Comment by argonaut

9 years ago

I went to Berkeley for CS and knew people that went to MIT and Stanford, and I don't agree. You're right the curriculum is the same. Everything else is different. Just one example: lots of undergrads do research. They get to work (albeit basically as trainees) in some of the top CS labs in the world.

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argonaut

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jghn  9 years ago

I've long espoused what jondubois says above and many people have told me what you say here in response. That might be true but now that I'm in a position to see lots of new hires it doesn't seem to make a difference, at least not for CS grads. We hire a bunch of MIT grads and they seem to have roughly the same distribution of success as all of the other new hires. I'll grant you that this is anecdata but it is the one situation where I have a lot of experience where the connection angle does not exist.

  • Buge  9 years ago

    It might depend on what you are hiring them for. If it's for research the elites might do better. But if it's for software engineering there might not be a difference.

    • jghn  9 years ago

      That's possible, I can only speak to standard SWE type roles, and in those situations the inter-person variance is larger than the inter-institution variance.

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aswanson  9 years ago

I think you learn more from your peer group than classes in college, so it's a good idea got try to get surrounded with the most talented cohort possible.

  • argonaut  9 years ago

    Exactly. After going to Berkeley, there are 10+ people at top tech companies who think I'm smart and would be more than happy to refer me if I needed a job.

    • aswanson  9 years ago

      Nice. If I had any sense in my high school years I'd have a Berkeley or Stanford pedigree. Eh, youth is wasted on the young...