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I'm planning on majoring in Computer Science and I wanted to get a general idea of what the colleges in WA are like. I hear UW has a highly rated CS program, but that it's difficult to get into. Of course that's not my only consideration, it would also be good to have a nice campus, with an active social scene and activities. I do hear Seattle is a pretty nice city. I'd always read here on the forum that where you got your degree isn't really looked at after you get your first job and work history is focused on much more. So maybe it doesn't really matter where I go, as far as the quality of the CS program anyway. I dunno, though, I'm no expert on that either, so maybe someone else could chime in and talk a bit about that as well. There's also Seattle U, WSU, Gonzaga, CWU, EWU, WWU, and a bunch more. So, can any goons here share any knowledge on WA Universities?
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Aug 1, 2014 20:40
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Don't major in CS.
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Aug 1, 2014 21:14
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I do know that Western has a fairly big CS program as well. Bellingham is a great college town and I imagine the cost of living is a lot lower than Seattle. I know some people who went to EWU and CWU but they didn't like the towns very much. I don't think I've ever met a WSU grad who wasn't a raging fan of the school, but I never hear about its CS program. Which part of the state do you live in now?
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Aug 1, 2014 22:06
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Bip Roberts posted:Don't major in CS. Expand? Mr. Pither posted:I do know that Western has a fairly big CS program as well. Bellingham is a great college town and I imagine the cost of living is a lot lower than Seattle. I'm in Federal Way/Tacoma, right now. So, I'm close to UPS and PLU and not too far from UW. But I don't mind moving. -Blackadder- fucked around with this message at 22:39 on Aug 1, 2014 |
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Aug 1, 2014 22:33
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It's my own bias speaking here but seeing as how you're maybe a 2 or 3-hour drive from Bellingham, see if you can visit the Western campus sometime and talk to admissions to set up a meeting with anyone from the CS department. I couldn't tell you anything about the program's prestige and how it compares to other schools in the state, but I think about all the times I visited friends of mine in Bellingham and it always seemed like a really fun place to live. There's tons of young people and lots of stuff to do.
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Aug 2, 2014 02:07
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Mr. Pither posted:I don't think I've ever met a WSU grad who wasn't a raging fan of the school, but I never hear about its CS program. Pretty much this. I don't know much about its CS program either, but the school overall is very well regarded. Would you mind being away from the westside? Pullman (and the rest of the Palouse) tends to get pretty snowy in the winter, too. I went to the University of Idaho, so not too far away. I wasn't a fan of Pullman's vibe, so I stayed in Moscow most of the time. Housing costs are actually cheaper across the border if you wanted to live off campus, albeit eight miles away. I loved the Palouse and wouldn't want to live anywhere else if I had job opportunities there. If you're cool with the weather, the somewhat remote location (great outdoors access!) and a great arts-focused community (mostly Moscow), I'd certainly recommend it.
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Aug 2, 2014 13:03
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Mr. Pither posted:It's my own bias speaking here but seeing as how you're maybe a 2 or 3-hour drive from Bellingham, see if you can visit the Western campus sometime and talk to admissions to set up a meeting with anyone from the CS department. I couldn't tell you anything about the program's prestige and how it compares to other schools in the state, but I think about all the times I visited friends of mine in Bellingham and it always seemed like a really fun place to live. There's tons of young people and lots of stuff to do. I think I will do just that, actually. I've had such tunnel vision from trying to get into UW CS I really haven't looked at any other options and now that I think about it I've heard good things about Western and Bellingham so I think I'll try and make it out there to have a look around and talk to some of the faculty and other people face-to-face and get a feel for the campus and town. Mr Yuck posted:Pretty much this. I don't know much about its CS program either, but the school overall is very well regarded. Would you mind being away from the westside? Pullman (and the rest of the Palouse) tends to get pretty snowy in the winter, too. I went to the University of Idaho, so not too far away. I wasn't a fan of Pullman's vibe, so I stayed in Moscow most of the time. Housing costs are actually cheaper across the border if you wanted to live off campus, albeit eight miles away. I loved the Palouse and wouldn't want to live anywhere else if I had job opportunities there. If you're cool with the weather, the somewhat remote location (great outdoors access!) and a great arts-focused community (mostly Moscow), I'd certainly recommend it. WSU is a bit of a drive from where I'm at now, but like said I wouldn't necessarily mind moving. Might be a nice change, actually. It's also interesting that WSU is so close to the border, I hadn't realized that. How did you like U of I, out of curiosity? -Blackadder- fucked around with this message at 21:07 on Aug 2, 2014 |
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Aug 2, 2014 20:51
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I went to TESC which I liked. I also went to WSU which I hated. I think the location of the school was the biggest factor in my enjoyment.
