I would like to ask the same question asked 10 years ago here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=703346
Which do you think are the best universities in Europe, for a MS in the various fields of Computer Science?
The only real choice or 'best' is the surrounding ecosystem. Going to a university that has no internet connection will still get you the same information and skills but for most people having no internet isn't all that fun. Same goes for studying somewhere very cold when you like warm days, or somewhere warm when you like it cold.
If you want something 'extra' (which again, no company cares about) like prestige, you can make a list of all the places that have your preference to be (climate, language etc.) and then check what 'extra' things they have, like solar cars or public-private AI partnerships, or military applications or space/esa connections. It won't do you much good if that extra experience has nothing to do with what your goals are, and you can gain that experience without a university just fine.
Perhaps some context in the origins of your thinking/culture would be best. Most people assume USA mindset when this type of question gets asked.
The idea was to get a list of interesting places to choose from, apply to a bunch of them and try to have as much information as possible for choosing the final one
Another interesting question would be which culture would be the best fit for me, I hadn't thought of that, thanks
PS: I have a MS CS from one of the above.
I've been both at Cambridge and Oxford. I think Oxford has had a much better CS department for a number of years. A lot of Cambridge faculty was hired by Microsoft Research long ago and they never recovered. Google Brain has also drained a lot of their talent lately, mostly from the Engineering Department.
Oxford has tons of famous people now: Luca Cardelli, Marta Kwiatkowska (formal methods), Yee Whye Teh (Bayesian non parametrics), Dan Olteanu (database systems) and others.
As for mainland Europe, I agree ETH and EPFL are probably among the top. I would also consider French CS, which is super good. Any French department associated with an INRIA in the topic you are interested in might be a great choice. In particular, ENS Paris might rival with ETH or EPFL in terms of quality.
Lots of smaller Scandinavian, German and Belgian / Dutch unies might be a great choice too. E.g. UCL Louvain, DTU, etc. It really depends on what you wanna do.
H-index on google scholar?
If you wanna disclose your area of interest I may be able to point you to some departments. Contact information is in my profile, if you prefer email.
That said, QS break down their (global) rankings by subject. Below is the link for computer science.
https://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/universi...
There's no easy way of telling how much better the nth-ranked university really is compared to the (n+m)th-ranked one, but it could be informative nonetheless.
I can only name the best two that are worthy of this for a Masters degree in Computer Science or similar.
Even 10 years later, it is still both Imperial College and Cambridge University in that order.
That said, I’ve worked with strong engineers that came from unknown universities. Loving what you do can get you far.
just kidding, Aalborg.
Why Aalborg over Copenhagen?
Being a Dane it mostly seems to me that people defend their university a lot and it often correlates with where you grew up/went. So people saying Aalborg is the best probably grew up near Aalborg or went to study there. This is of course very anecdotal but when I studied CS in a CPH university nobody ever spoke of Aalborg. People spoke about KU, ITU and DTU. Sometimes Aarhus was mentioned.
Not saying Aalborg isn't great, but my general observation is people defend their university choice like it's holy. Probably the same in other countries :) so my suggestion would always be go where things are "closest to home". If you're a foreigner, pick the one closest to the airport for convience.
One example is from outside Denmark is another commenter in this thread mentioned the royal Stockholm uni, but forgot to mention Lund University (LTH) which is just as prestigious.
In the end I never noticed anyone caring except in jest. Never met anyone who cared professionally.
I agree that everybody (especially professors) think their university is The Best™, for many reasons (probably if they didn't like it they would have gone to another place)
The idea of this thread was mostly to collect a (hopefully big) set of candidates to choose from, and choose between them based on available programs and general quality of life indicators (and average salary in the area...)
I've been doing my master's degree there. Although I've never finished the final paper, I consider it to be one of the best decision / time well spent.
Great staff. Professors are just awesome (some of them are also lecturing at abroad universities). Students as well. You will find the brightest polish minds there (the entry exam is not that easy, and big part of the students are math Olympiad finalists).
Courses:
1. Logic - Poland has produced some of top logicians, you can see the inheritance during the lessons. Loved it.
2. Compilers - you will be able to compile in head and on paper. JVM/LLVM/Assembly, you will learn how to write parsers, compilers etc.
3. Cryptography - there are a lot of crypto enthusiasts in the department, you will learn anything you need.
4. Parallel computing - access to super computers, programming Nvidia, verification.
5. Seminars aka what you want to focus on, there's a long list from which you can pick from. My main focus was on game theory, and I've learned a ton and had a great support from professors.
Perks: FAAMGS companies line up couple times a year recruiting for internships and work (always seducing with free pizza). Some of the students I know spent every summer in Bay Area, and would accumulate enough money to live in Warsaw for the next academic year.
ETH Zurich
TU Munich
EPFL
Cambridge/Oxford are very overrated imho. I have a masters from one of them.