choosing college

Go to the college with the best reputation AND where you can learn the most new things.

bobtheking said:

that's why i'm leaning towards CMU, but i've also read and heard that it doesn't really matter where you go for undergrad. if thats true then it'd better to go to somewhere where i can graduate sooner, and worry about which college to go to for graduate school.

CMU is definitely going to be the place where cutting edge research and stuff is going on, but i doubt you get to work on that kind of stuff as an undergrad. the guy that invented anisotropic filtering is/was a professor at CMU and is now working for nvidia.

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well... seems like the american college system is way different than germanys... maybe you should wait fro some american college graduates for their input

I was glad I went somewhere that had a lot of options. I'm on my fifth major, but graduating this summer.

Where I call home, 36 credits already is a completed Math major...I don't know anyone who isn't a math major with that many credits, so double majoring seems like a good idea since you're obviously a CS major.

You don't really need grad school for CS do you? I guess you do for Math. Man I dunno. Just pick the one that has the best town and people. I can't imagine college without great people. It may not be what you're going for, but it'll keep you going.

why exactly are you going to college?

It might be helpful if you can get the email addresses of an advisor in the department you’re majoring in. Email them and see if you can set up a time to speak with them over the phone. Maybe send them a list of your classes that you think you could get credit for.

This will help you get a feel for the different colleges. I don’t know if you’re majoring in math or what, but let’s just say it’s math as an example. Log on to the college websites and check out their math department, and see if they have a list of professors/ instructors. They should have some credentials posted for those professors.

Now look at the program, or whatever it’s called, you’ll be using. For example, when I went for my physics degree, you had to take this course and that course, etc. See if you can find out who teaches those courses. Compare that with the credentials of the instructors who teach that/those course(s). During your phone interview with the counselor, ask if so-and-so will be teaching this class and that class. Some of those options may not be available.

This last idea probably is the best information, but is the hardest to acquire. The ideal thing would be to go to these different schools and speak with students about the professors/instructors, and about graduated students that they know who have moved into the workforce. This is a wealth of information. You might hear that Dr. Insertname is so freakin’ hard that nobody comes out of his class with anything higher than a C. “The guy’s a jerk and needs to be fired.” You get the idea.

If you live far away from these schools and cannot visit, which is most likely the case for some schools, you could try to get in touch with a class president or some other student; maybe one who is the head of a student group. At my college, someone headed up the Society of Physics Students. If you call any of these places, you might even get a student who answers in the department you’re calling. Speak with them if possible and see what they say about certain teachers.

If you don’t have a major, or are leaning towards several majors, your job just got a lot harder.

no man i wasn't kidding. so basically to get a job?