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Education Programming United States

Be True To Your CS School: LinkedIn Ranks US Schools For Job-Seeking Programmers 130

theodp writes "The Motley Fool reports that the Data Scientists at LinkedIn have been playing with their Big Data, ranking schools based on how successful recent grads have been at landing desirable software development jobs. Here's their Top 25: CMU, Caltech, Cornell, MIT, Princeton, Berkeley, Univ. of Washington, Duke, Michigan, Stanford, UCLA, Illinois, UT Austin, Brown, UCSD, Harvard, Rice, Penn, Univ. of Arizona, Harvey Mudd, UT Dallas, San Jose State, USC, Washington University, RIT. There's also a shorter list for the best schools for software developers at startups, which draws a dozen schools from the previously mentioned schools, and adds Columbia, Univ. of Virginia, and Univ. of Maryland College Park. If you're in a position to actually hire new graduates, how much do you care about applicants' alma maters?
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Be True To Your CS School: LinkedIn Ranks US Schools For Job-Seeking Programmers

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  • In theory, schools can act as a crap filter for workers.
    "The difference between theory and practice is greater in practice than in theory."--some C++ Users Journal article
    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      In theory, schools can act as a crap filter for workers.

      In theory. In practice, I test employees myself (and ask them to show me something they've done) and hire self-educated individuals because I know that schools pump out lots of trash.

      • Re: (Score:1, Interesting)

        by Anonymous Coward

        a) CS is not programming
        b) CS attracts many people who are terrible employees
        c) Getting hired in college screens out the good ones; the grads looking for jobs failed to get employed during college
        d) CS without understanding computers or programming is all to common from the +- 1 std dev colleges.

        Having hired programmers now for two decades, The lowerer end colleges seem to crate a disproportionately high fraction of adequate programmers, and the best schools do create insightful computer scientists, but the

        • by Anonymous Coward

          Maybe people who were born to code almost always find a paid outlet for their talents before graduation?

          In my case I didn't have time to chase a big box degree. I went to the nearest public uni without regard to no-name status, and I got my cred. It openened the right doors...decent pay at startups in the suburbs, because screw expensive cities, and screw chosing between low standard of living and soul-sucking long commutes.

          That is why big tech is clamoring for more import labor and why they feel a shortage

          • Do you even realize how much your inferiority complex is showing here? I don't know whether to down vote, or reply and point it out. You need a whole new perspective on life, as essentially nothing you've said in your post is commensurate with reality. Your place is cheap because few people want to live there. Your company is a no-name because they're probably not doing anything important. That's the most likely circumstance anyway - you probably have not found a diamond in the rough, and your portraya

        • d) CS without understanding computers or programming is all to common from the +- 1 std dev colleges.

          When I worked for the Google help desk in 2008, I had to explain to an software engineer that he needed to physically turn on the computer by pressing the button. He was shocked to discover that PCs don't turn themselves on in his pressence. Many software engineers are overly clueless about the basic functionality of PCs.

      • by Bengie ( 1121981 )
        Most trash I know has a grasp on practice, but doesn't understand theory. They have hard time understanding edge cases or scaling. The opposite is knowing theory but no practice, but anyone can get practice. It's hard to get theory self taught, the internet is sparsely populated with good theory and lots of bad ideas. Plenty of code examples.
    • by shoor ( 33382 )

      Hmmm, I really like that saying, but I learned it as
      "In theory, theory and practice are the same; in practice, they're different." It might even be a Unix fortune. I've seen it attributed to Yogi Berra. (A lot of things are attributed to Yogi Berra by the way, "Deja Vu all over again" is another one.)

      In my day (and I'm old enough to have actually seen Yogi Berra play, though he was in the outfield by then), computers were not that common, so going to school was a place to have access to a computer. I di

  • by philip.paradis ( 2580427 ) on Sunday October 19, 2014 @07:37AM (#48179889)

    A huge number of software development jobs don't require a CS degree, including many highly paid positions. In fact, having a CS degree may reduce the odds of being hired for some positions. It seems the trend of misunderstanding the term "computer science" hasn't lost any momentum.

    • I would say that it's the opposite: B.Sc. is the new high school diploma. Highly recommended.
      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        I have a GED, and I assure you I earn substantially more than most CS graduates. Additionally, I continue to note a marked absence of (1) actual programming ability, (2) knowledge of even the most rudimentary information security practices, and (3) adequate understanding of core systems principles among recent CS graduates. Perhaps your perspective is the result of having grown acclimated to working with people with substantially reduced capabilities.

