#Ohio State Columbus(CS) vs UofM(CS)

165 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

vocal maple
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Schools: The Ohio State University Columbus vs University of Michigan Ann Arbor
Intended major: Computer Science
Similarities: Both public schools, out of state (kentucky resident), large, enemies of eachother

University of Michigan
School 1 Pros:

  • Way better CS program
  • More job and career opportunities as well as research
  • Better networking (alumni network in my city reached out to me!)
  • Much higher average CS graduate salary (110k @ UofM vs 84k @ OSU)
  • Nicer dorms
  • Amazing music program

School 1 Cons:

  • $19k more expensive per year
  • Cold and grey weather
  • CS classes will be on North campus (far away)

THE Ohio State University
School 2 Pros:

  • Warmer, nicer weather
  • Within a bigger city thats cheaper
  • Cheaper
  • Closer to home

School 2 Cons:

  • CS program is quite a bit worse
  • Housing is terrible, although you can move off-campus fast
  • Not as big alumni network
  • Not as much research

Tiebreaking considerations:

  • The only financial aid I have from UofM is an estimate based only on my CSS Profile, which includes an 8.8k grant
  • Ohio State financial aid package has not been sent yet

Addendum: Michigan just feels so much more alive. We went there, and despite the crap weather, people were up and about walking fast because they got places to be. I'm not much of a party guy at all and Michigan just seems to be filled with more kids who are trying to get academics done first.

I also connected with the local alumni association who were all super nice, and my admissions conselor actually found me in a huge crowd at my Ann Arbor visit and handed me a hand-written note that commented on his favorite parts of my application. It was really wholesome and it makes me feel like I am actually truly welcome. Ohio state, while they've sent plenty in the mail, haven't really done anything personal like this.

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My biggest comparison is price. UofM is way more expensive and is quite literally one of the most expensive public schools in the country. I've heard that the roi is not amazing and comparable if not better private schools have similar pricing and better aid. But then again, UofM seems like a place where i'd be more challenged and thus happier and I'd be able to find internships and network a lot better than ohio

vocal maple
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I forgot to add!! A pro of UofM is that my family use to live in Detroit and we have really close friendships with a family that lives 30 mins away

pseudo mist
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michigan and not even a question

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19k/yr should not be a factor with that difference in avg salary, let alone everything else that umich offers

vocal maple
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I mean, my parents are gonna struggle to afford um's price

dry prawn
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i will say

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simply comparing average salaries is WAY too shallow

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its also due to selectivity

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and etc

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Ohio State is a great school

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so it comes down to affordability

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altho OSU doesnt have CS as DA right?

pseudo mist
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my only point with that was that it makes sense on purely financial terms, even if everything else was the same b/w the unis

vocal maple
dry prawn
dry prawn
vocal maple
dry prawn
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Well just explore how hard it is to declare cs

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At osu

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If u can’t afford Um, I’d go osu

vocal maple
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Well, doing some numbers
First year, if i do work study, federal loans (5.5k) and parental support i can pay the rest (15k) with personal savings

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Second year, its a bit easier since loans are now 6.5k and so long as i work some sort of decent internship over the summer i could maybe collect another 15k. If not i could work a regular job and get less but still something

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If internships don't work out I'll resort to private loans

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So yeah its affordable but with a trillion asterisks and a bunch of debt

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I guess its not much debt if i get within that avg salary range

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My parents have struggled with unemployment for most of my life (~55k/yr + failed business) and only recently (past 2 years) they've managed to both find good paying jobs (180k combined income)

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So there's no 'college fund' built up and their retirement accounts aren't great either, so everything will be on me once i graduate

stuck cedar
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calling ohio state’s alumni network “worse” noooo

they literally are amongst the biggest schools in terms of students. their alumni network is massive and they are well known.

they also do plenty of research. also i’ve seen their dorms and they aren’t THAT bad.

if money is a problem, go to osu. you’ll do great.

vocal maple
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I know that doesn't speak for the entire school but its just been my own experience

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The dorms are quite terrible, and given the financial situation i am going to be quite late with the housing application

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That may mean

  • Quad with 2 bunked beds sharing a room
  • No A/C
  • toilet you have to clean (is it even worth it when it's shared by 4 guys?)
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Which sounds more like a prison than a college dorm

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They didn't show the dorms during our tour which was a huge red flag to me

stuck cedar
vocal maple
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The thing is im in the engineering school when im def more of a liberal arts person

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I like music history linguistics natural sciences etc

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Now that is my bad for picking CSE instead of CIS

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On my application

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But osu doesn't really 'accept' you into a program just a pathway to do the prerequisites to apply for computer science

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One of the scholars programs i was actually going to apply but some of the requirements as well as the housing being in south campus made me hesitate

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That being said i really didn't like how osu had housing "rates" where they put you in shitter dorms if you paid less

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Like why are you introducing class divide into university housing

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I do like the meal plans at Ohio more though, Michigan forces you to pay for infinite swipes which i dont really need

stuck cedar
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ultimately didnt choose osu because it was too expensive for me between housing costs and that additional engineering fee

frigid summit
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the cs department at ohio state just wants to throw people out at the slightest fumble

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my brother had a 3.92 GPA and they told him to switch major the next semester cus he had a really bad physics grade (only passed the class)

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but other than that my brother is all praises for ohio state (he chose bw ohio state n purdue and umich is a few leagues above both so take my advice with a grain of salt)

obtuse ferry
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I might consider which one has already started to offer you more opportunity, if any. For example, my sister got into both OSU and Wake Forest for neuroscience and chose OSU because they offered 2 scholarships and 3 honors/fellowships including research and since she was premed I was like your resume is already stacked before youve even gone to school. I felt like that was also a good indicator of the support the school was willing to offer.

