[SqMafia]

"Yale teaches computer science quite well (I'm a graduate!)"

Same here (DC' 04) but from my experience places like Waterloo produce graduates that are phenomenal compared to Yale. They leave Waterloo with such a wealth of actual working experience. Even when I was at Yale recruiters from Microsoft would complain to my professor that Yale graduates were lacking in actual experience. Don't discount the value of experience in learning theory because a great deal of CS is driven by real problems encountered. It's harder for the theoretical stuff to sink in without understanding the problem they can be applied to. I don't think I am alone in this regard.

In any case, dollar for dollar, if you're going to hire new college grads your money will go farther on graduates from schools that have a strong internship program. So in a sense, school does matter.

Maybe what is more true is the label "Ivy League" doesn't matter, not in CS anyways.

[emmett]

Waterloo is actually special (unlike Yale, MIT, or CMU). The internship program there is brilliant and does indeed produce significantly more experienced students on graduation.

It's also not particularly prestigious, which just goes to prove Justin's point.

[SqMafia]

That would be his point if he said "Ivy Leagues don't matter". But if we agree that someone from Waterloo stands out then credentials do matter. If I was looking for candidates, I would search first for "Waterloo" or other schools with programs like them.

It might not be prestigious to some people but where I work Waterloo carries a lot of weight. We also love Brown.