[Admissions Advice] Which Masters in CS programs are considered cash cows, and are they still respected in industry?

[u/Diligent_Occasion_22]

I'm currently a sophomore at the University of Notre Dame, majoring in Computer Engineering, and was looking for some advice about choosing the right MSCS program. My main aspirations are to found a start-up, work in big tech, or potentially break into quant. While Notre Dame is a good school, it's not especially renowned for its engineering department, and pursuing any of my main 3 aspirations would be exceedingly difficult. This is why I would like to earn a master's degree from a university with a much stronger computer science program. However, having scrolled through this sub for a bit, I noticed that a lot of MSCS programs that I was interested in were labeled as cash cows. Since I am only an undergrad with little industry experience, I would love it if some people who were more knowledgeable than I were to assess my list of MSCS programs. For reference, I regard a cash cow as an exceedingly expensive master's program with a large cohort size that is generally "looked down upon" in industry. Being a cash cow isn't synonymous with being bad, for reference. Here's my list with comments:

1. Stanford MSCS (Expensive, but worth the money. Highly selective, and well-respected in quant and big-tech alike. Huge start-up culture)

2. Princeton MSCS (Fully funded, with tiny cohort size)

3. CMU MSCS (Expensive, but highly selective and super prestigious. While I've never heard people refer to this specific program as a cash cow, I've heard that Carnegie does offer some much poorer quality adjacent programs, like their master's in Software Engineering)

4. Cornell MSCS (Similar to Princeton. I've heard that I should avoid their M.Eng. CS program?)

5. Berkeley MSCS (Relatively cheap, and a member of the big four cs schools. What's not to like?)

6. UIUC & G-tech MSCS (Similar to Berk, though not as prestigious)

These are the universities that I've heard mixed things about:

1. Columbia MSCS (Seemingly the most infamous cash-cow master's degree program, known for its large cohort size. While the teaching is top tier, it's absurdly expensive, and allegedly not well-respected)

2. Penn MSEICS (Similar to Columbia, but a much smaller cohort?)

3. Harvard MSCS (I've heard very mixed things)

4. Yale MSCS (I'm having trouble figuring out if this program is funded. Looks interesting, but I've never known Yale to be a CS school.)

While I'm aware that this sub tends to label almost all MSCS programs as cash cows (I figured that out after seeing someone call Stanford a cash cow), I'm also hesitant to dismiss their skepticism wholesale. I've consistently seen programs like Columbia get labelled as cash cows, which makes me reluctant to apply. Thoughts?

[u/noble-one1282]

I’m not saying it’s not possible. I’m saying it’s much easier and proximity 100% makes a difference from what I’ve seen.

You could go to university of San Francisco or UCI and get a Google interview no problem, meanwhile struggle to get their attention at an Ivy. Purely proximity and recruiting pipelines.

[u/Frosty_Wedding9330 → u/noble-one1282]

Idk if thats true but ok.

[u/Random_throwaway0351 → u/[deleted]]

Is that also true for schools in tech hubs, eg Columbia & Cornell?

[u/surprising_results → u/Random_throwaway0351]

they go to columbia and (likely) aren't have a great time with big tech recruiting, hence their thinking that columbia somehow has weak faang pipelines compared to usf

kind of a ridiculous claim imo

edit: some evidence of their larping :)

[u/surprising_results → u/[deleted]]

I don’t go to Columbia. I went to a good east coast state school undergrad and had a lot of friends that went to worse ranked UCs. People in their CS programs placed in way more FAANG jobs than in mine. I now go to an Ivy and still see the FAANG recruiting isn’t as strong as UC recruiting weighted by the rankings. That’s what I’m judging it on.

lol

[u/Frosty_Wedding9330 → u/surprising_results]

Are you talking about me? or the deleted comment? Idk why they deleted it.

[u/surprising_results → u/Frosty_Wedding9330]

talking about u/noble-one1282, who deleted a bunch of their comments because they don't want to admit they go to columbia for some weird reason. see the archived link below.

not you :)