What colleges are underrated?

Which colleges are underrated for computer science undergraduates?

• Answer:

  Any colleges that teach you to think in ways atypical for computer science students ought to be rated higher. The modern buzzword is innovation, and like it or not, it is true that the people we most look up to often think differently than others. To innovate, you have to think in a way that sets you apart from your peers, and be willing to take risks. People who pick colleges largely based on their rankings are the same people most averse to risk. People who avoid risk do not make successful innovators, and for the same reason often end up stuck in ruts for long periods in their life. Or, worse, they become hedge fund managers and investment bankers. Also, CS degrees are versatile in ways that other undergraduate degrees really aren't, allowing you to go to grad school, straight into industry or start your company in a variety of fields including but not limited to tech right out of college. You hurt yourself by limiting your undergraduate experience to only what you can learn on the web. This is why I do not recommend people attend technical schools that do not have solid programs in other fields such as literature, history and language, unless they know that they want to do little but sit in front of a computer for four years. Let's be honest - you have the rest of your life for that. Of course, there is nothing wrong with sitting down and learning things by yourself, as I'm sure many others will suggest, but as well as providing a more structured education a decent undergraduate education will grow your breadth of experience along with depth. So, with the abstract stuff out of the way, what colleges in specifically are good? Hell if I know. Determine what you want from your first two-to-four years in college and pattern-match, ignoring overly-general rankings. Things like campus safety are incredibly important to consider, though, so those are not the types of rankings I would ignore.