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Aug 2, 2014 21:06
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im gay posted:I went to TESC which I liked. I also went to WSU which I hated. I think the location of the school was the biggest factor in my enjoyment. Interesting, can you expand on this? I actually had an advisor recommend Evergreen to me the other day. He said they have an interesting non-traditional learning environment. Something about being able to create your own degree and that you're graded differently that in traditional classes. Also what didn't you like about WSU's location? -Blackadder- fucked around with this message at 21:15 on Aug 2, 2014 |
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Aug 2, 2014 21:12
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I went to WWU for a few years before transferring out. WWU is an interesting beast, it's straight up an amazing school but if you're a giant autistic computer nerd you'll hate it. The real fun of UW lies in being right next to Mt. Baker, having amazing hikes at your back door, kayaking, and just how social the campus is. In a lot of ways the CS crowd wasn't as happy there as other places I went because as a whole there were way more outdoorsy people than anything else. I mean, the best advice here you've gotten is Bip Roberts posted:Don't major in CS. but if you're really going to go that route then just go to UW, which has the best program, or if you don't get in go to WWU which Microsoft is funnelling money into and is in a super awesome place to live. -Blackadder- posted:Also what didn't you like about WSU's location? Literally nobody likes Pullman. People like UW's location (as long as you don't mind it being horrifyingly unsafe at times) and literally everyone is head over heels for Bellingham to the point that a huge number of students don't leave after graduation and it's growing rapidly from that.
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Aug 2, 2014 21:26
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WAFFLEHOUND posted:I went to WWU for a few years before transferring out. WWU is an interesting beast, it's straight up an amazing school but if you're a giant autistic computer nerd you'll hate it. The real fun of UW lies in being right next to Mt. Baker, having amazing hikes at your back door, kayaking, and just how social the campus is. In a lot of ways the CS crowd wasn't as happy there as other places I went because as a whole there were way more outdoorsy people than anything else. Social is actually exactly what I'm looking for. I really don't want a place where all anyone does is sit inside on the computer all day and play WoW. WAFFLEHOUND posted:I mean, the best advice here you've gotten is I'd still like to hear more about the reasoning behind this. I'm not married to CS or anything, honestly. I only chose it because I kept reading that it was one of the fastest growing fields with a lot of opportunity and good projections from the BLS. But I did end up liking programming, much more than I thought I would. It can be frustrating of course, but I like the idea/feel of actually building a program. WAFFLEHOUND posted:Literally nobody likes Pullman. People like UW's location (as long as you don't mind it being horrifyingly unsafe at times) and literally everyone is head over heels for Bellingham to the point that a huge number of students don't leave after graduation and it's growing rapidly from that. Hmm, actually I had heard from someone that there's nothing to do in Pullman because it's basically all farmland or something to that effect. Are there no activities or anything on campus?
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Aug 2, 2014 21:54
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-Blackadder- posted:Social is actually exactly what I'm looking for. I really don't want a place where all anyone does is sit inside on the computer all day and play WoW. I went to WSU and absolutely loved it, like all of these guys above are alluding to. To clarify, this is for your undergrad, correct? WSU is in Pullman which is a very very small city. Virtually the entire population is college aged students. It's a beautiful campus as well. I believe I read a statistic that said something along the lines of "WSU has the highest % of students living on campus for any school west of the Mississippi". I have no idea if this is accurate, but you definitely get that impression when you're there. If you're a social guy, you'll meet as many people (and sleep with as many people) as you want. The campus rec center is top notch in the west coast, there's plenty of school events, and a massive party scene. Football saturdays are great, I enjoyed the greek system but your mileage may vary. I graduated in 2012. And don't really listen to the people who say that Wazzu is a sub-par education. The school happens to have relatively low admission standards, so it will admit lots of people who end up dropping out in the first or second year. I'm very gainfully employed and I majored in loving marketing of all things. Four very distinct seasons, everything is walking distance if you're not obese, a lot of on-campus activities, and fun sporting events. I have friends who graduated from the CS program and were snatched up immediately for some pretty nice positions.