Given OSU is the third largest school in the country, theres so many different types of people and literally a community for everyone.
It's also still a fairly big name, maybe not in the same way umich is a prestige namebrand but it's a very well-respected school

vocal maple
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Thats a bit worrying because i suck at physics lol

vocal maple
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And yes I agree, ohio state is a great school, I wouldn't have applied otherwise

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But Michigan was a reach and Ohio was a target for me

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I've been attending online and on campus events of both schools and they both are very similar in their support for the student

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But to me, Michigan seems to offer more far reaching (beyond the state) internship opportunities

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And that's a gamechanger in CS

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It really boils down to whether that prestige and benefit is worth the pretty penny they're asking for

vocal maple
obtuse ferry
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I seeee. I might investigate what networking and recruitment events OSU does do if at all. It might be helpful to see what the career center has to directly compare. Its also possible that a lot of internships are posted online and you might not need the inperson networking event to get the spots but I can see how they could help. Im more of an academia person so I dont have that perspective on industry

stuck cedar
vocal maple
obtuse ferry
dry prawn
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i jus tfeel like u can get the internships and etc from ohio state

dry prawn
dry prawn
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overall yea it is

vocal maple
dry prawn
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well if we talking abotu ohio state

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its still t30

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ish

vocal maple
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Uhh

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I think its t50

dry prawn
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and has very good research

dry prawn
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like i feel like saying ohio state is leagues behind umich isnt rlly fair

vocal maple
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This is what i saw in the Ohio state computer science and engineering building

dry prawn
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i will say CS is a lot more merit based

vocal maple
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Heres what i saw at um..

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And they're opening a brand new cs building in 2025 as well

dry prawn
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if u have good coding talents u will do fine at any school, but if ur not good at coding Um nor ohio will be able to carry u

vocal maple
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I've been coding for years now lol

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But to say CS is coding is completely wrong

dry prawn
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didnt say cs was coding

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but ur goal is to be an SWE right?

vocal maple
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maybe

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I am not entirely sure what specific section of cs i want to do

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But I've done game development up to this point

dry prawn
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what i meant by coding was like

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nvm

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my point is

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a degree only cares someone so far

vocal maple
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Yea coding in game development

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I'm not masochistic enough to work in the game development industry

dry prawn
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the education isnt gonna be miles ahead between ohio and um

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its rlly js connections

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but if ur good enough to develop strong projects and get internships, it doesnt matter

vocal maple
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Maybe, maybe not

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Im assuming you aren't a cs grad that went through the hiring stuff because you're only a hs senior

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But from what I've heard, getting that first one or two jobs is brutual

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And having a good uni stamped on the portfolio as well as having the resources to make a fat portfolio can really make or break your career

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The job market is only getting more and more crowded

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Im ngl i worked my ass off to get this college stuff y'know and i kind of feel disillusioned by the results

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Umich was literally the last school i heard back from and my only reach schools i got into

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(i applied to 16 universities)

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And if they were the same price id do Michigan obviously

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But if im not happy at Ohio the whole time im gonna be thinking what if i did michigan what if

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I can teach myself a lot and if it wasn't for every single kid in America has to go to college stigma i might not have bothered with a CS degree

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But i like academia and i basically need to go if i have any hope at a white collar job

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But maybe I'm just being naive thinking education is some key to a job

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What good does college do if every single kid has a degree

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It doesn't make you stand out it lets you stand in

dry prawn
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education is not different between colleges, but connections and research and etc are

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the point is

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UM is great and all

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but u can succeed from OSU

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ur hardwork prepares u to do good in college regardless of where u end up

stuck cedar
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https://engineering.osu.edu/about/annual-statistical-report/post-graduate-outcomes
https://engineering.osu.edu/about/annual-statistical-report/career-employment-starting-salaries
https://engineering.osu.edu/about/annual-statistical-report/cooperative-education-and-internship-hourly-wages
@vocal maple

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
Post-Graduate Outcomes

This dashboard provides an overview of post-graduate outcomes for engineering

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
Career Employment Starting Salaries

This dashboard provides an overview of career employment starting salaries of

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
Cooperative Education and Internship Hourly Wages

This dashboard provides an overview of cooperative educatio

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you might find this helpful

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make sure you filter it by bachelors

pseudo mist
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if it won’t cripple your family’s finances imo 19k/yr is well worth it

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just make sure you like it for the right reasons and don’t look back

vocal maple
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which probably means more local businesses

frigid summit
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his physics has been really bad since high school (he had online school) so they told him to stop cooking and switch to math (extremely great scores at it)

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wouldnt probably happen to you tho bro

frigid summit
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all of my brothers friends did internships at banks (morgan stanley loves ohio state) and my brother reached the round 3 of jane street for midwest (other 3 people were graduates so he got kicked and then his grades came)

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reading your texts i feel like 20k will be a burden. over 4 years thats 80k more which is more than an year of CoA at tOSU

vocal maple
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I haven't gotten my offer from osu

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But i have an 8.8k grant

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So if osu doesn't give me anything it'll be about a 10k difference

spice ginkgo
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I will just say that school name doesn't really matter for CS

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you'll go as far as your talent and experience

spice ginkgo
spice ginkgo
vocal maple
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Isn't carnegie mellon super expensive

spice ginkgo
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so I just chose CMU cuz it had the best program

spring tendon
vocal maple
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Actually shut up

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Loser

spring tendon
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:meowpleading:

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oh no external emojis

vocal maple
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Emoji fail

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Laugh at this user

spring tendon
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and the exterior is so awful

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😭

spring tendon
vocal maple
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The BBB is nice bro

vocal maple
spring tendon
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the BBB is not nice what crack are you smoking

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😭