Ask HN: College recommendations for computer science/programming in the midwest | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: College recommendations for computer science/programming in the midwest

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We're starting to look at colleges for my daughter, who is looking to follow in her programmer dad's footsteps. Alas, when I went to college back in the Jurassic, I learned COBOL on punch cards, at a poor school at that. Since then I've been mostly self-taught. So I'm not really up to speed on the schools we should consider. She'd like to remain fairly close to home (Chicago area), so we want to keep it to the Midwest if possible.

I figured the University of Illinois (Champaign-Urbana) was an obvious choice, so we've visited there and she liked it a lot. But we don't want to put all our eggs into one basket, so we'd like to visit two or three others this year.

I've Googled around, but haven't had much success finding a decent, up-to-date list of schools with good reputations. I've been following Hacker News for a long time, and I feel that the people here can give me the kind of current, relevant recommendations that can help us find the right school for her. I've been disadvantaged in my career due to the poor choice I made, and I want better for her. Thanks!

Northwestern is probably worth a look. I personally know that Ian Horswill (http://www.cs.northwestern.edu/~ian/) is all-around great, whether you're talking professionally, technically, or personally. But obviously that's mostly relevant for people who'd study in his specific area. I have no particular personal experience with the rest of the university, but its general reputation in CS is good.

It may also be worth considering a bit which aspects different schools emphasize, if she has an idea of which areas within CS she finds particularly interesting. There are significant differences between programs more tilted to mathematics vs. to engineering, for example. Different schools also offer quite different catalogues of higher-level electives, e.g. if you're really interested in AI, the top choices might not be the same as if you're particularly interested in OS development (and vice versa). Of course, it's also okay not to have such decisions made when you're 18.

Thanks. We actually attended a "Girls in Engineering" program that they run there when my daughter was younger. I really like the effort they are making to recruit girls into technology.

So far, she just likes programming (using VB in high school this year; will have Java next year) and hasn't thought far enough ahead to consider where she might go with it. I would guess that she'd be more inclined towards an engineering track over a math/science track. I would guess she'd be more interested in building things that people use now than a more research and development orientation.

Thought of another possibility. Rose-Hulman (http://www.rose-hulman.edu/) is more or less a science/engineering version of a small liberal arts college. Has the same setup as a liberal arts college (small classes, small total size, no graduate school, faculty focused on undergraduate education), but for science/engineering majors instead. Quite a different experience from a large engineering school, though whether in a good or bad way depends on the person. I went to a vaguely similar school in California myself (http://www.hmc.edu/) and enjoyed it. As far as degree prestige, these smaller schools tend not to be well known by the general public, but in my experience have been well-regarded by people in the field.

Great, that school looks very interesting and we will look into it further. It gives us a look from a different perspective in terms of size and attention. Thanks again!

Really consider whether you think the investment is worthwhile as well. I work as a programmer in the industry and have for the past 6 years. About 1/2 the people I work with did not get a college degree (including myself). If she already has a fair amount of knowledge and is self motivated, the high cost of college may not be worth it.

I've followed the "skip college" movement and find it intriguing. If I were that age and it were me...but she's not me. And my wife certainly finds that route ahem rather less intriguing than I do! So it's the conventional route for us.

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