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Aug 2, 2014 22:05
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-Blackadder- posted:Social is actually exactly what I'm looking for. I really don't want a place where all anyone does is sit inside on the computer all day and play WoW. This will be your peer group in CS. You might be the outlier, but that's going to continue into your professional career to a large degree as well. If you're nerdy but outgoing and social just become a geologist or a marine biologist. CS is still growing but not like it used to be, and being an outlier is only so fun for so long, and you can always try and minor in CS so you're competent in it without the fact that the physics department could use your classmates for orbital mechanics demonstrations and the biology department could use the same people for mycological field work. -Blackadder- posted:Hmm, actually I had heard from someone that there's nothing to do in Pullman because it's basically all farmland or something to that effect. Are there no activities or anything on campus? A lot of people love WSU but hate Pullman, Mr. Giggles above seems to be the outlier.
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Aug 2, 2014 23:12
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-Blackadder- posted:Expand? Ahh cool I grew up in that area, currently I am going to school down in Portland however ,but I did apply to some Washington Universities I just chose not to go. Generally for culture I might be a little harsh in some of these CWU - Essentially where people either go after Community College and transfer if they aren't a really good student or the kids who didn't Marshall the grades to get into places like WSU at least those are the two main groups of people I know who go here. Big party school because well there is nothing in Ellensburg. WSU - Is also a party school and fits the "State School" tropes pretty well. Most of my family if they have gone to college have gone here and it can provide a good education. They are decent and have good programs ,but it does have a "lower prestige" if that means anything to you compared to UW. However you will still get a good education and if you want too you can do the whole college debauchery very well here and if you survive get a respectable if not prestigious degree. Also remember for tech jobs Paul Allen went here and he is the second richest man in Washington! and they have a good CS program for the school type. UW - Good school , generally hard to get into instate if you aren't Asian or have an incredibly good application. (Okay the asian bit is a bit racist ,but every single one of my korean friends who applied got in and only one of my white friends did). My aunt is also a professor here and it is a good school, however it is huge. For your first few years expect big classes, and you wont be able to declare your CS major I think until your junior year or so... also living in Seattle can be expensive ,but it is an awesome place if you get in from my friends who are there. Less of a party school than CWU & WSU PLU- Don't know too much seems like a good school I have a friend from highschool who is going there ,but he has stopped talking to all of our group from highschool so no real details. Western - Fairly good school, standards to get in seem to have gone down in recent years, however if you are interested in teaching they have a really good teaching program that alot of people go into. Essentially I would say Western is to UW what Central is to WSU Eastern - I don't know, I just know when I was little the Seahawks used to do their summer training camp here. Seattle U - Well I dont know anyone who went here, my one friend who did get in err... well I guess died before attending. Overall a good school ,but expensive and if you want to go to school in Seattle I would pick UW. (It is a small catholic school which means fairly small classes and personal education ,but also more snooty and youll have to take mandatory religion classes) UW Sattelite Campuses - Are good ,but you wont get the "college" experience if thats what you want almost everyone who goes to these lives at home and commutes in. Gonzaga - The other catholic school, they have their basketball team which is good usually if your into sports. Spokane kinda sucks ,but it is bigger than Bellingham/Pullman/Ellensburg so there are non school things to do. They have a good engineering and cs program I think it is second to UW. Also catholic so similar to Seattle U. Lots of rich white kids go here and it is expensive as well. I applied here, however did'nt get much in scholarship money so went to the University of Portland instead... if they gave me more money I would probably be there. UPS - Its in Tacoma and I know no one who went there and know little about it except its a liberal arts college. Community Colleges - I did Running Start so I went to Highline CC when I was 16 its a good cheap way to get credits to transfer if your worried about cost. Most classes are fine to transfer and of comparable quality (at least for most non-science math courses) ,but be careful the ones you could go too Highline/Green River/Tacoma CC. all operate on quarters instead of semesters, because UW does quarters and its the big dog of our region. Jack2142 fucked around with this message at 00:40 on Aug 3, 2014 |
