Hi guys, I am an international student who wants to find Software Engineer jobs in the USA. Previously I have done several Software Engineer internship in tech companies. I have got some offers and narrowed them down to the followers: Berkeley MEng in mechanical engineering, with a concentration in robotics and autonomous systems. it’s Berkeley! But it’s not EECS and it’s only 9 monthS long. Not many people from this program work as SDE after graduation. Will my previous SDE experience may help me find a full-time SDE job even if I enrolled in a mechanical engineering program? 2. Columbia MSCS Ivy school with a good location which however will cost me quite a lot of money. and I have to register for 4 courses in the first and second semesters to maintain my visa status, which will be a drawback for me because I want to focus on finding an internship in the first two semesters. 3. CMU INI Mobile and IoT engineering It’s Carnegie Mellon and all the students in the program find an SDE job. Got a scholarship of 7000 dollars. But it’s trivial compared to the tuition and this program includes many computer engineering courses. 4. UChicago MSCS with 50%scholarship. Gots tuition waiver for 50% tuition and UChicago has a good overall prestige. But UC is not typically thought strong in computer science and the track I choose is pre-doctoral. I am also admitted by Georgia tech MSCS, but its cost is the same as UChicago if I do not find a GTA/GRA and its courses are as intensive as Columbia (4 courses per semester) so I think not attending it. #softwareengineer #computerscience #graduateschool #masterdegree #uchicago #berkeley #cmu #columbia #gatech #facebook #google #amazon #microsoft
Now a days, where the edge to Ivy is marginal to non-ivy schools for most of the non-academic roles (such as SDE roles), I highly suggest taking UC especially for two reasons: 1) you have got an excellent scholarship and 2) UC has a good name too in non-ivys and the area has quite a lot of opportunities in software. Having said that, if money is not a concern for you, then first choice should be Columbia/Georgia tech (Congrats!) followed by CMU, followed by Berkeley
Thank you very much for your advice. By the way, The tuition of GT is almost the same as that of UC after I got the scholarship.
What did you pick
Georgia tech is a tier one school for computer science. You can easily find good opportunities from there.
Thank you very much. But as an international student,I have to take four courses per semester, I am concerned that I would not have time to do leetcode