        • That's mighty nice, but I'd expect people with higher CS degrees to work chiefly as researchers, not as security hole pluggers. Unless of course their CS specialization was principled security bases on formal methods, in which case they could actually replace a large number of the security hole pluggers.
          • by philip.paradis ( 2580427 ) on Sunday October 19, 2014 @08:26AM (#48180027)

            This is the sort of reply I expected, so please allow me to bring my core point into sharper perspective. In the course of my fifteen years of employment in a variety of roles in assorted industries (network infrastructure, hosting, finance, biological sciences, etc), my firsthand experience has been that software developers "lacking" a CS degree have displayed a marked tendency to produce more functional, reasonably secure, and efficient/scalable code than their CS counterparts. They have also, on average, commanded substantially higher salaries in software development roles than their CS counterparts.

            Degree mills and some otherwise respected educational institutions may not be happy about these facts, but it's important to note that they're not exclusively to blame for the situation. A computer science degree simply doesn't translate to skill in software development, largely because formal computer science has relatively little to do with programming. Thus, my original post is entitled "missing the point."

            I've worked with a few CS graduates who purportedly had a specialized focus on information security. As it turned out, their ability to actually perform in their professional roles was woefully lacking.

            • Re:Missing the point (Score:4, Informative)

              by Greyfox ( 87712 ) on Sunday October 19, 2014 @10:38AM (#48180651) Homepage Journal
              That's what I've found, too. I have more luck just seeing if someone will work with a team well, rather than look at their degree status. I'd take a kid with a high school diploma and a few open source projects out on github if I think he'll work on my team well. Unfortunately those are just the sort of people HR usually filters out.
            • Here is my take on it, I have a number of people from well known schools, same number of people from schools that nobody heard from and in some cases people from unknown schools who dropped out and started working for me when I offered them a job. I have a number of people that had no formal higher education at all and a couple of guys that didn't know much about computers before they started here.

              AFAIC I care about the attitude, I care that the person can work within a team, that I can work with the person

              • Given the length of time we've been going back and forth on this site (and it's been a long time), I propose we meet in person. Please reach out to me here [mailto] if you're interested. If you don't know why you should be interested, please disregard this reply and have a nice day.

            • my firsthand experience has been that software developers "lacking" a CS degree have displayed a marked tendency to produce more functional, reasonably secure, and efficient/scalable code than their CS counterparts.

              And that is what I don't understand. Why do people keep relating CS with programming directly? Programming skill is NOT a required skill in the field for CS as long as CS students can get/develop the alogithm to work with any assigned language they work with. In other words, CS students learn to use a language to demonstrate how they understand the concept and are able to implement. They do NOT learn different languages to be an expert in those languages. I know many of my CS friends who understand algorith

          • While in practice nothing is perfect, I'd like to add that your mention of "security hole plugging" conveniently ignores the principle that you don't have to plug holes that don't exist in the first place. Abject failure to recognize this point is probably at least half the reason for information security being in its presently deplorable state. Hint: bolt-on approaches to security are typically no security at all.

        • Do you think you're representative of most GED-havers? I don't.
          • That's a fundamentally flawed statement. The question isn't whether I'm representative of most individuals with GEDs, but whether I'm representative of individuals holding GEDs who happen to have pursued careers involving substantial software development duties. You may wish to reference my last reply [slashdot.org] for clarification.

            On a side note, in my experience these discussions tend to invite emotionally-driven responses from people who spent an awful lot of time and money obtaining a CS degree because somebody told

            • by ranton ( 36917 )

              That's a fundamentally flawed statement. The question isn't whether I'm representative of most individuals with GEDs, but whether I'm representative of individuals holding GEDs who happen to have pursued careers involving substantial software development duties.

              Yes, that is the question, but even in that context I am quite confident saying that most GED holders who attempt a software development career have much less success than your average CS degree holder. Like you I am another exception (in my case I have an online paper mill degree), but at least I am honest enough to understand I am an exception. The University of Phoenix classmates who I have links to in LinkedIn are all working either in some crummy retail job or at best are doing tech support jobs. The o

              • by lgw ( 121541 )

                To put it a different way: a CS degree is a sort of crap filter. Succeeding in the field without any degree at all is a better sort of crap filter, because no one cuts you any slack.

