help me choose b/w Buffalo & NCSU

[raady]

Hi all ive got admits for MS in Cs fall 2008 frm NCSU& buffalo ur comments on the follwing wud help me a lot
1. Financial expense is important for me- given that Buffalo is going to cost me ~10lacs& ncsu ~20lacs which do u thnk will be better for me in terms of job opportunities & ROI.
2.Do companies like cisco,qualcom,juniper etc consider all (ofcourse leaving aside top notch colleges) top 50 colleges on par for recruiting? or is it like whats there in India i.e.IITs>>>NITs>others?

[raady]

now UFL(40%aid) adds to this list

[CalmLogic]

Financial expense is important for me- given that Buffalo is going to cost me ~10lacs& ncsu ~20lacs which do u thnk will be better for me in terms of job opportunities & ROI.

How many lacs would UF cost you after the tuition waiver?

I am very biased towards UF for personal reasons, so I can't be objective. Having said that, I would think UF would be your best value and, according to Edulix, all the UF seniors get full-time jobs after graduating, though I guess most of them have to relocate after getting the offer.

[CalmLogic]

To quote you from a previous post:

I want to specialize in n/w's which is possible only in NCSU..but at the cost of 17lacs
Do u think its worth doing a masters without specialization?

Yes, I think it's worth doing a masters without a specialization, at least if you are willing to do software development (maybe for IBM or Microsoft) and want to improve your chances for an H1B. At least in the IT industry, the trend is towards having more generalists than specialists, with business/financial/accounting domain knowledge continuing to be helpful. (Even Google says they look more for generalists than specialists when it comes to software developers.)

However, if you want to work for Cisco, then it would obviously help to specialize in networking. As to whether NCSU would be much better than UF or Buffalo for networking (enough to justify the extra tuition), I would look at the course offerings and the online syllabi. Also, you can do a thesis in networking at any of these schools, so that makes it even more difficult to compare.

I did read at Edulix that Cisco is the largest recruiter at NCSU, which I would assume is not the case at UF or Buffalo. On the other hand, you can always apply online. So with all this confusion, I would try to talk to a recruiter at Cisco or whatever company you are most interested in.

BTW, a recruiter at Yahoo who used to recruit for Cisco:
LinkedIn: Justin Proulx

And for companies that hire the most:
H-1B visa - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Top 200 H1B Employers. List of Top 100 companies hiring and employing H1 Visa and foreign workers in the US and America... from Garamchai.Com

[raady]

considering that living & misc expenses to be same ,only the tuition differs
UFL is $17k(after 40%waiver) for the whole 30 credits & NCSU is $27k(non thesis)..

[raady]

of course Im willing to pay that extra $10k+ ..even in ncsu ill be doing at max 4-5 advanced n/w subjects..rest will be generic subjects...im interested in any networking company& not restricted to that..i just feel that location(RTP being near) will help in getting better jobs

[raady]

of course Im willing to pay that extra $10k+ ..even in ncsu ill be doing at max 4-5 advanced n/w subjects..rest will be generic subjects...im interested in any networking company& not restricted to that..

[CalmLogic]

..even in ncsu ill be doing at max 4-5 advanced n/w subjects..rest will be generic subjects..

That's what I expected. Regarding ROI, I guess it depends mostly on:

1. What kindof job you want
2. What the recruiters are looking for

So what kindof networking jobs are we talking about? I really don't know what kindof networking jobs are popular for H1B sponsorships. If you want to be a network engineer, then I would be further tempted by NCSU since that is the same location to take the lab portion of CCIE exam (which costs over $1k, even for NCSU students I assume).

[rjt]

It is not absolutely true that to get a job in network companies you always need a specialisation in networks (ofcourse it helps). I know of someone in a top notch univ who didn't take a single network subject and did his specialisation in AI. Yet, he fetched an internship and fulltime position in Cisco.

[raady]

Originally Posted by CalmLogic

So what kindof networking jobs are we talking about? I really don't know what kindof networking jobs are popular for H1B sponsorships.

so H1B sponsorhips are profile based?I mean companies do/dont prefer international ppl for a particular kinda profile or smt like that??
I donno the exact job profile name..but im interested in network protocol,product design,enchancement etc...of course not restricted to these..