Ask HN: What Is the Best University in Europe for MS in Computer Science?

It has a very strong math/cs department. (MIMUW https://www.mimuw.edu.pl/en).

I've been doing my master's degree there. Although I've never finished the final paper, I consider it to be one of the best decision / time well spent.

Great staff. Professors are just awesome (some of them are also lecturing at abroad universities). Students as well. You will find the brightest polish minds there (the entry exam is not that easy, and big part of the students are math Olympiad finalists).

Courses:

1. Logic - Poland has produced some of top logicians, you can see the inheritance during the lessons. Loved it.

2. Compilers - you will be able to compile in head and on paper. JVM/LLVM/Assembly, you will learn how to write parsers, compilers etc.

3. Cryptography - there are a lot of crypto enthusiasts in the department, you will learn anything you need.

4. Parallel computing - access to super computers, programming Nvidia, verification.

5. Seminars aka what you want to focus on, there's a long list from which you can pick from. My main focus was on game theory, and I've learned a ton and had a great support from professors.

Perks: FAAMGS companies line up couple times a year recruiting for internships and work (always seducing with free pizza). Some of the students I know spent every summer in Bay Area, and would accumulate enough money to live in Warsaw for the next academic year.

I once met a couple of engineers who graduated from there. They were incredible.

While I know I discovered this thread late, I hope it's not too late to reply :)

Being a Dane it mostly seems to me that people defend their university a lot and it often correlates with where you grew up/went. So people saying Aalborg is the best probably grew up near Aalborg or went to study there. This is of course very anecdotal but when I studied CS in a CPH university nobody ever spoke of Aalborg. People spoke about KU, ITU and DTU. Sometimes Aarhus was mentioned.

Not saying Aalborg isn't great, but my general observation is people defend their university choice like it's holy. Probably the same in other countries :) so my suggestion would always be go where things are "closest to home". If you're a foreigner, pick the one closest to the airport for convience.

One example is from outside Denmark is another commenter in this thread mentioned the royal Stockholm uni, but forgot to mention Lund University (LTH) which is just as prestigious.

In the end I never noticed anyone caring except in jest. Never met anyone who cared professionally.

Thank you! What about Aalborg, mentioned by another commenter?

How can I know if there is a "strong faculty in my area of interest"?

H-index on google scholar?

If you know what kind of topics you find most interesting, you should put that on your list of preferences (combined with culture, location etc). If you have a weird mix like Biomedical Computing, Program Correctness, Computer Vision and you really like SAT solvers, finding out where the hotspots for those topics are can help you select a uni. I know of a few people that selected based on professors that would be available to them, and some that were purely interested in getting into any of the FAANG, that does limit your options and as a result should make your list much shorter.

I completely agree with you.

Unfortunately, it seems like the parent poster never had colleagues from top universities. There is a reason that google is in Zurich, Munich, etc... and not next to random universities.

In general (exceptions always exist) there is much more potential in people who have finished 'good' universities. They are finishers. They dont give up and do whats needed to reach their goal.

I suppose you misinterpret, but that is up to you. I'm not saying nobody is making lists, I'm saying the lists don't matter. Unless you are in some sort of alternate reality where you have to compete for work, the specific university you went to has no weight to it. You can probably find some sort of multinational or a FAANG job where they do try to rank applicants based on the name of the university but that is more an exception than a rule here in western Europe.

The last four large companies I worked at or contracted for didn't even look at what university I went to 15 years ago, or how certified I am. The past 5 or 6 years were relevant, and that's about it.

Perhaps if you are inexperienced or all you have is your years at a University it might matter at your first entry-level job. Or if you want to purely work in academia. But that is not what most of the MS or BS work revolves around and it is not where people are needed the most.

First of all, tone down the aggression. People are constantly harping on about how much better HN is than everywhere else on the internet. Your reply lends the lie to that complete fiction. Take a moment to reflect on your own communication style before dismissing others' comments "pure garbage".

Second, I agree with the post you're replying to.

Regarding accreditation, the point is that it effectively makes no difference whether QS or THE ranks your university as No. 6 or No. 106. They're both pretty good. But everyone knows that there's variation in the quality of graduate of any given university, and they take that into account.

It will make a difference, however, if the university is ranked in the 600+ category. That institution would probably be grouped in with "the rest".

If you're looking for certain jobs in finance, law or academia, then the institution matters much more. Those areas are perhaps not quite as meritocratic as they should be.

However, if you're applying for a graduate tech job in the EU, it really, really doesn't matter that much if you got a 1.1 from Cambridge or a 1.1 from Dublin City University. Both will probably get you an interview, depending on what else is on your CV. And at that point it's a level playing field - the interviewers won't be dazzled by the name of your college, they'll just grill you to make sure you know what you need to know and can learn fast enough to be useful in the company.