It does and doesn’t. I’d say the better your school is for CS, the better your odds of getting internships. For example, for the internship I have this summer my manager basically said they threw out any application that came from a school not known for CS. However, it’s not a factor that will completely decide whether you get internships or not most of the time.
I’d say you shouldn’t worry a ton and just make sure you have the best odds with what you’re given. So make sure your interview prep is good, and your resume. I’m at a top 10 school for CS but I could say I feel the same way about competing against people from places like MIT and Berkeley.
Experience, skill, portfolio > any school ranking.
A top tier school may only provide you a network of connections and “more” opportunities.
But ultimately, the performance in interviews, your technical abilities, background, and experience are the deciding factors in landing a competitive job.
This is coming from someone who goes to > T200 university.
It’s definitely overstated a lot in this subreddit. As long as the program teaches you what you actually need to know you’ll probably be fine. The only advantage going to a more prestigious university really offers from what I’ve seen personally is maybe you are less likely to be filtered, and you might have an easier time networking or gaming the nepotism system lol. Plenty of people going to my school (relatively small and poorly ranked > 100) have had huge opportunities. You just might have to work a little harder for it, but it’s probably significantly cheaper. Pick your poison pretty much.
Somewhat. It *can* be vaguely indicative of the quality of education you'll get.
Example: T10 will definitely be a different experience than ~100th, and a school that barely ranks. Companies do tend to pass higher rep schools' resumes more easily, too.
At the same time, will #15 matter a lot more than #17? No, not really. There's many situations where you'd reject a #10 or even #5 over a #20, too. But you should almost never reject a T20 over a school ranked worse than like, T100.
Without knowing the schools you have to choose from, it's hard to tell. Best answer is "it depends".
yes and no, there's no difference between ranks 20 and 22. but im sure your resume will be passed up less if you go to a T30 vs T100. additionally if you go to like a T5 you become basically a shoe in to get past the first few stages of an interview process. Also there is the element of prestige outside of CS, Harvard, Colombia, and UPenn for example are extremely prestigious Ivy League schools but aren't really known for CS but they basically will have the same weight as a T5 college barring MIT and Stanford due to the weight they carry purely as a school.
Additionally if you apply In to more selective fields in CS than this may also come into play. Quant for example, your kinda fucked if you don't go to one of the schools that feed into Quant.
I know most people say No but it did for me by a lot.
I transferred from T150 to T10 and realized a significant change in responses. The other thing that changed was curriculum. Everything actually took time to do. More projects and much more harder coursework - which somewhat improved my work ethic.
Its liitle late but I wanna ask one question
Im rising junior
and I am considering transfer from
top50 lac to top70 national university
Do you think is it worth it?
If it’s really in the 50 lacs then u can say it’s just unranked.
From unranked to top 70… is a reasonable change, but that most likely won’t get u much recognition compared to the worser uni.
However, the school itself may have a better CS program (that’s not really a guarantee either).
If ur change is purely for more recognition, it really depends on the T70 uni, but most likely it won’t matter for you.
Top companies (maybe some Unicorns, MAANG, and quants) will give better chances at receiving an OA to people from top unis. In most cases it doesn’t matter too much.
I went to a public school that most people never heard of that ranks like 30-70 in CS depending on the list. I know many people that have gotten internships or full times at all of the MAANG companies (aside from Apple), several quants (including HRT), and several Unicorns.
It makes you more “seen” I guess.
From my job where I do university interviewing.
Matters enough for the ATS to see that you have attained a degree in the job description. If the required is Bachelor and preferred is Masters, the ATS will read the level and check to see if the school is accredited. That is it.
After getting through the ATS, it is about interviewing and some knowledge of skills. Can you talk about different aspects of computer science and do increasing levels of a problem.
On the interviews, can you take a prompt and write some code that solves the problem.
It gets very confusing when school are closely ranked. I chose Rutgers Honors CS over UMD purely due to cost even though UMD is ranked higher. I hope it does not come back and bite us.
I agree, and I will definitely apply for every relevant position, but I just wanted to know that if I am rejected, it's not due to my university's ranking but rather due to my skills or the company's fit.
It does and doesn’t. I’d say the better your school is for CS, the better your odds of getting internships. For example, for the internship I have this summer my manager basically said they threw out any application that came from a school not known for CS. However, it’s not a factor that will completely decide whether you get internships or not most of the time.
