommend? | yes | It's an excellent program with even better professors. All equipment and learning material is state-of-the-art. |
| Program Reputation | 8 | It's the biggest undergrad Computer Science program within CUNY. Everyone I spoke to referred me to Queens. |
| Program Quality | 10 | The professors are excellent and extremely knowledgeable. The coursework is directly applicable in real life work. |
| Instruction | 10 | Everything I learned was directly applicable to real-life situations and work. The coursework was made to be interesting. |
| How Difficult | 3 | I find it only a slight challenge to be in the academic program. The majority of that difficulty is making it to class on time. |
| Hands-On vs. Bookish | The students do a lot of manual coding. It's really creative and easier to learn hands-on. | |
| Schedule Flexibility | 8 | Classes are available pretty much anytime you'd want to take them. Most CUNY schools are like that though. |
| Academic Facilities | 10 | The equipment is state-of-the-art. Professors really care about the topics in class. |
| Social Life | 5 | I haven't participated in anything, as I work and have a child. |
| Placement Services | 5 | I haven't yet used the support system. |
| Alumni Network | 5 | I'm not an alumni as of yet, and I haven't looked into that yet. |
New York University • New York, NY
Studying Mathematics And Computer Science (completion in 2004)
• 8/6/2011
"Lots of debt, just like anywhere. But programming is a field where you can make it back. I do think there were a lot of bright students and that's what made the experience special."
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale
| Characteristic | Rating | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Would Recommend? | yes | NYU is more well known for other fields, but you can learn anything you want here. You never learn specific languages you need in the job market, but I don't think you do anywhere. You just learn/reinforce basic concepts that you can use in a career in programming. |
| Program Reputation | 10 | NYU is often ranked #1 in applied mathematics at the graduate level. For computer science I think it's a top 30 school. |
| Program Quality | 8 | They have all of the basic computer science classes and you can develop a strong basis. |
| Instruction | 9 | I feel like I learned most of what I needed about programming in high school. The ideas/principals are pretty much the same in all languages. Mathematics classes are good preparation for anything. Difficult proofs require patience and diligence. |
| How Difficult | 9 | One of the more difficult classes was cryptography. We had difficult problem sets. The algorithms class was also very good. |
| Hands-On vs. Bookish | I do remember it being very book oriented. It was a “learn in class/review at home/do the problem sets” system. | |
| Schedule Flexibility | 9 | There are evening and summer classes. I graduated 7 years ago so I can't really comment too much on how many online courses there are now. I never heard of weekend options. |
| Academic Facilities | 10 | There is a separate library for computer/math inside the Courant Building. Professor's office hours are there, as are TA sessions and TA office hours. If you want help, it is there when you need it. |
| Social Life | 10 | They have a math club, and I believe they had a computer club. There was a lounge at the Math/CS building. |
| Placement Services | 8 | I never really used the job placement service. I know for programming, there were listings somewhere and companies did come to recruit. |
| Alumni Network | 10 | I don't really use the alumni networking, but I know NYU in general has great networking opportunities. |
Excelsior College • Albany, NY
Studying Computer Information Systems (completion in 2003)
• 8/9/2011
"I wish I had been able to attend a more "prestigious" school, but this one worked for me and I got my degree. I have few regrets."
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale
| Characteristic | Rating | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Would Recommend? | yes | Distance learning does not have the stigma it did while I was getting my degree. I would not hesitate to recommend this format to anyone. |
| Program Reputation | 3 | Excelsior does not have a top reputation, but is is accredited. It was the easiest way for me to get a BS degree. |
| Program Quality | 6 | They had a solid set of requirements for the major. It was appealing to me. |
| Instruction | 7 | I took a lot of of good courses at several locations. They were very relevant to technologies currently being used in my workplace. |
| How Difficult | 7 | The work was challenging and interesting. The most difficult aspect was getting it all done while working full time. |
| Hands-On vs. Bookish | Computer information systems requires book learning and then the application of that knowledge into a computer via keyboard or other input devices. Though there were a few required courses that were mostly book learning, such as math. | |
| Schedule Flexibility | 10 | It is about as flexible as can be. You pick the courses within general guidelines and take them at any university you want. |
| Academic Facilities | 6 | The distance learning facilities were quite sophisticated. It was very easy to use and I never had a problem with it. |
| Social Life | 5 | This did not apply to me. There were a few events (such as graduation) and I did not attend any of them. |
| Placement Services | 5 | I don't know if they offer such a service. I have not tried to find out since I don't need it. |
| Alumni Network | 5 | I know they have one but I haven't joined it. It isn't local and seems irrelevant to my life now. |
Columbia University • New York, NY
Studying Computer Science (completion in 2003)
• 8/14/2011
"The teachers were pretty good. The curriculum was fantastic. The lab and libraries were awesome."