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Aug 3, 2014 00:33
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-Blackadder- posted:Interesting, can you expand on this? It is exactly that. You can take classes that cater to what you desire in education versus simply following a major. You aren't given a letter grade, you are given a written evaluation from a professor (huge benefit if employers and graduate schools are willing to read them). The school does have low retention rates for students as many come to the school unprepared for this change so I would be extremely sure that this is a school you would enjoy before applying. I don't know much about the CS program there, but I have heard good things; lots of presentations and projects, collaborations with your classmates, etc. TESC has a bad local reputation but it was a really cool school for me that helped me develop self-motivation and lots of references from professors for graduate school. I would look into if you are self-motivated and willing to do extra work to pad your evaluation; great area, good student-teacher ratio, sociable people. WSU really is a traditional party school in the middle of nowhere (farmland surrounding the city of Pullman). Nothing great academically in my opinion aside from a few niche areas of study. I would avoid it if you are looking for a school that is more sociable, WWU or UW. im gay fucked around with this message at 02:50 on Aug 3, 2014 |
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Aug 3, 2014 01:13
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I'm an CS major at WWU and it's far from the anti-social WoW players stereotype. There are a lot of gamers and nerds (which you should expect given CS) but overall people are very social. A lot of people end up doing large programming projects on campus so that they get that extra social aspect, and CS labs are filled with people from all levels doing different things and helping each other with various concepts. It really helps balance out how stressful projects can get. That said, CS is hard. You will spend a lot of time working on projects, spending entire weekends debugging and coding as well as dealing with vague requirements and specs. The upper level teachers tend to lack enthusiasm but there's a couple of fantastic teachers like Bover. A lot of your work is hands on with projects so you'll get a lot of experience with various languages. WWU used to teach ADA for 141 and 145, but I don't think they do that anymore. The campus itself is beautiful and the students tend to be really social and nice. The teachers here are generally really good with a lot of passion for their work, I don't think I would've made it through the mathematics requirement without the teachers being so amazing. Even if you don't go for CS, I'd still highly recommend WWU.
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Aug 3, 2014 02:38
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-Blackadder- posted:Expand? You can learn to program on your own and do a normal major and get any of the same jobs you would if you were a CS major.
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Aug 3, 2014 05:23
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Bip Roberts posted:You can learn to program on your own and do a normal major and get any of the same jobs you would if you were a CS major. Yeah, I will say that cowboy coders that learn on their own tend to miss some incredibly obvious poo poo, like how to handle source control and a bunch of other best practices. They can be a major pain in the rear end and a lot of employers don't like hiring them. Most of them figure it out in their first job and the rough edges can get filed off, but basically if you're going to go self-taught make sure you find a job where you can learn from other coders with some experience. Fresh out of school ain't great either but if I had a nickle for every dev who taught themselves and ended up an arrogant rear end in a top hat, I'd have a lot of nickles.
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Aug 3, 2014 08:10
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Bip Roberts posted:You can learn to program on your own and do a normal major and get any of the same jobs you would if you were a CS major. If you wanted to be a programmer why would you not do the degree that teaches you how to program? How would a normal major (what is even a normal major? Engineering or Business?) help you in getting a job programming? Beyond the first year of the 'learn how to program' subjects my Uni gives me the choice to learn an enormous array of subjects like OS development, AI, Cryptography, high perform comupting, etc. These things are much harder to teach yourself.
