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Choosing a school for CIS (Computer Information Systems)
meatflower
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I'm at community college now (Pasadena City College) and am trying to decide on a school to transfer to for CIS. I want to stay in California, so I'm pretty much looking at the Cal States.
Some Cal States offer CIS under their school of Business, others under their school of Computer Science. There are key differences between these two types, which are probably self explanitory (more business with school of business, more coding etc. with CS). I understand that CIS has traditionally gone hand in hand with business so that aspect of it is important. The two schools I most want to go to however offer it under the school of Computer Science, those being Humboldt State and Chico. I called up the dept. chairs and found out that at Chico you're actually required to minor in Business and at Humboldt most students minor in Business....so the lacking of any business knoledge isn't really a factor.
My main concern is internships. From my understanding your hands on experience can sometimes have more than or equal influence on getting a job than just formal education. The school I was previously looking at (Cal Poly Pomona) wins in that category because they are in a metropolitan area and have a huge amount of intern opportunities.
The problem is that I don't really want to go there, 90% live off campus and there's really no campus life. Humboldt and Chico are residential and offer the traditional "college experience". The problem with Humboldt and Chico are that they are in more remote areas than Pomona. Chico isn't so much a concern, I talked with their department chair and he said they get more internships requests than they can fill from companies in Sacramento and the Bay Area. I haven't visited either of them yet, but I'm leaning towards Humboldt since it's in a real college town and is probably more residential than Chico by a small amount. It's also a rural area which means not a lot of internship opportunites. I talked with their dept. chair, she said they dont' even require internships but that there are two companies in Arcata (the city the campus is located in) they work with and "if you really want an internship you'll find one".
Does anyone have direct experience in the CIS field or gone to any of these schools? Slim chance there I know, but maybe. Any other general advice that could be applied to this?
Even though I won't be done fulfilling the GE and lower division prep requirements for another two years, I need to decide on which school I want to go on within the next 6 months because the lower division prep is very different for all three. I'm going to drive up to Chico and Humboldt over my spring break (which is in two weeks) to get a first hand look at the campuses and their programs.
Thanks.
Some Cal States offer CIS under their school of Business, others under their school of Computer Science. There are key differences between these two types, which are probably self explanitory (more business with school of business, more coding etc. with CS). I understand that CIS has traditionally gone hand in hand with business so that aspect of it is important. The two schools I most want to go to however offer it under the school of Computer Science, those being Humboldt State and Chico. I called up the dept. chairs and found out that at Chico you're actually required to minor in Business and at Humboldt most students minor in Business....so the lacking of any business knoledge isn't really a factor.
My main concern is internships. From my understanding your hands on experience can sometimes have more than or equal influence on getting a job than just formal education. The school I was previously looking at (Cal Poly Pomona) wins in that category because they are in a metropolitan area and have a huge amount of intern opportunities.
The problem is that I don't really want to go there, 90% live off campus and there's really no campus life. Humboldt and Chico are residential and offer the traditional "college experience". The problem with Humboldt and Chico are that they are in more remote areas than Pomona. Chico isn't so much a concern, I talked with their department chair and he said they get more internships requests than they can fill from companies in Sacramento and the Bay Area. I haven't visited either of them yet, but I'm leaning towards Humboldt since it's in a real college town and is probably more residential than Chico by a small amount. It's also a rural area which means not a lot of internship opportunites. I talked with their dept. chair, she said they dont' even require internships but that there are two companies in Arcata (the city the campus is located in) they work with and "if you really want an internship you'll find one".
Does anyone have direct experience in the CIS field or gone to any of these schools? Slim chance there I know, but maybe. Any other general advice that could be applied to this?
Even though I won't be done fulfilling the GE and lower division prep requirements for another two years, I need to decide on which school I want to go on within the next 6 months because the lower division prep is very different for all three. I'm going to drive up to Chico and Humboldt over my spring break (which is in two weeks) to get a first hand look at the campuses and their programs.
Thanks.
meatflower on
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When I was looking at colleges (about 12 years ago) both Chico and Humboldt had reputation of being pretty big party schools in large part due to there being nothing around. Humboldt's being particularly bad... as one person I knew said, "There are three types of people in Humboldt: lumberjacks, environmentalists, and students. And nothing to do but drink." I do not know if any of this is still true.
As far as internships go, I know that JPL hires a reasonable number of interns from Cal Poly Pomona for both year round and summer internships.
They probably are party schools, but there's massive amounts of drinking at pretty much any college. UC's are pretty much out the door, I'd need way more prep to get into one and I'm already going to be here for another two years (3 years total) which is all living at home and I had my fill of that before I even got out of high school.
Non-UC's offering it: Cal Poly Pomona, Cal State LA, Humboldt, Chico, Cal State Northridge, Cal State Dominguez Hills.
CSULA, CSUN, and CSUDH are all out because they're either A) Not residential campuses or
I haven't even begun to look at private schools, though those could be a contender if they have good programs and aren't insanely expensive. I don't know which ones offer it though, the best tool for this stuff is Assist.org but it only has info on the Cal States and UC's.
edit: I know a guy who goes to Pomona and lives there and absolutely hates it. He says there's nothing to do there on the weekends and pretty much everyone goes home. It's not like he's a social paraya (sp) or anything either.
Private schools should cost about 15 k more a year than a UC or CSU. if it's a huge marginal boost to your employment prospects its' probably worth it.
I think Chico might be the middle ground. They seem to have a very comprehensive program (CIS with a full minor in Business Administration) and unless their department chairmen was lying to me, more than enough internship opportunities.
I guess I'll find out when I go up there.
Back to the OP, of the time I was studying at one of the UCs in NorCal; I learnt exactly these things about Humboldt and Chico:
- Humboldt is where the "best" cannabis in California is. I wouldn't know enough about such things to tell you how that's defined, but it doesn't fill me with hope for having much else going on there if an illegal activity is the only way I've heard of it. I certainly don't think it's a coincidence that that Lost episode with Locke was set there.
- Chico is where some frat guy died. It's an insane party school.
If you want to party, Chico would be the way to go. That said, I don't know how that reputation will look on you, I'm pretty sure it will follow you around. Chico is more well-known than Humboldt though.
Long shot: is Cal Poly (San Luis Opoispo) out? Of the non-UC non-private schools, this is what I have heard good things about.
Sorry, I didn't read your second post, just the OP. From that I assumed your concerns were cost-based. Odds are that for Cal Tech they have less broad humanities requirements and more specific science requirements - even for the UCs, I would recommend overloading courses and doing summer ones over the rest of the time you're doing it for the employment/prestige boost.
I don't want to party...I mean I'm going to, that's not why I'm going to school though. I still haven't made up my mind but at the moment it's between Chico and Pomona. I've decided Humboldt is too rural and internship opportunites with technology companies are going to be slim pickings...also if any of them offer me a job I don't want to live up there.
I wouldn't mind living in NorCal though...just not *that* North. Chico's got the whole residential thing going on but they're not so remote that there are no interning opportunities.
Pomona has an open house for the CIS program on the 14th, I'm gonna go to that, and then I'm driving up to Chico this weekend or next week to check it out.
If after visiting both Pomona has by far the best facilities, instructors, opportunities, etc. then I'm going to go there. If the difference is marginal than I'd rather go somewhere where everyone isn't commuting to school.
And I'm not going to join a frat or anything (I don't think they'll even take upperclassmen anyway) so I'm not worried about hazing or anything.