best college for computer science major

[Cameron Laird]

In article <mailman.1042119797.10638.python-list at python.org>,
Laura Creighton  <lac at strakt.com> wrote:
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>This was not a flame.  If this statement is true, in the United States,
>which goes around preaching the value of individualism, than things are
>even worse than I thought.
>
>> Are you saying colleges are individuals?  Or maybe you think there should be
>> 15 million "best" ways to teach computer science so that we can all have
>> different individual approaches to programming.  Each of us should invent
>> our own programming language and only use that?
>
>No, I expected answers in the form -- it depends on what you want to
>do. 'XXX and YYY are better for fundamental algorithms, and AAA and BBB are 
>better places to study computer graphics and animation, and the best
>data base theorists are at DDD and EEE' and so on and so forth.  
>Computer Science is such a wonderful, varied field, and somebody out
>there is asserting that whatever strengths a faculty has is irrelevant
>to undergraduates, since they would get the same program if they
>studied anywhere, including, I presume some outfit in Phoenix that
>keeps filling my mailbox with spam.
>
>There is _something_ _seriously_ _wrong_ if it doesn't make a difference 
>where you study.
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Pssst ...  Laura, there are several things *seriously wrong* hereabouts.

I'm working *hard* to avoid veering off into politics.  There are a few
facts that bear articulation (or, for some, repetition--several people
have already offered delightful observations in this thread):

College education is a racket.  The higher education system has a
fascinating and distinguished tradition over the last thousand
years of occidental civilization.  It now ... well, there are a lot
of students and families incurring unconscionable debt for results they 
understand only poorly.

College education is also almost unbearably neat.  While several
European countries push themselves toward egalitarianism--education
in Lyon is supposed to be as good as that available in Paris,
according to this principle--North America enjoys an almost unimag-
inable diversity of colleges.  They are NOT all the same at the
undergraduate level.

However, individual qualities remain more determinative of educational
achievement than institutional ones.  I've got abundant anecdotal
evidence of motivated people deriving more from low-prestige community
colleges than better-heeled slackers doing at, say, Stanford.

Someone who's trying to decide between networking and "regular 
programming" might notice little difference from one school to the
next.  Any undergraduate program will give him comparable contact,
exposure, and diploma, in that sense.

When I'm hiring, I look favorably on the music majors and anthropologists
that come my way.  Not all employers are like that.

I can no longer keep track of departmental strengths ('cept I still
respect CMU for SE).  I leave that to others.
-- 

Cameron Laird <Cameron at Lairds.com>
Business:  http://www.Phaseit.net
Personal:  http://phaseit.net/claird/home.html