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Aug 3, 2014 13:37
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Thanks for the experiences posted so far, they are very helpful.WAFFLEHOUND posted:This will be your peer group in CS. You might be the outlier, but that's going to continue into your professional career to a large degree as well. If you're nerdy but outgoing and social just become a geologist or a marine biologist. CS is still growing but not like it used to be, and being an outlier is only so fun for so long, and you can always try and minor in CS so you're competent in it without the fact that the physics department could use your classmates for orbital mechanics demonstrations and the biology department could use the same people for mycological field work. I'm certainly open to considering other majors. I'm very interested in exploring my options. I was under the impression, though, that despite the fact that CS isn't growing as much as it was before, it's still one of the best majors to get? I mean what else is actually good out there? What's better than CS, beside things like Med School, Law School, or Engineering, which I'm just not interested in? Geology and Marine Biology also don't really tweak my interest, either. Some of the other majors I was considering were: 1. Physics: Always had an interest in it, but I'm no math wiz, and the job market is supposedly not that great. 2. Statistics: I find the subject interesting and "Big Data is blowing up!", is something that I'm hearing a lot these days so I was looking into it. 3. Applied Math: Pretty much for the same reason as Statistics. UW has an Applied Computational & Mathematical Sciences degree that is pretty popular and has several options for things Data or Economics. 4. [Synthetic] Biology: I read an article about people bio engineering custom-made organisms in their basement and it sounded cool as hell. Dunno what I'd do with it, though. 5. Fiction Writing/Screenwriting: This isn't even something I would bother majoring in. I just used to write short stories as a kid and thought about becoming a novelist, but the pay is horrendous and even then you end up spending more time being an advertising agent because being successful is based insane amounts of self-promotion. 6. Computer Science: This seemed like a good compromise. Not as much math as Physics/Stats/Applied Math but you leave with a very marketable technical skill that has a bright future in our ever more computerized world. Plus, it turns out I actually do enjoy coding so it's nice to be able to do something that's interesting. I'd love to hear people comments/suggestions about the above majors or any other majors.
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Aug 4, 2014 01:11
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-Blackadder- posted:I'm certainly open to considering other majors. I'm very interested in exploring my options. I was under the impression, though, that despite the fact that CS isn't growing as much as it was before, it's still one of the best majors to get? I'm not saying it's a bad degree to get if your primary concern is jobhunting, I'm just saying that it's the kind of degree where people defend how social it is by pointing out the computer labs are always full of people willing to help out. Pretty much all of the degrees you mentioned except CS and fiction writing require PhDs to get jobs. CS you can get jobs with an undergraduate degree, fiction writing you can't get a job.
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Aug 4, 2014 03:03
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I went to UW and majored in computer engineering. It was a good experience, but as you know many freshmen want that major but don't get the 3.5 gpa in the weed-out classes to get in. There is some advantage in going to the big school, since many companies recruit there, but honestly there's plenty of opportunity for people from all the schools in the state. The company I'm at right now does lots of recruitment at the smaller WA schools. Within a decade of graduating it won't matter where you went. Honestly just tour some campuses and pick the place that feels best. Job prospects for CS majors are pretty good right now, but that could change so make sure you pick something you enjoy and are good at.
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Aug 4, 2014 05:05
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warderenator posted:Honestly just tour some campuses and pick the place that feels best. Job prospects for CS majors are pretty good right now, but that could change so make sure you pick something you enjoy and are good at. This is important I essentially wasted an entire year trying to make engineering work for me, try to find something you enjoy and if you find yourself burned out in your major once you go to school always have alternate options and don't be the guy who decides his junior year he always wanted to major in dolphinology from comp-sci. Also yeah about the UW Comp-Sci program being selective, I think they only admit a select number of applicants to the program per year, I know that was the case for their engineering school when I toured there. A good thing if your interested in science and math degrees is generally take a broad spectrum your first year or so that you can apply as electives if need be to your major... I mean I am getting a degree in accounting and finance ,but I took an entire year of chem which counts for my "hard science" electives yay!