                But you won't make it far as a dev without some serious self-education, just like the guy with the CS degree won't make it far without some serious forgetting of BS learned about performance of code that runs on a whiteboard (fortunately for the latter, many forget the day after finals).

                • But you won't make it far as a dev without some serious self-education

                  Absolutely agreed. The key point here is that someone with a serious interest in software development can obtain an entry-level position with entry-level responsibilities, and dedicate the next couple of years to serious self-education while getting paid, instead of paying someone else for a piece of paper that doesn't mean anything in practice.

                  This results in an employee who has already demonstrated the ability to amass continued education on his own, which is actually the most critical quality of all for

                  • I can positively say that no company I've worked for in the past 15 years would have hired an 18/19 year old with a GED and no work experience. Even for an entry level position. Though, we're talking about a sample size of five companies, so maybe they're not representative.
              • Any person who uses ridiculous arguments such as using their own unique success story as some kind of proof is either really bad at logical reasoning or has a big chip on their shoulder.

                I've quoted that specific bit of your reply because it succinctly summarizes the flawed nature of your thought process on this matter. The fact that most GED holders don't attempt careers in software development is irrelevant. However, it is highly relevant that GED holders and/or high school or college graduates with degrees completely unrelated to computer science tend to be better programmers.

                That swings both ways, as most people with poor academic credentials also provide emotionally-driven responses in an attempt to prove to themselves that their lack of a degree is not a disadvantage.

                This doesn't make any sense in context. I have nothing to prove for myself; I already earn a very good salary and

                • by ranton ( 36917 )

                  The fact that most GED holders don't attempt careers in software development is irrelevant.

                  I already agree with you in my earlier post that this is irrelevant. It was the first thing I addressed.

                  However, it is highly relevant that GED holders and/or high school or college graduates with degrees completely unrelated to computer science tend to be better programmers.

                  Also irrelevant. Someone without a CS degree who works as a software developer is very likely to be an autodidact, which is very useful in this field. So any non-CS degree holder working in this field would have to be compared to a CS degree holder who is also an autodidact if your comparison is going to be valid. And CS majors who who motivated enough to be good developers even before entering college ar

                  • I'm trying to explain that this isn't a case of a chip on a shoulder. I'm not an exception. Quite to the contrary, the fact that CS graduates are poor fits for most software development roles is the rule.

                • However, it is highly relevant that GED holders and/or high school or college graduates with degrees completely unrelated to computer science tend to be better programmers.

                  Where do you get that from?

                  I have indeed met a lot of great programmers that did not have CS degrees. But I've met even MORE programmers that were not great or even coming close to it, that did not have CS degrees...

                  I would say that overall a CS major has a base level of competence above non-CS holders. But I've never seen a study or in

            • The question isn't whether I'm representative of most individuals with GEDs, but whether I'm representative of individuals holding GEDs who happen to have pursued careers involving substantial software development duties.

              I assumed that was implied. My mistake. To clarify, I don't think you're representative of individuals with GEDs who have pursued careers in software development. I will suggest that a random high school student who has just finished his junior year and who wants a career in software wo

        • I have a GED, and I assure you I earn substantially more than most CS graduates

          You'd think that'd help you deal with your insecurity.

        • by Bengie ( 1121981 )
          I don't have a CS degree, but I have a similar one. When I was a Freshman back around 2004, one of the fist things I learned in 100s level class was how to use parameterized inputs, and how not to designs your SQL queries to be injectable. That information alone could save the industry billions a year. Bad schools or bad programmers, not sure which.
    • A huge number of software development jobs don't require a CS degree, including many highly paid positions. In fact, having a CS degree may reduce the odds of being hired for some positions. It seems the trend of misunderstanding the term "computer science" hasn't lost any momentum.

      While that may be true in some areas; not having a college degree greatly reduces your employment chances, especially in technical fields.

      • This is entirely false. I've never had any difficulty whatsoever obtaining employment related to software development or systems/infrastructure roles, and neither have most of my peers who hold similar credentials. Perhaps this trend has been partially related to our ability to demonstrate skills on demand, i.e. "get the job done, and done properly" rather than an appeal to a piece of paper that essentially says "trust this guy; he passed some exams that may or may not actually bear any relation whatsoever

        • While I'd agree with you that having a CS degree isn't required for many jobs in IT, there are plenty of companies who are stuck on requiring a BS or BA degree of some sort to even consider you. So, not having that will limit you somewhat.

