In the field of economics and finance, top talents often dream of entering Wall Street and joining financial giants such as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Merrill Lynch to become members of their elite actuary teams. For those students who are passionate about computer science and engineering, their goal is Silicon Valley, hoping to play the role of researchers in technology giants such as Apple, Google,and Tesla.

Recently, College Transitions conducted a study to compile a Silicon Valley Top Feeders List by analyzing the LinkedIn profiles of nearly 30,000 employees of 10 top American technology companies including Microsoft, Google, and Apple.

The top ten schools this year are: Carnegie Mellon University, University of Southern California, Georgia Institute of Technology, University of California, Berkeley, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Northeastern University, University of California, San Diego, University of Washington, Columbia University, and New York University. These schools are not only well-known in the fields of computer science and engineering, but are also the focus of recruitment by top technology companies.

1. Carnegie Mellon University

When it comes to top universities in the field of computer science, many people's first reaction is CMU. This university is located in Pittsburgh and is regarded as an important federal center for cyber defense, robotics, and urban energy research. At the same time, Internet giants such as Google, Apple, and Amazon have also set up branches here. Therefore, CMU has many alumni working in Silicon Valley.

CMU's School of Computer Science is well-known throughout the United States for its outstanding performance. It has always topped various rankings, especially in artificial intelligence, computer systems, networks, software engineering, computational theory, and other fields. It is at the world's leading level. Its deep research foundation has earned it a high reputation; in addition, CMU's School of Computer Science is also one of the largest colleges in the United States. It even established the computer science major as an independent college, providing more than 300 courses covering various sub-fields of computer science for students to choose from.

Moreover, CMU advocates small classes and project-driven learning models to ensure that students can get more guidance from professors and grow in teamwork. More importantly, CMU is located in Pittsburgh, close to Silicon Valley, which makes many companies tend to give priority to recruiting new talents from CMU and conducting internships and research projects.

2. University of Southern California

The computer science major at the University of Southern California is one of the star disciplines on campus and ranks in the top 30 in the computer science major ranking of U.S. News. The major offers a wide range of course options, including cutting-edge fields such as artificial intelligence, databases, network security, and game design, which are exactly the high-end technical talents that Silicon Valley is craving.

USC offers internship opportunities in spring, summer, and autumn, and holds career fairs every spring and autumn. At these times, job seekers can use Trojans Talks and Handshake platforms to arrange their internship plans.

According to the school's statistics, from 2017 to 2020, the vast majority of graduates eventually joined top technology companies such as Microsoft, Oracle, Facebook, and Apple. Although the career interests of some graduates may have turned to the financial industry in recent years, USC graduates have demonstrated their outstanding talents in any field.

In addition, USC has a strong culture of innovation and entrepreneurship and rich alumni resources. Many alumni have held key positions in Silicon Valley or successfully founded their businesses, providing students with abundant internship and employment opportunities.

3. Georgia Tech

As its name suggests, Georgia Tech is undoubtedly a leader in science and engineering education. The school's undergraduate engineering program ranks third in the country, second only to MIT and Stanford University.

Georgia Tech has an independent computer science department, which ranks in the top ten in the undergraduate computer science ranking of U.S. News and offers three majors: Bachelor of Computer Science, Bachelor of Computational Media, and Bachelor of Computer Engineering. In addition, some professors at Georgia Tech also serve as consultants for Silicon Valley technology companies, which provides students with more opportunities to contact these top companies.

According to the results of the 2021-2022 Career and Salary Survey released by the school, undergraduate computer science graduates can earn an annual salary of $170,000, while undergraduate engineering graduates can earn an annual salary of $112,750.

One of the most striking features of Georgia Tech is its nationally leading Co-op program. The program guides students to write resumes, participate in interviews, and start internships during their freshman year. At the same time, the school has maintained more than a hundred years of cooperation experience with employers in various industries. Students can choose to intern for at least 14 weeks in the spring or fall semester; intern for eight weeks in the summer semester; or even longer inter-semester internships, and finally obtain a diploma with Co-op certification.

