Ask HN: Undergrad math at a top school or CS at a decent school? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Undergrad math at a top school or CS at a decent school?

3 pointsbeta_reduction6 comments

Hello HN, I am an 18 year old American student applying to CS programs around the US. I applied to the same set of top CS schools many people apply to (Michigan, Georgia Tech, Carnegie Mellon, UT Austin) and got rejected or deferred from most of them. I did get into my second choice major, math, at UIUC. However, I have full ride (tuition, housing, a good stipend) offers from 2 lower tier research universities (UT Dallas, Texas A&M), both studying CS.

My question is: is studying math at well regarded program like UIUC worth the cost, when compared with studying CS for free? It seems to me like math and CS transfer easily after college, so would the opportunities provided to me at UIUC for research, internships, etc. benefit me? I have full intentions of working in the tech industry, and I have lots of experience programming (wrote several functional language compilers in highschool, passionate about type theory, local city internship + independent study at school). I am capable of learning things on my own, and am familiar with college level courses through MIT OCW.

I love math and wouldn't be disappointed in studying it instead of CS, which I already do on my own for fun. I am not super concerned about campus attractions and lifestyle, I am confident I will find fun activities anywhere. My big concern is just the comparative value of my $$$ and time.

We can't answer you these questions as we do not know what would benefit you personally. Look at teaching program, typical projects and who is teaching what and then look up papers they published and make your own conclusions. What grants and internship are linked to them etc. Are you planning to make your way into science or into business as a career path. Remember that you can meet different types of people in different schools (might be useful in the future). Also analyze why you get rejected and make conclusions out of it.

I deleted my earlier post when I realized maths is your second choice. I also neglected to consider UIUC biases in favor of out-of-staters for money reasons, and that many green high school students -- those who aren't olympiad winners -- don't realize university-level maths is a whole other ball game from what they're used to, and drop the major after the first semester.

Go with UTDallas. They've got a great CS program, and it'll be free for you.

Choose Texas A&M over UT Dallas. UTD may have a little better CS program on paper than A&M, but you won't enjoy life there. The culture at both schools is incredibly different.

I have several friends at both studying CS—only those at Dallas regret their choice of university.

I would strongly encourage you to take the full ride. This is coming from someone who was in a similar situation to you decided to the Tier 1 route.

As another commenter noted, it really depends on what you hope to achieve in your career, but it's rare that an 18-year-old has that figured out. I'm in my late 20s and haven't figured it out!

Ultimately, the main thing Tier 1 university gives you is a foot in the door. For 95% of non-savants, the educational experience is the same, if not worse, than your "Tier 2" schools. There are many other (much cheaper!) ways to get the type of prestige which opens doors: Y Combinator, Recurse Center, an internship at a prestigious company, certifications, etc. That being said, prestige only opens the door -- you'll still need to kick it down.

Think of it this way: you are being given ~$300k to go to school. This is the same amount of money you would earn after working full-time for ~5 years after factoring in taxes. You could literally travel the world for several years and come out with less debt than paying out-of-state tuition for four years at UIUC.

My opinion, if you know you want to be a software engineer, study CS at the schools that give you full ride. UT Dallas and Texas A&M are both good schools and the thought of not having to pay back any loans will lift a burden of stress after you graduate.

Have a look at the Computer History Museum's interview with the former head of Software at Apple who couldn't keep up with the Math and transferred to CS for guidance. Choose the more difficult path at undergrad, perform well and spend your nickel and dime at postgrad level?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com