          I also know having a CS degree alone won't get you jack. You will need some skills beyond the degree to get a job. Then again, the point of a CS degree isn't to train you for a job in the IT field, but to give you the foundation and understanding about how things work w

          • I think I understand the core premise you're trying to convey here, but I must stress the point that in practice people holding a CS degree tend to demonstrate lower actual programming and systems engineering ability than their non-CS peers. This is the real world fallout from the common misconception that computer science graduates are well suited to software development roles. As a rule, they tend to be a poor fit for such jobs.

            As for companies "requiring" a BS or BA degree, I've never encountered substan

        • It's absolutely true - depending on your location. In Cali, yes, you can have a successful career without an education. In the industrial Midwest, not so much. It's still possible, but lacking a degree really holds you back from big companies. And outside of startup friendly places like Austin and CA, big companies is where the jobs are.
        • by ranton ( 36917 )

          While that may be true in some areas; not having a college degree greatly reduces your employment chances, especially in technical fields.

          This is entirely false. I've never had any difficulty whatsoever obtaining employment related to software development or systems/infrastructure roles, and neither have most of my peers who hold similar credentials. Perhaps this trend has been partially related to our ability to demonstrate skills on demand, i.e. "get the job done, and done properly" rather than an appeal to a piece of paper that essentially says "trust this guy; he passed some exams that may or may not actually bear any relation whatsoever to the work your business needs done right now."

          While a degree does not prevent workers from getting most jobs once they have 5+ years of experience and a proven track record, it is very useful in getting into the industry. People who started their careers in the 90s or between '03-'06 didn't have this worry because of how well the economy was doing, but right now a degree is more important than ever. It is hard for people even with degrees to find work now, let alone those trying to prove themselves with nothing going for them.

          • When it comes to experience, I think the real problem is that people simply aren't okay with the concept of "starting off in the mail room" anymore. Folks in their twenties have this idea that they're going to obtain a piece of paper than will entitle them to a sizable salary straight out the gate from college. Meanwhile, the folks who actually have real talent and passion for the work will have obtained whatever job they could at any number of companies, and within five years will have tripled their salari

        • This is entirely false. I've never had any difficulty whatsoever obtaining employment related to software development or systems/infrastructure roles, and neither have most of my peers who hold similar credentials. Perhaps this trend has been partially related to our ability to demonstrate skills on demand, i.e. "get the job done, and done properly" rather than an appeal to a piece of paper that essentially says "trust this guy; he passed some exams that may or may not actually bear any relation whatsoever to the work your business needs done right now."

          I am perpetually amazed by the volume of collective myth parroting that persists on this topic. To be perfectly clear: lack of a college degree may indeed greatly reduce your chances of employment in many fields, but it matters a hell of a lot less than you've been led to believe for software development and systems/infrastructure positions.

          Once someone has a ton of experience a degree certainly doesn't limit you, especially if you do contract work where specific skill set is need for a limited amount of time, most HS graduates lack that experience and neve will get a foot in the door. Also, anecdote is not the singular of data.

      • by lgw ( 121541 )

        While that may be true in some areas; not having a college degree greatly reduces your employment chances, especially in technical fields.

        In the field of software development, which is the topic at hand, it only matters for your first job (unless you work for the government). Getting that first job is a bitch, however.

        • While that may be true in some areas; not having a college degree greatly reduces your employment chances, especially in technical fields.

          In the field of software development, which is the topic at hand, it only matters for your first job (unless you work for the government). Getting that first job is a bitch, however.

          True, and TFA was about recent grads and jobs; to which your comment about a first job is relevant and demonstrates the importance of a degree.

    • If I bury myself in the parents basement, fill it with PCs and books, learn things on my own, get a junior job and then move up the ranks of the industry, in this sense you can argue that CS degree is not required. In terms of math logic, you statement means that CS degree is not necessary. However, you can't argue with the logic proposition that CS degree is sufficient to break into most junior level developer positions.

  • Some industries tend to hire only from "top" schools because it's a marker for social class, background, or other characteristic desired in the industry.

    If your business is looking for a "connection" back to some specific person at that school, then the new grad might serve as a conduit.

    However, for straight up technical work, I'm more interested in what experience the new grad has. Are they a specialist in a narrow field?(great if I need that field, not so great otherwise) Does their work show that they ar

    • In my opinion, other things being equal, the businesses hiring from the top schools are right. My background is in a bit of math and cs from one of the schools on the list above, and let me tell you I have been surprised by the mediocrity of the training people from "lesser" schools had. A guy with a math degree from a prestigious Southern university didn't know what a "proof by induction" is. I was shocked. I don't think we need to discuss the importance of understanding the concept of induction for either

  • The factors associated choosing a university, at seventeen or eighteen years young, are often a combination of location, price, opportunity, and parental preference.

