I went to a public school for CS and i am now looking to go get my PHD wondering if i really missed something by going to a "not so good" school. Do people really learn more? most of my education in programming came from my mandatory Coop assignments.
The theory was good in school and obviously i enjoyed that aspect however i wonder if i would have been more challenged at a better school and if that would make any difference?
IMHO, going to a well-known school and knowing a lot of people who didn't, I'd say the main difference (ignoring academia since I don't know much about it) is how companies perceive you. Our job fairs are insane, even given the economy. All the major CS companies come out and recruit in full force. Given a huge pool of people equally qualified to do your job, the name does help you stand out. And when a company has to cut back on recruiting efforts, they're going to cut the lesser-known schools and leave the big kahunas.
I went to UT at Arlington for my undergrad and am working on my Masters at UT at Dallas. I have a friend who went through the real UT and got his masters from CMU we have compared notes over the years. I know in most of his classes they flat out covered more, and for the most part it seemed to be in more depth as well. Though not much more and the difference could easily be made up by someone with an actual desire to learn and not just pass the class.
Yar. Studied there for nigh on 7 years, but I'm now in Edinburgh 'cos they gave me a loan to get my business started (and are better for AI than Cambridge anyway).
The theory was good in school and obviously i enjoyed that aspect however i wonder if i would have been more challenged at a better school and if that would make any difference?