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What are the best tech schools in the US?

gordothemangordotheman
edited February 2009 in Everything Else
I was wondering about where I am going to apply for university. And I am looking for some input on what you guys think are the best technology oriented schools in the US. Computer science, programming etc.

What do you guys think? And how should I prepare myself?
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Comments

  • AndrewAndrew
    For the East Coast I would look at Mit, Rit, Georgia Tech, CMU, and RPI.
  • SailSail
    For the West Coast, there's only CalTech. And even THEY have a very, very limited number of computer degrees. I would look into the CSU/UC system for more schools on the west coast. Start with Berkely and UCLA. Also, if you're interested in game programming, companies are known to hire kids straight out of UC Irvine.
  • AprecheApreche
    Also Rose Hulman.
  • Nine BoomerNine Boomer
    edited February 2009
    Just wondering, is there a scale you can put the different universities on? Can you say that MIT is better than RIT? Or is it completely dependent on what degrees you want to get? I think there are a lot of factors here that I need to put put on a scale as to the importance, but what I want the most is getting the best education for the degree I want. Location doesn't matter (but I prefer America), but I want a well known and respected university or college from which I can enroll in that offers good degrees. I'm still not exactly sure what I want to study, but I know 100% that it will be computer related.
    Post edited by Nine Boomer on
  • TheWhaleSharkTheWhaleShark
    For the East Coast I would look at Mit, Rit, Georgia Tech, CMU, and RPI.
    RIT > RPI for computery stuff. I believe RPI is a better engineering school, but don't quote me on that one. RPI also recently built (or is building) a ginormous nanotech center.
  • ladyobsoleteladyobsolete
    CalTech will rape your GPA but you will have the opportunity for awesome summer internships with the professors. UCLA's CS department is pretty formidable, but I get the impression from the undergrads that it is a lot more theory and not terribly practical. I suppose you are talking about undergraduate right now? If you want to talk to CS majors at either CalTech or UCLA I could get probably get someone to give you an email.
  • ErwinErwin
    I heard that Virginia Tech is a good tech school.
  • AprecheApreche
    Texas Tech, Michigan Tech
  • KieyKiey
    I heard that Virginia Tech is a good tech school.
    A friend of mine went to VT, and he knows his Computer Engineering shit. Which may be a by product of VT, or a by product of him being smart.
  • AprecheApreche

    A friend of mine went to VT, and he knows his Computer Engineering shit. Which may be a by product of VT, or a by product of him being smart.
    If you know your shit, does it really matter where you go? I mean, you can learn everything I know from books and the Internet. Heck, I learned most of what I know from books and the Internet.

    College is mostly about the other parts of the experience, and also the piece of paper. If you have no job experience, a piece of paper that says MIT is a lot more valuable than a piece of paper that says local community college. Even though a smart person who could only afford community college might indeed be a lot better hire than some shmuck who got out of MIT by the skin of their teeth.
  • gordothemangordotheman
    Very true.

    I suppose most of what you can learn is available in books and on the Internet. And a CS degree is merely one for CV purposes only. There is a difference between people who are self-taught and those who learn from a teacher. I intend to do both. Right now I am practicing with Python 3.0 . I am making databases, converters, mathematical stuff.

    I also intend on making a flash game in the next few months.

    From what I have heard. CMU(Carnegie-Mellon University) and MIT have very good reputations in the computer science area.
  • VhdbloodVhdblood

    A friend of mine went to VT, and he knows his Computer Engineering shit. Which may be a by product of VT, or a by product of him being smart.
    If you know your shit, does it really matter where you go? I mean, you can learn everything I know from books and the Internet. Heck, I learned most of what I know from books and the Internet.

    College is mostly about the other parts of the experience, and also the piece of paper. If you have no job experience, a piece of paper that says MIT is a lot more valuable than a piece of paper that says local community college. Even though a smart person who could only afford community college might indeed be a lot better hire than some shmuck who got out of MIT by the skin of their teeth.
    So, the question here is, is a degree necessary if you can accrue experience in your field?
  • AprecheApreche
    So, the question here is, is a degree necessary if you can accrue experience in your field?
    It's not absolutely necessary, but it makes a gigantic difference if you want someone to hire you.
  • Nine BoomerNine Boomer
    So, the question here is, is a degree necessary if you can accrue experience in your field?
    It's not absolutely necessary, but it makes a gigantic difference if you want someone to hire you.
    Maybe you can start your own company, and make awesome indie games. But then where will you get the monies if the game flops?
  • WalkerWalker
    So, the question here is, is a degree necessary if you can accrue experience in your field?
    It's not absolutely necessary, but it makes a gigantic difference if you want someone to hire you.
    Maybe you can start your own company, and make awesome indie games. But then where will you get the monies if the game flops?
    You put the awesome indie game on your resume and try to get a job with another company, I suppose.
  • VhdbloodVhdblood
    So, the question here is, is a degree necessary if you can accrue experience in your field?
    It's not absolutely necessary, but it makes a gigantic difference if you want someone to hire you.
    The reason I mentioned that is, that's my current situation. I'm planning on going to college, but I threw my resume on Craigslist near Dallas, and so far I've done two interviews, and have a third tomorrow, in less than a week. I basically did the equivalent of 3-4 years of intern work at a school doing IT with the IT manager, and it seems that even places that require a degree are taking that intern work as equivalent experience.
  • m16 elitestm16 elitest
    I know you said the US, but University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ontario has an extremely good CS program. They do extremely well in the ACM programming competition and they offer a BMath in CS.
  • AprecheApreche
    I know you said the US, but University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ontario has an extremely good CS program. They do extremely well in the ACM programming competition and they offer a BMath in CS.
    Bonus, college in Canada is cheap.
    Fail, Internet in Canada is crap.
    Bonus, Internet at a college in Canada will be better than consumer Internet.
    Fail, woman!
    Bonus, hockey.
  • gordothemangordotheman
    CalTech will rape your GPA but you will have the opportunity for awesome summer internships with the professors. UCLA's CS department is pretty formidable, but I get the impression from the undergrads that it is a lot more theory and not terribly practical. I suppose you are talking about undergraduate right now? If you want to talk to CS majors at either CalTech or UCLA I could get probably get someone to give you an email.
    I would greatly appreciate it if you could provide with the means to contact them.
  • m16 elitestm16 elitest
    Bonus, college in Canada is cheap.
    Fail, Internet in Canada is crap.
    Bonus, Internet at a college in Canada will be better than consumer Internet.
    Fail, woman!
    Bonus, hockey.
    Yep, pretty much. One good thing is they have a co-op option for every single major I believe. They have one schedule of co-op where you do 4 months of school, then work for 4 months till you get your degree. The only problem is, if you don't like Math that much, then Waterloo is not a school for you.
  • AprecheApreche
    Yep, pretty much. One good thing is they have a co-op option for every single major I believe. They have one schedule of co-op where you do 4 months of school, then work for 4 months till you get your degree. The only problem is, if you don't like Math that much, then Waterloo is not a school for you.
    RIT has mandatory co-op.
  • gordothemangordotheman
    The reason I asked about this is because I intend on working in the video game industry. I am leaning towards programming. because my artistic skills are not that great. I intend to, in the future, work for a company like Bungie, Google, lucasarts,etc.

