Masters of Computer Science - CU Boulder vs. Georgia Tech

[jeffmag]

Hi,

 

I have had offers from University of Colorado - Boulder, and GA-Tech, and I'm very excited about both! I'm trying to pick them apart. 

 

GA Tech, both the university and school (Computer Science) is ranked far above CU Boulder - GATech CS is top 10, vs 40 for CU Boulder on US News and World. How much weight should I give this and will it matter when it come to PhD admissions and/or employers?

 

Subjectively, both programs have a great program for my domain - artificial intelligence - and both have an interdisciplinary approach which is a definite win for me. 

 

I am concerned that GA-Tech is more industry/application focused (I'm more interested in academia or research jobs.) I am also concerned that the existence of the new Online Masters will dilute the value and indeed, the experience, of the on-campus masters. This is compounded when I check the accept/reject ratios for GA Tech on this site. There are zero reported rejections for the Masters program. I find this apparent non-selectivity difficult to reconcile with the program's high rank.

 

My only concern with Colorado is related to the US News and World ranking-- does 40 necessarily mean it isn't as rigorous academically? It has a much lower endowment than GA Tech but will that affect me day to day? 

 

 

Any thoughts or experiences with either of these programs? Interested to hear any insight, but especially interested in figuring out the pedagogical difference in the programs.

 

Thanks in advance!

[kcyc]

GT online program has only accepted few hundreds of students so far. They will scale up to thousands in the next few years. So the degree prevalence and value dilution will not have happened yet if you went to GT and graduated, since it takes the online students more than 2 years to finish 36 credits also.

 

You can do a thesis with your MS at GT to distinguish yourself from the online students. Also any research/engineering work at GT will distinguish you on your resume/CV.

 

Since CU Boulder is ranked too far below GT (40 vs top 10), you should go to GT in this case. The online program impact will not be big enough to affect you upon graduation from GT.

[AWall2014]

Georgia Tech. That name is praised in CS!

[Flandre Scarlet]

I agree with everyone above.  Georgia Tech.

 

I don't think GA Tech is industry and application focused.  I believe the US News rankings are based on PhD programs (I could be wrong), which makes GA Tech quite the academic school in CS.

[MadtownJacket]

Tech used to be industry/application-focused, but that's not really the case anymore.  In fact, a lot of the alumni are complaining that we're doing too much "theoretical" stuff.