4. University of California, Berkeley

The University of California, Berkeley (UCB) is as famous as CMU, MIT, and Stanford, and is known as the "Four Giants" of computer science. It ranks first in the 2022 U.S. News National Computer Science Ranking. Whether it is engineering or business, UCB's professional rankings are excellent.

UCB did not set up an independent computer science department but merged computer science and electrical engineering majors into the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences. Students can choose a science degree for in-depth study or a liberal arts degree for a broad range of interests according to their interests.

Thanks to its geographical location close to Silicon Valley, many UCB graduates have entered top technology companies such as Microsoft, Google, Apple, etc. In addition, UCB students enjoy abundant employment opportunities due to its location in the San Francisco Bay Area, one of the world's most important high-tech R&D centers, and a major financial center on the West Coast of the United States.

5. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

UIUC's College of Engineering ranks seventh in the United States, and its computer science program offers a rich selection of undergraduate majors. All majors share a set of core courses, allowing students to choose a minor area based on their interests. In addition, students can also choose a CS+ major, which combines computer science with mathematics, statistics, music, linguistics, advertising, and other disciplines.

The average salary of graduates from the College of Engineering is $92,813, and the average salary of graduates from Information Science is $80,813, ranking first and second among all colleges respectively.

UIUC has a strong faculty, of which at least 40 faculty members come from the top 25 computer science programs in the United States. At the same time, corporate cooperation programs provide students with opportunities to work with companies such as Apple, Google, and Facebook.

According to the 2021-2022 undergraduate graduate destination data released by UIUC's official website, technology companies such as Accenture, Amazon, Facebook, and Google have admitted more than 20 graduates.

6. Northeastern University

In the rankings of the best internship universities and best internship/employment services released by Princeton Review, Northeastern University has been ranked first in the United States for many consecutive years. At the same time, in the ranking of school-enterprise cooperation/internships (Co-ops/Internships) by U.S. News, Northeastern University also ranked first in the United States.

Northeastern University's Co-op paid internship program is one of its most distinctive programs, which has been successfully running for many years. By combining internships with classroom teaching, students can accumulate rich work experience before graduation. Students have the opportunity to choose internship locations from more than 3,000 partner companies around the world, including well-known companies such as Cisco, IBM, Deloitte, Morgan Stanley, and NASA. Last year alone, the school provided students with 10,395 internship positions from 3,100 companies.

The Silicon Valley campus is praised by many students as the "most efficient coder training class" because of its superior geographical location and high employment rate of computer science-related majors.

7. University of California, San Diego

Now, many students who are eager to work in Silicon Valley regard UCSD as an ideal choice.

The reason is simple: the competition for top-ranked and strong schools like UCB is too fierce and it is difficult to be admitted; while the tuition fees of private universities such as CMU, MIT, and Stanford are too high, and the chances of getting an offer are not great. Therefore, UCSD seems to be an ideal choice.

Of course, its strength cannot be ignored. UCSD's undergraduate engineering program ranks 19th in the United States, and its majors such as artificial intelligence, network applications, network security, and data science enjoy a high reputation.

UCSD has a very interesting project-Academic Internship Program (AIP). No matter what major a student majors in, they can participate in AIP. What's even better is that students can earn credits while completing work internships!

8. University of Washington

Although the University of Washington is not very prominent in the overall ranking, its computer science major has always been ranked in the top ten of the U.S. News major ranking. Students can learn basic knowledge such as computer programming, hardware design, or software engineering at the University of Washington.

Thanks to its geographical advantage in Seattle, the University of Washington provides a solid foundation for a high employment rate. Starbucks, Amazon, Google, and others are all partners of the school, making it one of the American universities with the largest number of alumni employed in technology companies. The school has career and internship recruitment fairs almost all year round, and the guidance at the Career Guidance Center is also very detailed, from recruitment fairs, and workplace skills to alumni networks.

According to the information disclosed on the UW official website, the top employers of graduates include large companies such as Amazon, Apple, Google, Accenture, etc.; and among the common positions, nearly half are related to software engineering, and 67.7% of students have internship experience before graduation.

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