Yale cs ms vs Gatech cs ms

[childream]

I plan to work in industry after completing the master degree. Yale cs ms program is a 9-month program while the program at Gatech lasts two years. Honestly I prefer the courses and program length at Gatech but...IT'S YALE! Hard to make a decision before April 15. 

[amccjl]

GT is very impressive, especially in more technical/science fields. By contrast, I have been advised against attending the Ivy just for the name. Honestly they are falling behind in program quality and the name doesn't carry that much weight anymore. Also, though I've never been to New Haven, I have lived in Atlanta and the cost of living is pretty low for a city, not sure if that matters to you. 

 

Full disclosure, I did my undergrad at Tech, so I may be a bit biased.  

[svent]

Georgia Tech requires 12 credits per semester for full-time status (3-credit classes). I don't know if part-time enrollment is allowed. I'd think it'd take 1.5 years to get through. Taking 4 CS grad classes per semester sounds pretty insane. Not sure how the course load is at Yale.

[Formosus]

I can't speak to the CS masters program specifically, but I'm an undergrad at Georgia Tech. The CS department here is really absolutely fantastic and the professors really really know their stuff. The computing buildings at Tech are great as well, and the campus in general is a cool one to be on, plus you're surrounded by Atlanta, which gives you tons of options, both for things to do while a student and a place to look for a job after graduation

[svent]

Probably a better department than Yale, and certainly a better city for jobs. But I would be concerned about the course load, I think it would be very isolating. I'm not familiar with the undergrad program, but I doubt you take 4 CS classes each semester. That said, they do have a few soft classes that you could use to soften the blow, like Ethics of Computer Science or whatever.

[childream]

On 2016年4月7日 at 1:17 PM, svent said:

Probably a better department than Yale, and certainly a better city for jobs. But I would be concerned about the course load, I think it would be very isolating. I'm not familiar with the undergrad program, but I doubt you take 4 CS classes each semester. That said, they do have a few soft classes that you could use to soften the blow, like Ethics of Computer Science or whatever.

yale also requires 4 courses per semester

 

[svent]

I see. I'd go to Tech then. Yale doesn't really have the same level of prestige in the field that it has overall. It's ranked very highly for undergrad, and for some other stuff like law school. But when it comes to CS or Math, it doesn't come close to ivies like Princeton. I've never met anyone who had gone to Yale, whether current students or professors who did their PhD there. Which doesn't mean it's a bad program, but Tech is better IMO. Just try to take one soft class per semester.

Unless Yale has "easier" classes. Taking 4 grad CS classes each semester sounds really tough. But Atlanta is a good city to be in for jobs.

[childream]

2 hours ago, svent said:

I see. I'd go to Tech then. Yale doesn't really have the same level of prestige in the field that it has overall. It's ranked very highly for undergrad, and for some other stuff like law school. But when it comes to CS or Math, it doesn't come close to ivies like Princeton. I've never met anyone who had gone to Yale, whether current students or professors who did their PhD there. Which doesn't mean it's a bad program, but Tech is better IMO. Just try to take one soft class per semester.

Unless Yale has "easier" classes. Taking 4 grad CS classes each semester sounds really tough. But Atlanta is a good city to be in for jobs.

i think the reason why you haven't met any people from Yale in this field is that Yale only admits very few people. I think the cs program in gt is much better than yale. However, will the brand of "yale" have a better effect than gt even in cs field?

[svent]

GT is ranked higher if you care about US News. When I looked into GT, I looked up the career fair. They've got plenty of local companies, plus all the big companies from SF/SV. I don't know about Yale's career fair. But even if it's as good, Atlanta is in a better area for jobs I think. Atlanta+Raleigh+Houston+Dallas+Austin are all semi-nearby and all pretty cheap to live in. Near Yale, you have Boston and NYC which have good job markets, but very high COL. Plus NYC is all finance-related jobs, not as much of a pure tech scene as SF.

I would ask yourself if you'd rather live in the north or south (not just weather-related). You can always move after school, but you have a couple years while there to build your network.

Edited April 13, 2016 by svent

[blacknighterrant]

4 hours ago, childream said:

i think the reason why you haven't met any people from Yale in this field is that Yale only admits very few people. I think the cs program in gt is much better than yale. However, will the brand of "yale" have a better effect than gt even in cs field?

GA Tech's brand would be worth a lot more in cs than Yale. Honestly though in cs it won't really make much of a difference where you went to school unless you were trying for rather specialized positions. It'll be your projects/experience etc that are more important.

[u18394s]

Which university did you end up picking and why? Asking because I'm in a similar situation