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	341	4%	69% / 31%	14%	$247,797	100	98%	—
2	MIT Cambridge, MA	Cambridge, MA	323	5%	58% / 42%	13%	$220,064	100	94%	—
3	U. of California, Berkeley Berkeley, CA	Berkeley, CA	1,288	11%	74% / 26%	17%	$230,993	100	98%	—
4	Carnegie Mellon Pittsburgh, PA	Pittsburgh, PA	218	11%	54% / 46%	26%	$251,632	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	361	37%	69% / 31%	23%	$170,405	100	99%	—
2	Georgia Tech Atlanta, GA	Atlanta, GA	1,206	13%	76% / 24%	16%	$155,126	100	96%	—
3	U. of Washington Seattle, WA	Seattle, WA	515	42%	68% / 32%	12%	$162,117	100	94%	—
4	Cornell Ithaca, NY	Ithaca, NY	487	8%	62% / 38%	15%	$216,584	100	96%	—
5	U. of Michigan - Ann Arbor Ann Arbor, MI	Ann Arbor, MI	1,135	16%	76% / 24%	22%	$153,297	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	352	9%	81% / 19%	14%	$147,327	100	—	—
2	U. of California, San Diego La Jolla, CA	La Jolla, CA	415	29%	80% / 20%	20%	$160,463	100	94%	—
3	Purdue West Lafayette, IN	West Lafayette, IN	532	43%	79% / 21%	21%	$149,545	100	89%	—
4	U. of Southern California Los Angeles, CA	Los Angeles, CA	433	12%	66% / 34%	23%	$177,645	100	93%	—
5	U. of Maryland, College Park College Park, MD	College Park, MD	948	45%	78% / 22%	6%	$135,172	100	100%	—
6	U. of California, Santa Barbara Santa Barbara, CA	Santa Barbara, CA	153	38%	80% / 20%	12%	$145,485	100	95%	—
7	Virginia Tech Blacksburg, VA	Blacksburg, VA	517	55%	80% / 20%	13%	$135,082	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	95	5%	60% / 40%	23%	$171,166	100	96%	—
2	Rice Houston, TX	Houston, TX	163	8%	73% / 27%	16%	$213,603	100	91%	—
3	Johns Hopkins Baltimore, MD	Baltimore, MD	138	6%	64% / 36%	23%	$183,104	100	97%	—
4	U. of Rochester Rochester, NY	Rochester, NY	109	41%	69% / 31%	45%	$152,355	100	99%	—
5	Vanderbilt Nashville, TN	Nashville, TN	169	4%	71% / 29%	21%	$156,821	100	98%	—
6	Tufts Medford, MA	Medford, MA	177	10%	59% / 41%	19%	$168,606	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	256	30%	79% / 21%	7%	$150,925	100	100%	—
2	Northeastern Boston, MA	Boston, MA	632	24%	73% / 27%	10%	$149,127	100	93%	—
3	Rochester Institute of Technology Rochester, NY	Rochester, NY	313	71%	84% / 16%	7%	$131,983	99	98%	—
4	Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Troy, NY	Troy, NY	237	67%	85% / 15%	13%	$148,254	100	95%	—
5	Worcester Polytechnic Institute Worcester, MA	Worcester, MA	231	60%	82% / 18%	6%	$148,489	100	96%	—
6	Stevens Institute of Technology Hoboken, NJ	Hoboken, NJ	196	51%	78% / 22%	4%	$139,220	99	95%	—
7	Case Western Reserve Cleveland, OH	Cleveland, OH	115	35%	77% / 23%	23%	$119,949	98	96%	—
8	Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology Terre Haute, IN	Terre Haute, IN	108	77%	83% / 17%	17%	$151,791	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.