No, I Can't Fix Your Printer

Untouchables

The air up here is 90% theory, 10% pure ego. You will invent the things the rest of the industry uses 10 years from now.

# ▲	University	Location	Degrees	Accept	Male/Female	Intl	Earnings	ROI	Employ
1	Stanford Palo Alto, CA	Palo Alto, CA	446	4%	65% / 35%	11%	$221,819	100	98%	—
2	MIT Cambridge, MA	Cambridge, MA	323	5%	58% / 42%	12%	$206,801	100	94%	—
3	U. of California, Berkeley Berkeley, CA	Berkeley, CA	1,420	11%	74% / 26%	20%	$201,729	100	98%	—
4	Carnegie Mellon Pittsburgh, PA	Pittsburgh, PA	280	11%	64% / 36%	26%	$253,580	100	96%	—

The Waitlist Kings

Every bit as good as the Big 4 at everything except telling people at parties where you go. You will out-publish, out-ship, and out-grind the Untouchables, and they will still get the TechCrunch headline.

# ▲	University	Location	Degrees	Accept	Male/Female	Intl	Earnings	ROI	Employ
1	U. of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Champaign, IL	Champaign, IL	458	37%	70% / 30%	29%	$165,505	100	99%	—
2	Georgia Tech Atlanta, GA	Atlanta, GA	1,401	13%	73% / 27%	14%	$152,626	100	96%	—
3	U. of Washington Seattle, WA	Seattle, WA	561	42%	65% / 35%	12%	$147,290	100	94%	—
4	Cornell Ithaca, NY	Ithaca, NY	538	8%	62% / 38%	12%	$206,801	100	96%	—
5	U. of Michigan - Ann Arbor Ann Arbor, MI	Ann Arbor, MI	1,216	16%	74% / 26%	18%	$149,173	100	98%	—

LeetCode Grinders

Heavy on systems, brutal data structures classes, and a direct pipeline to Big Tech. You will dream in dynamic programming and C++.

# ▲	University	Location	Degrees	Accept	Male/Female	Intl	Earnings	ROI	Employ
1	UCLA Los Angeles, CA	Los Angeles, CA	379	9%	78% / 22%	16%	$135,970	100	—	—
2	U. of California, San Diego La Jolla, CA	La Jolla, CA	429	29%	76% / 24%	17%	$142,705	100	94%	—
3	Purdue West Lafayette, IN	West Lafayette, IN	730	43%	77% / 23%	21%	$153,090	100	89%	—
4	U. of Southern California Los Angeles, CA	Los Angeles, CA	475	11%	64% / 36%	18%	$156,501	100	93%	—
5	U. of Maryland, College Park College Park, MD	College Park, MD	1,178	45%	79% / 21%	6%	$126,991	99	100%	—
6	U. of California, Santa Barbara Santa Barbara, CA	Santa Barbara, CA	215	38%	75% / 25%	15%	$131,187	99	95%	—
7	Virginia Tech Blacksburg, VA	Blacksburg, VA	527	55%	80% / 20%	10%	$135,292	100	96%	—

AI Hype Riders & Lab Rats

Heavy focus on research, bioinformatics, and making neural networks do parlor tricks. Less about building scalable web apps, more about publishing papers.

# ▲	University	Location	Degrees	Accept	Male/Female	Intl	Earnings	ROI	Employ
1	U. of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA	Philadelphia, PA	89	5%	58% / 42%	17%	$169,349	100	95%	—
2	Rice Houston, TX	Houston, TX	197	8%	65% / 35%	17%	$215,952	100	91%	—
3	Johns Hopkins Baltimore, MD	Baltimore, MD	146	6%	60% / 40%	22%	$175,650	100	97%	—
4	U. of Rochester Rochester, NY	Rochester, NY	156	42%	77% / 23%	36%	$148,772	100	99%	—
5	Vanderbilt Nashville, TN	Nashville, TN	170	5%	64% / 36%	28%	$165,652	100	98%	—
6	Tufts Medford, MA	Medford, MA	222	11%	59% / 41%	14%	$158,444	100	95%	—

Co-op Purgatory

Actual software engineering. You will write code, deploy it, break production, and spend 12+ months working for a megacorp before you even graduate.

# ▲	University	Location	Degrees	Accept	Male/Female	Intl	Earnings	ROI	Employ
1	Cal Poly - San Luis Obispo San Luis Obispo, CA	San Luis Obispo, CA	305	30%	77% / 23%	4%	$136,546	100	100%	—
2	Northeastern Boston, MA	Boston, MA	745	22%	71% / 29%	12%	$140,139	100	93%	—
3	Rochester Institute of Technology Rochester, NY	Rochester, NY	348	71%	86% / 14%	4%	$128,897	99	98%	—
4	Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Troy, NY	Troy, NY	267	63%	83% / 17%	16%	$143,453	100	95%	—
5	Worcester Polytechnic Institute Worcester, MA	Worcester, MA	269	62%	71% / 29%	7%	$142,090	100	96%	—
6	Stevens Institute of Technology Hoboken, NJ	Hoboken, NJ	248	51%	79% / 21%	2%	$125,494	99	95%	—
7	Case Western Reserve Cleveland, OH	Cleveland, OH	183	35%	74% / 26%	20%	$126,288	99	96%	—
8	Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology Terre Haute, IN	Terre Haute, IN	130	81%	82% / 18%	8%	$153,480	100	100%	—

10k-Student Server Crashers

Massive state school energy. You will learn a bit of everything, fight 500 kids for a seat in Intro to OS, and build random stuff at 48-hour hackathons.