Best Universities for Comp Sci in Europe | Hacker News Reader

Best Universities for Comp Sci in Europe

I am looking to study abroad as a CS major in college and was looking for suggestions of universities in Europe that I should be checking out. Thanks in advance!

View on HN

I'm almost finished with a Masters at Cambridge. It's a fantastic department with some really interesting research going on in areas from Comp Sci theory to photonic networks. Everyone's really approachable and are really passionate about their fields.

The city is great too with a long standing digital background: ARM, MS Research etc.

It's definitely worth checking out, and good luck.

whats your masters in? if you're a software engineer my buddy is hiring in cambridge.

Advanced Computer Science, I think I know who you mean...

I'm very biased as this is my own home town university, but over the years I've heard good things about University of Aarhus' Comp. Sci. department. (http://cs.au.dk/)

Points worth noting include a local Google research/dev. office (does Chrome's V8), and the "birth university" of Bjarne Stroustrup of C++ fame.

The department has research groups in the following areas:

Algorithms and Data Structures, Bioinformatics, Mathematical Computer Science, Computer Graphics and Scientific Computing, Cryptography and Security, Data-Intensive Systems, Human Computer Interaction, Modelling and Validation of Distributed Systems, Object-Oriented Software Systems, and Programming Languages

Feel free to contact me if there's anything I can help you with :)

You make a very good pitch! =) Do you know if they happen to have an established exchange program? (I haven't looked on their site yet but I will!) Thanks, this is definitely on my radar now.

Haha, why thank you very much ;)

They do have a good deal of exchange programs. But if you're not applying through one of the big networks (ERASMUS, etc.), then it's probably down to the individual university.

There are tons of exchange students from all over the world, both Master's and PhDs, so it shouldn't be a problem at all.

Edinburgh is pretty good and has nice new building in a central location in a wonderful city:

http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/informatics/

Part of me wants to go to a country where I am forced to speak another language and the culture is substantially different than here in the US, but I'm not sold on the idea. Thanks for this suggestion though, I've heard the name and it's now on my list. Thanks!

Scotland is different enough from the US, you don't want things to be too different as you need to adjust to going to school ;). The University of Glasgow also has a good program (I got my masters there), out of the 2, Edinburgh has much nicer weather but Glasgow is more "real" city with great people (although it has a bad rep).

Why the bad rep?

Glasgow is much larger, and was more industrialized, than Edinburgh and is usually portrayed as suffering from a post-industrial malaise. However, it's a great place and the University has an excellent reputation.

Edinburgh is ridiculously picturesque and historical but it does have a reputation for being, when compared to Glasgow, of not nearly such a welcoming place.

I read statistics that it was the most violent city in Europe. During my 2 years there I didn't really see that side of the city- if you know what neighborhoods to avoid (like most other big cities) you'll be OK. I loved Glasgow- it has a great night life, interesting museums, great parks, wonderful people but the worst weather I've ever seen ;). After living in Glasgow, Edinburgh (granted I only spent 2 days there) seemed like "Disneyland Scotland"- very touristy and seemed a bit fake.

If you think Glasgow is bad for rain you should try further up the west coast - there are places that get four times as much rain as Glasgow does. But on the days when it's clear they can be utterly gorgeous.

I've never quite understood why so much focus is put on evaluating departments by the newness of their buildings (I've seen quite a lot of universities boast on that subject).

The old building was pretty shabby and not in the center of town.

Any specific field?

CS is quite broad and it might be wise to choose a university that has a strong research tradition in the field(s) that you're interested in.

I'm only a sophomore, so I'm just now starting to try to figure out what direction I want to go in within CS. So the abroad experience would really be to experience teachings of computer science in a different fashion than is custom here. Whether that will actually happen... No idea.

Well, I know from personal experience the universities in the Netherlands are pretty decent when it comes to CS. Added bonus is that practically everybody can speak English (and don't mind doing so).

Wouldn't have expected that. Any University in particular? Thanks!

I'm a msc-student in Groningen. I hear the CS programmes at Delft, Utrecht and Twente are nice as well. The cultures/approaches are all different though, have a look at their websites and see if anything resonates with you.

Are you going to do it as an Erasmus student?

I admittedly am a newbie to studying abroad, but I don't think I can do Erasmus as I am from the US.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com