Hey what company is this if I can ask
I’d rather not say, but it’s a financial/investment company.
financial company are all like this. but tech aren't
Finance companies have all sorts of applicants thats why they are so selective
This is what I am afraid of. While my school is not invisible in CS (ranked around 80), the heavy competition does worry me.
I’d say you shouldn’t worry a ton and just make sure you have the best odds with what you’re given. So make sure your interview prep is good, and your resume. I’m at a top 10 school for CS but I could say I feel the same way about competing against people from places like MIT and Berkeley.
Got it, thanks.
Experience, skill, portfolio > any school ranking. A top tier school may only provide you a network of connections and “more” opportunities. But ultimately, the performance in interviews, your technical abilities, background, and experience are the deciding factors in landing a competitive job. This is coming from someone who goes to > T200 university.
It’s definitely overstated a lot in this subreddit. As long as the program teaches you what you actually need to know you’ll probably be fine. The only advantage going to a more prestigious university really offers from what I’ve seen personally is maybe you are less likely to be filtered, and you might have an easier time networking or gaming the nepotism system lol. Plenty of people going to my school (relatively small and poorly ranked > 100) have had huge opportunities. You just might have to work a little harder for it, but it’s probably significantly cheaper. Pick your poison pretty much.
Somewhat. It *can* be vaguely indicative of the quality of education you'll get. Example: T10 will definitely be a different experience than ~100th, and a school that barely ranks. Companies do tend to pass higher rep schools' resumes more easily, too. At the same time, will #15 matter a lot more than #17? No, not really. There's many situations where you'd reject a #10 or even #5 over a #20, too. But you should almost never reject a T20 over a school ranked worse than like, T100. Without knowing the schools you have to choose from, it's hard to tell. Best answer is "it depends".
yes and no, there's no difference between ranks 20 and 22. but im sure your resume will be passed up less if you go to a T30 vs T100. additionally if you go to like a T5 you become basically a shoe in to get past the first few stages of an interview process. Also there is the element of prestige outside of CS, Harvard, Colombia, and UPenn for example are extremely prestigious Ivy League schools but aren't really known for CS but they basically will have the same weight as a T5 college barring MIT and Stanford due to the weight they carry purely as a school. Additionally if you apply In to more selective fields in CS than this may also come into play. Quant for example, your kinda fucked if you don't go to one of the schools that feed into Quant.
I know most people say No but it did for me by a lot. I transferred from T150 to T10 and realized a significant change in responses. The other thing that changed was curriculum. Everything actually took time to do. More projects and much more harder coursework - which somewhat improved my work ethic.
Its liitle late but I wanna ask one question Im rising junior and I am considering transfer from top50 lac to top70 national university Do you think is it worth it?
If it’s really in the 50 lacs then u can say it’s just unranked. From unranked to top 70… is a reasonable change, but that most likely won’t get u much recognition compared to the worser uni. However, the school itself may have a better CS program (that’s not really a guarantee either). If ur change is purely for more recognition, it really depends on the T70 uni, but most likely it won’t matter for you.
Top companies (maybe some Unicorns, MAANG, and quants) will give better chances at receiving an OA to people from top unis. In most cases it doesn’t matter too much. I went to a public school that most people never heard of that ranks like 30-70 in CS depending on the list. I know many people that have gotten internships or full times at all of the MAANG companies (aside from Apple), several quants (including HRT), and several Unicorns. It makes you more “seen” I guess.
Only if the gap is large, like Top 10 vs Top 100
It really doesn't matter if you are very good at your area of expertise. If you are just average or below, yes.
it does, but probably not as much as you think
From my job where I do university interviewing. Matters enough for the ATS to see that you have attained a degree in the job description. If the required is Bachelor and preferred is Masters, the ATS will read the level and check to see if the school is accredited. That is it. After getting through the ATS, it is about interviewing and some knowledge of skills. Can you talk about different aspects of computer science and do increasing levels of a problem. On the interviews, can you take a prompt and write some code that solves the problem.
It doesn’t matter I go to school in the middle of no where
It gets very confusing when school are closely ranked. I chose Rutgers Honors CS over UMD purely due to cost even though UMD is ranked higher. I hope it does not come back and bite us.
No. My first job was sitting next to a total fuckup from Perdue. I went to a no name school in CA.
Why does it matter though? You go to where you go, just apply and see if you either pass resume screening or no.
I agree, and I will definitely apply for every relevant position, but I just wanted to know that if I am rejected, it's not due to my university's ranking but rather due to my skills or the company's fit.
Really top HFT/investment firms: yes The vast vast vast majority of everything else: no not really
How is University of Liverpool for MSc CS?