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Aug 4, 2014 05:12
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Jack2142 posted:Good info im gay posted:Evergreen stuff FZeroRacer posted:WWU stuff Which kind of leads me to another question. Is it worth it to even look at out of state universities? I mean there's always such a huge difference between in state and out of state tuition that I just figured why bother. But are there universities where you can mitigate that with scholarships or financial aid or something? Bip Roberts posted:You can learn to program on your own and do a normal major and get any of the same jobs you would if you were a CS major. WAFFLEHOUND posted:I'm not saying it's a bad degree to get if your primary concern is jobhunting, I'm just saying that it's the kind of degree where people defend how social it is by pointing out the computer labs are always full of people willing to help out. I know CS isn't the most social of majors. I hear majors like Communications are much better in that regard. But I don't think I've ever really had any trouble finding friends outside my peer group, but I maybe I haven't really needed to either. Hopefully the university I go to will have a good amount of campus organizations, activities, sports, greek life, and a bunch of other ways for me to get involved and meet people outside of the computer lab. I'm certainly planning on engaging, and getting into all of that. warderenator posted:I went to UW and majored in computer engineering. It was a good experience, but as you know many freshmen want that major but don't get the 3.5 gpa in the weed-out classes to get in. Jack2142 posted:This is important I essentially wasted an entire year trying to make engineering work for me, try to find something you enjoy and if you find yourself burned out in your major once you go to school always have alternate options and don't be the guy who decides his junior year he always wanted to major in dolphinology from comp-sci. Also yeah about the UW Comp-Sci program being selective, I think they only admit a select number of applicants to the program per year, I know that was the case for their engineering school when I toured there. -Blackadder- fucked around with this message at 06:51 on Aug 4, 2014 |
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Aug 4, 2014 06:00
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I'd argue that a CS major is also a pretty good way to get into statistics. The basis of all that big data stuff is machine learning algorithms, which should come up in advanced CS courses, and you'll have a good basis for understanding them, as well as related things such as complexity theory. You might have to get some statistics knowledge on the side from somewhere else (probabilities, modeling etc.) but since that stuff is relevant to so many academic disciplines that can't be hard to learn about. If your CS major is just learning to program, it's time to find a better university...
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Aug 4, 2014 15:37
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Pick one that can help you get good internships / co-ops, if you don't have the network to do so yourself. A solid internship makes up for a ton of stuff: GPA, school pedigree, etc.
movax fucked around with this message at 20:39 on Aug 4, 2014 |
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Aug 4, 2014 20:36
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-Blackadder- posted:This is sounds really cool. Olympia is relatively close so I'll probably just head down there and talk to some people and get a look around. To add to the TESC stuff, you can take the regular classes or programs that are offered, you can enroll in the Undergraduate Research thing they have if you want to work with a specific professor, or you can design your own project to work on. The last two options aren't really recommended for new students, they're mainly for more advanced work and you have to start designing them pretty far in advance. If you can find an internship you'd also probably be able to get school credit for it too. But Evergreen isn't a big school and there probably aren't many regular CS classes offered beyond introductory stuff (although I haven't checked the current catalog), so you would have to do more work designing your curriculum to make sure you get credits in the right areas. TESC is great if you want smaller classes and one-on-one work with professors, but not so much otherwise. There's no Greek stuff, but there's plenty of other campus things and Seattle and Portland aren't too far off. And though I can't say for sure, I'm betting the CS students there are pretty different from the stereotypical programmer people.
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Aug 4, 2014 21:42
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Entropist posted:I'd argue that a CS major is also a pretty good way to get into statistics. The basis of all that big data stuff is machine learning algorithms, which should come up in advanced CS courses, and you'll have a good basis for understanding them, as well as related things such as complexity theory. You might have to get some statistics knowledge on the side from somewhere else (probabilities, modeling etc.) but since that stuff is relevant to so many academic disciplines that can't be hard to learn about. Yeah, I caught this as well. UW CS has Data options as does UW ACMS. FZeroRacer posted:I'm an CS major at WWU So, I've been reading a bit more on WWU CS and I wanted to hear more about it. I read some place that they make you learn Ada and a couple other languages. Someone even said that the WWU CS program is technically superior to UW Seattle since it's WWU is more applied and UW Seattle is more theory. Additionally, what are the entrance requirements like? With UW getting accepted into the university and the major are two separate things. Getting into the UW Seattle university is easy enough, but to get into the UW CS major you need basically a 4.0 in CS 142, 143, Calc I, II, III, & Chem 161 or Calc-based Physics I. I talked to one of the advisors and they said the last application quarter they hadn't accepted anyone with less than a A in the intro to CS classes or less than an A- in the Calc series/Science classes. Also, I haven't been able to find really any user experiences at all on WSU CS. Does anyone know anymore about it? -Blackadder- fucked around with this message at 02:09 on Aug 6, 2014 |
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Aug 6, 2014 02:02
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Statistics is a good field to look at, and probably more protected than pretty much every other major because there's a shiton of demand and people suck poo poo at math in the states. CS is also very good, but goons hate CS for some reason (maybe because they are mad that the fedora libtard is making bank while they are in the unemployment line with their humanities degree?). Regardless despite the stereotype it's way more diverse than it has ever been. Anyway if you go that route and take a decent math load you can always look into graduate degrees in statistics, that's a pretty common route as some here have mentioned. You'll want to look at classes on machine learning and actually most the classification and clustering models for stats was either developed in CS or highly influenced by it. For Washington, the University of Washington has a fantastic statistics program- probably one of the best in the country. Of course it's very selective because of that and being a great school in general. Not sure about other WA schools. Applied math is kinda not that great to get into, go actuary science or stat if you want a mathy degree. Comp bio is alright but honestly the S in STEM is the hardest one to find jobs in even with an advanced degree from a good school. I'd avoid those if jobs is your focus. Physics is alright, but suffered a lot from the 08 blowout because it was mostly wall street type firms hiring them. Now those firms have more than enough people with a degree more directly related to the stuff they are looking for so it didn't bounce back like the others did. And why not focus on a more finance related degree if you are going to go that route anyway. tsa fucked around with this message at 03:49 on Aug 6, 2014 |
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Aug 6, 2014 03:47
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I agree with tsa's points. I just graduated last year from a Washington college (Whitman) with a degree in economics. If you're picking majors from a purely practical perspective: in my graduating class, the finance/econ/math/stats majors have ended up with far and away the best jobs. Now obviously a liberal arts school is different from a university (we didn't have a CS program), but I thought I'd share for what it's worth.
