[sllug-members]: Best Computer Science School in Utah

[Dave Smith]

On 9/24/07, John Anderson <sontek at gmail.com> wrote:

> Whats the best (in your humble opinion) computer science school in Utah?


Steve wrote:
> School of Hard Knocks,
> Hands down fastest way to learn is by doing.

This may be true except for the fact that the School of Hard Knocks 
doesn't actually offer a Computer Science degree, which is unfortunate, 
because a CS degree is a very valuable credential in my opinion. :)

If you want a CS degree, you can't beat BYU in Utah. Although I doubt 
the educational value is much different from the University of Utah's CS 
program, or USU's for that matter. I associate daily with people who 
have degrees from all three of the aforementioned schools (and a few 
others like SUU and UVSC), and they are all equally capable of doing 
their job as software engineers. BYU's CS program will likely have more 
recognition outside of Utah than the other Utah schools. That's probably 
just because about 75% of BYU students are from out-of-state, so when 
they return home to work, the school gets free advertising.

I have also observed that, salary-wise, graduates from the "Big 3" tend 
to make about equal money, but they make on average a bit more than 
those who graduated from the other, less recognized Utah schools. Along 
those same lines, the software engineers I know who have a CS degree 
from one of the "Big 3" make about twice as much as those who have no CS 
degree at all, but with equal work experience. No offense to those who 
don't have a degree, just stating what I've observed. And again, that 
statement is based on a limited sample.

Whatever you choose, the value you get from a CS degree will vary 
largely based on the effort you apply. I saw many students at BYU get 
through by the skin of their teeth who, at graduation time, would 
struggle with simple CS concepts, but I also saw many stellar students 
who really took it to the next level educationally and were already 
creating impressive work by the time they graduated. I've seen the same 
quality variance among U of U CS graduates.

Good luck!

--Dave