Hey friends - would love some input from the community!
Non-CS undergrad looking to make a career change. Interested in working for a startup or bigtech, and dabbling in research (obviously never have done it before some I'd love to at least try).
Accepted to both Penn MCIT and Chicago MSCS. One caveat: if Penn, I'd move on to complete their normal MSE CIS degree as well. Here are some of my impressions and considerations:
Prestige/ranking - Penn takes this... Ranked 18th vs. 35th; Ivy
Research - Penn again
Courses (from a 'practical skills' standpoint) - Chicago... classes more focused around very specific skills (e.g., IOS, Android, C, etc.); practicum program
Courses (from a 'selection and interest' standpoint) - Penn... much broader selection, with cool ones like AI, game design, machine learning, computer vision, etc.
Startup opportunities - Chicago... Chi-town seems to have a much more booming startup community than Philly
Bigtech opportunities - tie... seems fairly even, maybe slight edge for Penn
Please vote and post any feedback. Thanks