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Aug 6, 2014 04:15
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Yeah, Stats was/is something I'm looking hard at, as I've heard there's a good amount of demand for it. There's also a lot of overlap with the Stats option in UW ACMS. What I like about CS is the flexibility. With a little extra work it seems like you can find anything from finance to big data to robotics. I could always do a CS major and Stats minor. Ron Don Volante posted:I agree with tsa's points. I just graduated last year from a Washington college (Whitman) with a degree in economics. If you're picking majors from a purely practical perspective: in my graduating class, the finance/econ/math/stats majors have ended up with far and away the best jobs. Now obviously a liberal arts school is different from a university (we didn't have a CS program), but I thought I'd share for what it's worth. So how'd you like Whitman? Was it expensive? What made you choose Econ and how was the program? Have you had success with it since you graduated?
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Aug 6, 2014 05:09
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I don't have too much knowledge on the job market with just having an undergrad in stats, though I hear so long as you can pass the first 3 actuarial exams you are pretty set (these exams are by no means trivial however). But a graduate degree from one of the top 10 universities for stats? You are looking at an average graduating salary near 6 figures and nearly 100% placement for students with US citizenship (a little harder for international students). Of course it goes without saying that the top universities are incredibly competitive and you need a super high gpa and fantastic letters of rec. Just thought I'd mention it if you are considering that route because it's something you need to be working on nearly your entire undergrad career to have a good chance at getting into a top grad program. I mean poo poo, I knew people that had a guaranteed job a full year before they graduated with their masters the demand is so high right now.
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Aug 6, 2014 05:31
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Yeah, I checked the BLS for stats and entry level is a masters, but it looks like once you get it you can write yourself a pretty big ticket. Of course the numbers for Software Dev are even better.
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Aug 6, 2014 05:46
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-Blackadder- posted:Thanks for the experiences posted so far, they are very helpful. If you're interested in those majors and doing research then UW is your best option. Some of the other schools have education programs that are as good or better, but they do not have the same kind of research opportunities. The CS major at UW-Seattle is extremely competitive and focuses more on the theory of computer science - algorithms, data structures, etc - than just programming. Actual CS majors tend to be relatively attractive and well adjusted. The department is supportive and has one of the newer, swankier buildings. If you want to do this apply for direct admission from high-school. The regular admission process is brutal and requires that you get very good grades in the very competitive intro calculus, physics, and CS courses. Also most of the CS courses (and bathrooms) are restricted to CS majors because they are The ACMS major is less competitive than CS and has fairly different paths that tend to focus on field-specific computing. I don't know much about this major but the actual applied math department (which is completely separate from ACMS, go figure) is a lot of fun. Research in the department tends to be split into finance, biological, and atmospheric modeling groups. Anyone can take the applied math courses if they meet the prerequisites. I've never actually met a stats major. Presumably they exist. I've heard good things about the courses and most of them are open to anyone who meets the prereqs. Physics has one of the more dilapidated buildings and I haven't really heard much about them. Check out the bioengineering department for synthetic biology and other assorted fun ways to play god. If you throw up some contact info I'd be happy to talk more.