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale
| Characteristic | Rating | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Would Recommend? | yes | While MIT or Carnegie Mellon would probably be better, I loved the libraries. Plus, being in New York is great in itself. |
| Program Reputation | 7 | Columbia is well known and respected, but it's engineering program isn't the best. It doesn't match up to, say, Stanford, MIT, or Carnegie Mellon for engineering. |
| Program Quality | 8 | The material was comprehensive and gave me a ton of background content (things like UNIX, basics of Discrete Math, AI, etc) that has helped make it easy for me to pick up new languages and be effective in my work. It was also difficult work (hacking the Linux kernel), so I had real skills once I graduated. |
| Instruction | 8 | I do think some of the professors were more researchers than teachers and could have explained concepts better. On the whole, I had several good teachers, there are just a few who could use some improvement. |
| How Difficult | 10 | Programming did NOT come naturally to me. I had not done it prior to college. I spent hours and hours in the computer lab completing my assignments. I definitely didn't have as much fun in college as some of my friends with other majors. |
| Hands-On vs. Bookish | Definitely more hands-on than book learning. We had to code programs for homework, so the reading was more for background. The “doing” was what was important. | |
| Schedule Flexibility | 6 | Many classes were offered during the summer. The days of the week and hours of the day were less flexible. Most classes were held on weekdays (non Fridays) in the afternoon. |
| Academic Facilities | 9 | We had awesome libraries. The computer labs were decent - tons of machines, but they were old. Study groups didn't exist formally - you formed your own. |
| Social Life | 2 | I had almost no social life. I was too busy doing homework into the late hours of every night. Even on snow days I went to the lab. |
| Placement Services | 4 | These were almost nil. I got my internship through a career fair. I had almost no help from career services other than emails. |
| Alumni Network | 5 | I get tons of alumni emails but they are mostly asking for money. I have lots of contact from my colleagues but it's through personal emails, not through the alumni network. |
Binghamton University • Binghamton, NY
Studying Computer Science (completion in 2010)
• 9/3/2011
"I'm proud to say that with scholarships and savings I was able to complete 2 degrees in 5 years without taking out any loans. If the price stays at around the same as it is now (for in-state tuition), I would say it was a darn good deal. If I had gone to a 40k a year school and had the same education, I would definitely feel ripped off."
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale
| Characteristic | Rating | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Would Recommend? | yes | Yes if they could pay in-state tuition rates that are similar to what I paid. Yes if the major was CS or a similar major. Overall I liked the school and I actually miss it quite a bit. |
| Program Reputation | 9 | I believe we have a pretty good reputation for Computer Science thanks to our Computer Programming club (affiliated with ACM) which participated in competitions and topped some name brand schools like Princeton. |
| Program Quality | 6 | I think most standard universities are just training people to be researchers/graduate students and there isn't much emphasis on "real life" skills. There's nothing wrong with wanting to be a researcher, but I could have benefited most from learning how to stay current with new/useful technologies as well as the basic and advanced theories. |
| Instruction | 5 | As I mentioned earlier, it's mostly focused on the basics, stuff that has been taught for decades. I feel like there needs to be balance between foundational work and understanding how to work in the modern world. To stay relevant in this field you have to be flexible and quick thinking. |
| How Difficult | 8 | It was quite difficult, mainly based on the course load and the level of mathematics and theoretical work. But math isn't my strong suit, so that could be part of my personal experience. |
| Hands-On vs. Bookish | Computer Science is pretty project oriented. My general education classes usually had lab work associated with them as well. I think it was pretty balanced. | |
| Schedule Flexibility | 5 | I would consider it average in that they weren't flexible at all about it, and I believe that to be the standard at most colleges. |
| Academic Facilities | 5 | It was bad but I felt it was getting better before I left. The CS honor society (I was a member) was given an unused meeting room to use for tutoring and general socialization within the department, and I feel like having a common area to work and hang out is absolutely essential for the atmosphere they want. It would have been even more awesome if there was an accessible computer lab with printing just for CS majors where teachers could drop in and chat with students and offer advice and where students could "collaborate" on homework (I don't consider study groups to be cheating). |
| Social Life | 7 | I think I was lucky in that I was able to establish a solid "network" of peers, but I don't think other people in my major were as lucky as me. I believe that other things (school spirit, athletics, parties, organized social events) were probably pretty good, but I never went to any such events. The best part was LateNite which had myriad events held on campus in a central location and offered a wide variety of activities that didn't revolve around drinking. |
| Placement Services | 1 | I went to career fairs and had interviews with them, but I don't feel like the career center really did any work except to let the big companies come and set up a table. I appreciated the Undergraduate Advisor of my department (Eileen Head) who kept in contact with many of her former students and would email the department with job opportunities from their companies and start ups. |
| Alumni Network | 1 | The only "connection" I really have with alumni is a student/alumni run facebook group. All that my school's "alumni" department does is try to hit me up for money for the basketball team. I emailed them about something that was actually kind of important to me and I NEVER got a response. |
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