    Though there tends to be an irrational tribal loyalty to one's alma mater, hiring properly should primarily consider how the individual's talents (& weaknesses) fit the opening and the firm.

  • "f you're in a position to actually hire new graduates, how much do you care about applicants' alma maters?

    Let's put this another way. If that is a priority, I doubt I'm going to be interested in working for them.

    Clearly they're focusing on the wrong thing, usually brought on by elitism.

    Skills are what is important after college, and I'm not talking about how you earned your way into the Kegga-Chugga-Puk frat house.

    • by cshotton ( 46965 )

      I'd second this. We've run into lots of companies that have a culture based on hiring from schools on the "list". It breeds an arrogant, insular engineering culture that generally ends up drunk on its own Kool Aid and very difficult to manage. I hire people based on their successes, their personality, their motivation, and their fit to the existing team. Blindly including/excluding candidates based on their diploma shows a distinct lack of insight into what makes a creative, well-rounded, productive softwar

    • by lgw ( 121541 )

      Let's put this another way. If that is a priority, I doubt I'm going to be interested in working for them.

      Clearly they're focusing on the wrong thing, usually brought on by elitism

      I've never cared much about a candidate's education, nor has any hiring manager I've worked with, but HR drones do for your first job, because for your first job they have nothing else to filter on. That's a big deal when you're trying to break into the field.

      Even more important: the big software companies, which are the best places to start at (long term, career-wise) only actively recruit from schools they see as "top schools". Overt elitism in full force. But your first job isn't about being picky abo

      • But your first job isn't about being picky about the day-to-day, it's about launching your career.

        Let me fix that for you. "it's about launching your first career."

        The days when people get out of school and stay in one career, or even one field, their entire lives are disappearing faster than a polar bear's natural habitat.

        We knew this was going to happen 40 years ago, and yet a generation later we still haven't adapted our thinking. Why not?

        • by lgw ( 121541 )

          The one field that will never vanish (barring the coming of the Singularity) is software development. When your job is "automating stuff that hasn't yet been automated", you're not going to be automated out of a job. Specific technologies, frameworks, and languages fall by the wayside, but if you're not big on continuing self-study, this field is not for you.

  • is basically "if a lot of people leave companies for Company A then A is a desirable place to work; what are the most prevalent schools that A's employees attended." So basically if your goal is to work at A you have a statistically better chance of landing a job if you work at one of the top schools in its list. That says nothing about the quality of the school nor that their grads do any better in terms of percent employees or starting salaries than other schools; nor does it seem to address the experienc

  • by hooiberg ( 1789158 ) on Sunday October 19, 2014 @08:17AM (#48179995)
    Is it on purpose that there are only American schools? I see nothing from Europe and Japan, for example. It seems terribly unbalanced.
    • by Anonymous Coward

      Is it on purpose that there are only American schools? I see nothing from Europe and Japan, for example. It seems terribly unbalanced.

      Did you even read the title? "linked in ranks US schools..."

  • This is not statistics done on those doing CS degrees, and their employment outcomes.
    It's statistics done on linkedin members who have done CS degrees, and their employment outcomes.

    Perhaps there is a substantial slice of CS grads who don't do linkedin, and that population is not representative of the sampled one.

  • A candidates school(s) definitely come into my hiring considerations. Especially as a tie breaker or when their is little other information to go on.
    This is not because I think the top schools teach you so much more than other schools, The big difference is in who gets accepted in the first place.
    Top schools screening process are reasonably correlated with qualities I look for in a candidate and therefor are valuable input to my hiring decision.