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Aug 6, 2014 08:16
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Cuttlefush posted:If you're interested in those majors and doing research then UW is your best option. Some of the other schools have education programs that are as good or better, but they do not have the same kind of research opportunities. Ah, cool, yeah, you can hit me up at magog99@gmail.com. Yeah, it's strange that I don't hear more about Stats at UW. After CS, ACMS is all the rage there. I was planning on contacting the respective ACMS, Biology, Physics, and Stats departments and just jawing with the advisors for a bit to see what they have to say about their majors.
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Aug 6, 2014 23:37
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Undergraduate stats isn't that much of a thing (statisticians with bachelor's degrees are vanishingly rare). My experience with the UW Biostat grad program is that most people are coming out of a math or biology undergrad degree. I wouldn't recommend stats if physics is too mathy.
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Aug 6, 2014 23:57
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Engineer Lenk posted:Undergraduate stats isn't that much of a thing (statisticians with bachelor's degrees are vanishingly rare). Yeah, that makes sense since, as I mentioned above, according to the BLS entry level for Statisticians is a masters. I actually haven't even taken calc-based Physics I yet. I'm just assuming I wouldn't do very well in it since I'm currently struggling through Calculus II. UW CSE requires either Physics I (calc-based, of course), or General Chem I: for Scientists and Engineers. I was originally planning on taking Physics I in the fall to knock that out and because I am interested in Physics and want to see what a real physics class would be like, but considering how competitive UW CSE is I might take Chem instead. Is Chemistry generally easier than Physics? And if so, how much easier? vvv: Hey, thanks for posting that. Good info there. -Blackadder- fucked around with this message at 00:43 on Aug 7, 2014 |
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Aug 7, 2014 00:05
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There's actually quite a bit of info on UW's CSE program here: http://www.quora.com/University-of-Washington-Computer-Science-Engineering
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Aug 7, 2014 00:30
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-Blackadder- posted:Yeah, Stats was/is something I'm looking hard at, as I've heard there's a good amount of demand for it. There's also a lot of overlap with the Stats option in UW ACMS. It was a good experience overall. I ended up choosing Whitman over Lewis and Clark (too granola) and Reed (students seemed really stressed/depressed), as well as a few colleges over on the east coast. I never really considered going to a university because I prized smaller class sizes and greater class discussion/interaction. Walla Walla's a nice, quiet college town with a lot of great restaurants (because of wine tourism) and awesome biking. The summers are godawful though (100F is common), so I couldn't imagine living there year-round. The tuition was fairly standard for a liberal arts college, around $45k/year. Luckily for me, my dad's a professor at UPS so I got full tuition remission for all four years. I think they've cut that inter-college deal back recently. I chose econ because I was interested in international economic development/history, and that was a natural segue into macroeconomics. I also felt that economics was one of the more practical majors among the liberal arts. I actually almost went with sociology instead, so I think I dodged a bullet there. The program was solid, with some great professors and a couple bad visiting profs, but nothing special overall. Whitman's best department is probably BBMB (Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Molecular Biology), which is a big draw for the pre-med kids. After graduation I loafed around for a few months, and then temped with Amazon for 9 months before being brought on as a permanent employee at a salary above and beyond what I thought possible in an entry-level position. I'm definitely happy where I ended up.
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Aug 7, 2014 04:19
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^^^ Interesting. Do you guys think it's worth my time to look at out of state schools? I don't think UW CSE is going to happen for me so I've been doing some reading on StudentsReview and Cappex to try and get an idea of what WSU and WWU are like among a few others. It's been pretty helpful. But I'm having trouble finding any info on WSU's CS program. WWU's CS program, on the other hand, is supposed to be pretty good, second only to UW. Apparently WWU CS makes you learn a bunch of different languages, like Ada(but maybe not anymore?), and is much more applied than UW's more theoretical program. The consensus seems to be that UW comes out ahead because of their job fair and industry connections. In other words, networking > all. As far as campus life goes the consensus seems to be that WSU is generally more beer themed and WWU is generally more weed themed. -Blackadder- fucked around with this message at 23:13 on Aug 11, 2014 |
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Aug 11, 2014 22:35
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