    I am setting up an outline on how to achieve that goal. So any help is more than welcome.
  • AprecheApreche
    I am setting up an outline on how to achieve that goal. So any help is more than welcome.
    If you want to work at a big and famous company, you actually have to work hard. You need to have an amazing GPA and also make multiple impressive games before finishing school.
  • gordothemangordotheman
    Well,

    From what I have researched. They encourage Modding and map design, play lots of games(how difficult :)) and to keep practicing. I do not expect to be hired into a big and famous company as soon as I graduate. No,I am a realist.
  • George PatchesGeorge Patches
    Pennstate has a pretty good Information Science and Technology program.
  • AprecheApreche
    Well,

    From what I have researched. They encourage Modding and map design, play lots of games(how difficult :)) and to keep practicing. I do not expect to be hired into a big and famous company as soon as I graduate. No,I am a realist.
    You can indeed make it very far in the games industry by making mods. Team Fortress, Day of Defeat, and Counter-Strike was originally just mods, and now all those people work at Valve. The Natural Selection guys have their own company, and the resources to make a sequel, because they made a quality mod. Portal was based on Narbacular drop, which was a senior project at DigiPen. DigiPen actually has become a really good place to go to get into the game industry. But I hear it's not so easy to get into.
  • JayJay
    edited February 2009

    Bonus, college in Canada is cheap.
    In Ontario price can double to triple if your not a resident of Canada. The government heavily subsidizes University education in but not if your an international student. Though I don't know the numbers on how expensive University in the States is it may still be more expensive in the U.S.

    Fail, Internet in Canada is crap.
    Bonus, Internet at a college in Canada will be better than consumer Internet.
    I don't know for others but for me without torrents I have no reason to ever use more then 30 gigs in a month. I would assume the average University student is probably in the same scenario. Waterloo strictly prohibits torrent use. You can do things to mask your traffic but if they catch you your booted and have to pay a fine before you can re connect. Also, Waterloo works on a system where you get a 2 gig allowance that refills at 84 mb an hour. It works out to a little bit more then what you would get with local providers and the speed isn't incredibly faster. Though you do have access to the internal network of users. You can find most movies/anime/music/programs you want of the internal network so as long as your not looking for obscure items (I still can't get Utena) the internal network is fine for all your downloading needs.

    Fail, woman!
    Truer words have never been spoken. But this problem can be circumvented.
    A) Get in with the Accountants. There is an incredible amount of cute Accountants in Waterloo.
    B) Get in with the Chemical Engineers. It's called Fem Eng for a reason. Try to do this in first year. After such time it is unlikely any will be single.
    C) Laurie is right next door. Get friends there and go to their parties.

    Also, if your in any discipline that has programing in its core courses the co-op in Waterloo is amazing. There are far more job opportunities then students to fill them and a large amount of them pay well. Also, allot of jobs let you travel to nice areas of the world if your interested in that. Nearly all my friends after first year in Waterloo had to pick between 2-3 jobs that they got accepted for every term.
    Post edited by Jay on
  • nuricnuric
    The University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign is also a good school, especially if you know you want to do engineering. It is one of the best schools in the country in almost every engineering field according to those college ranking sites. It also has a good CS program. I think it is also one of the most wired campuses in the country according to PC Magazine. The biggest problem may be price, if you're not in-state. However, I'm biased since I go there.
  • Luke BurrageLuke Burrage
    Fail, woman!
    Truer words have never been spoken.
    On Geeknights Island "Woman!" is a way of saying it's really cold outside. In other words, Canada is cold, not lacking women. Having been to RIT Scott is qualified to talk about temperature. Females... not so much.
  • CremlianCremlian
    I know you said the US, but University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ontario has an extremely good CS program. They do extremely well in the ACM programming competition and they offer a BMath in CS.
    Bonus, college in Canada is cheap.
    Fail, Internet in Canada is crap.
    Bonus, Internet at a college in Canada will be better than consumer Internet.
    Fail, woman!
    Bonus, hockey.
    Also, while it was the case in the early 2000's Waterloo had the only anime club I could verify was as large or larger then RIT's Anime club :-p
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