  • by Niris ( 1443675 )
    I'm sure those schools do have really good programs, and I know my school had a mediocre computer science department (graduated about a year ago), but what I've noticed really separates good and bad developers is their drive to continue learning and making things because they enjoy it. If people like programming, they'll be really damn good at it, no matter where they went to school. Hell, I would say some of the best developers I've met either didn't go to school or majored in unrelated fields and just lea
  • A serious study would fold in far more information, which ironically is accessible.
    It would be interesting if I could enter my transcripts for college as well as grades which could be used for "future predictions". Even things like certificates and "specific job skills" could be added to really drill down to estimation. Moreover, there are "test companies" which could evaluate one's knowledge of Java or C#, which could be tied into a knowledge management and evaluation system. The problem is to get en
    • I have had interviews where the questions asked were not in my forte. I studied math, but worked as programmer for most of my life. At my university, I remember seeing certain classes taught for different audiences. Numerical analysis taught for CS majors was completely different than that taught for math majors. CS people devoted a lot of time to computational complexity formulations for various sort algorithms and approximations to those. Math numerical analysis chose different problems to study. E
  • A simple opinion based on personal observations having passed via EE, Math and CS degrees and heaving thought core CS (math) subjects. CS degree is not something I would recommend for someone to get/invest into. It is some kind of morph between (extreamly soft) EE and (soft) Math degrees. If people are interested in ether EE,Physics or Math they should go for it, for the sake of loving the subject and experienencing the hard problems they model from the real world. If for the sake of carier safety they need
    • A simple opinion based on personal observations having passed via EE, Math and CS degrees and heaving thought core CS (math) subjects.

      But clearly not a grammar class........

    • EE deals with hardware. Math deals with abstractions, structures, and all that. CS is a lot more than these two IMO. You don't learn CS theory, algorithms, the coding paradigms, or software engineering principles in either Math or EE fields. I used to work as a sysadmin in a leading math department and I saw no indication that the mathematicians are specially more adept at coding or even using computers. The ones who were experts in computing and coding actually chose to do so.

  • Poorly designed projects provide more job security and require more labor to maintain. They are managed by people who don't understand that their projects are sinking or do understand it, but don't understand why that's happening. And, of course, they require more employees. The people who manage them select people who are willing to suffer the pain of being inefficient because those doing the selection don't understand the benefits of increased efficiency. The result is that more jobs is not an indicat
  • by superwiz ( 655733 ) on Sunday October 19, 2014 @11:28AM (#48180945) Journal
    The conflict in modern programming is between code monkeys and math brains. Both are dismissive of the other. The code monkeys think the math brains overcomplicate things. The math brains think the code monkeys don't understand the problems they are solving.
  • If you're in a position to actually hire new graduates, how much do you care about applicants' alma maters?

    depends on the school!

    some schools matter, and some do not....and some that matter are a benefit, and some are a drawback!

    if an applicant came from a program that distinguishes itself among others by *requiring all grads to make a capstone project* for example...that could be a point in the applicants favor over others who did not do a capstone

  • I dropped out of college, moved out of state and in the course of 15 months, tripled my salary...I make more than any of my friends...so where do i fall on this chart?

    and really - why should I go back and finish? Whats the point, more debt??????

  • by Gordo_1 ( 256312 ) on Sunday October 19, 2014 @12:24PM (#48181181)

    isn't it on this list largely due to its proximity to Silicon Valley? You'd think that the number of applications to work at tech companies in the valley coming from SJ State would be off the charts to begin with due to it being in the middle of the valley... I'm sure Georgia State has a reasonable CS program too, but few if any applications from there would be going to companies in Silicon Valley. Does that make SJ State a meaningful CS job target or just a beneficiary of location?

    Though not a perfect measure by any means, I think it would be more interesting to see the CS job acceptance rates coming out these schools and the average starting salary for each.

    • For some reason, according to Wired [slate.com], SJSU is a major feeder for Apple and feeds to Yahoo as well, but not so much to other tech companies. Not sure why, though my guess would be there's a "critical mass" of SJSU alums at Apple.

      • SJSU isn't considered to be an engineering school. Although it did have a fine electrical engineering program in the 1980's and 1990's, providing many engineers to the companies that put the silicon into Silicon Valley. Apple and Yahoo probably prefer liberal arts majors over engineering majors.
    • I had roommate who spent $25,000 at SJSU to earn a bachelor degree in automotorive industrial design because he likes cars. Never mind that he couldn't get a job in California with that degree (this was years before Telsa set up shop in Silicon Valley). He went on to make a fine career in warehouse logistics. If that doesn't qualify as a worthless college degree, I don't know what does.
  • I've been hiring both interns and recent grads from engineering and programming positions since 1981 when I first hired a dozen interns out of Drexel.

    While MIT and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute interns and grads have impressed me as hands-down the most brilliant, Drexel students are usually the most prepared for the challenges of every-day work life with Rowan University (formerly Glassboro State) coming in somewhat behind Drexel. (Based on my experiences, Drexel's 5-year program that includes 4 six-mon

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