San Jose-bound: Artist seeking the Silicon Valley dream (sales, credit)

[otterprods]

Originally Posted by JoeSV

Go to a cheaper part of California first, then transfer to a UC or even Stanford:
Even if I had the grades and money for Stanford or Caltech, I wouldn't go. I'm 28, not 18. I can't afford 50k a year tuition, but even if I could, the idea of dropping 200k+ on a undergrad education is ridiculous.

My suggestion was not to aim for Stanford or Cal. I would definitely suggest going the (much) cheaper CSU route if it meets your needs. My only point is that if you do really well at the junior college level, and carefully plan your transfer ahead of time, you will be able to go just about anywhere you want at that point, including Stanford or Cal if that were your preference (which it isn't so never mind). Furthermore, Universities don't give a lot of preference to transfer students from one particular CC over another. You'll want to target a school with some decent CS/Programming offerings (of which there are many) but the distance of that school from your target University is of very little consequence. So why not choose one that's in some place that's a lot cheaper and less of a rat race than in the South Bay? The only reason to choose one in CA at all is because a) it sounds like you want to leave texas sooner rather than later (I don't blame you), b) You'll have state residence by the time you transfer to SJSU or wherever.

That said, it sounds like you just want to live in the Bay Area now and not have to wait several years to do it. If so, that's fine, you can do it. You'll just need to make some sacrifices and you may need more than $6k to get of to a good start. Don't forget moving/move-in expenses and out-of-state car registration upon arrival. But then again, I showed up to San Jose with a dead truck and a few hundred dollars and I made my way in relatively quickly, so it's far from impossible.

[nagleepark]

Originally Posted by Wry_Martini

I hope you don't think I'm trying to dissuade you, but I just want to make sure you're making a rational decision rather than one based too much on emotion and the chance of opportunity. I don't have anything against SJSU, but it seems like you've built it up as something that's going to open doors to you, doors you never knew existed.

Good internships are hard to land; there's a lot of competition for them, and yes, a degree of nepotism happens, too. (My last 2 interns were from Stanford, btw. #3 was from out of state.) I worry that you have this future planned out where connections at SJSU will grant you a bunch of impressive, solid internships just because of geographic proximity. Don't count on being able to land these. I hope you can, but please know you're going to be up against incredibly stiff competition.

I agree except to say ...

Lots of companies don't provide internships, period. There are also many interviewers who don't consider internships as "real experience". I am one of these. As much as I want to help new grads break into the industry (and I was an intern once!), I've come to view having interns an admirable waste of time.

Originally Posted by Wry_Martini

OP, I think you might be overestimating the importance of having a degree from a local school and a local address when trying to break into the job market.

This varies a lot within the Silicon Valley. Some employers visit colleges; lots of employers never have. Some employers hire a bunch of recruiters who recruit around the country; some employers state, "Local candidates only."

For me, I (or HR or recruiter) post on Craigslist, filter out non-local and unqualified candidates, then interview or repost. We never bother with non-local candidates and never pay for plane tickets or hotels. We're happy to let Google, Intel or whoever to move you out here and, a few years later, if you want, hire you when you are local and have more skills/experience. It's the Silicon Valley, for Heaven's sake, why would we look anywhere else for good engineers?

[gone down south]

I wonder what you're budgeting for rent, food, etc? $6k is going to run out real quick when you're paying $1000 / mo just for rent.....

[Wry_Martini]

Just had another thought regarding budgeting.

OP, you're used to living in a state that doesn't have (state) income tax.

CA does: California income tax brackets

[Gaylord_Focker]

Originally Posted by easybay

Once again - Austin sounds like a better fit for you. What about getting your first 2 years at UTSA, and transfering into UT? As a Texas native (what were your grades in HS?? Top 10% or high SAT/ACT will get you guaranteed entrance into Texas schools. There are a LOT of California kids vying for placement at SJSU you have a much better chance getting into a Texas school than coming from out of state.

I don't know the OP, but UT is incredibly hard to get into these days.

[ilkhd2]

It's the Silicon Valley, for Heaven's sake, why would we look anywhere else for good engineers.

Because they are often cheaper.

[nagleepark]

Originally Posted by ilkhd2

It's the Silicon Valley, for Heaven's sake, why would we look anywhere else for good engineers?

Because they are often cheaper.

By how much?

[easybay]

I don't know the OP, but UT is incredibly hard to get into these days.

Top 10% of high school students are guaranteed acceptance. Since OP is older, I assume they would use his ACT/SAT scores. Since he said they were good he wouldn't have a problem getting into UTSA - and then transfering after 2 years. My kids are both going to school in TX. One went to Blinn for a year and then transfered to TAMU (was accepted to UTSA initially, but wanted to eventually go to TAMU). The other was offered automatic acceptance to TAMU based on ACT/SAT scores.

The advice is useless anyhow - OP is determined to come to SJSU, and get a job in SV.

[JoeSV]

I wanted to followup on some other points you guys made(COL, budgeting, etc), but before I do, I also wanted to get some clarification on SJSU, it's CS/CE programs, and it's recruitment/tech scene as that is the main reason I want to move to San Jose. Like I said, I've done a ton of research, looked at many other programs across the country, and from an opportunity-cost(time, $$) perspective, SJSU looks like the best bang-for-buck(for CE/CS).

Here's the evidence:

http://www.sjsu.edu/careercenter/emp...ey%2011_12.pdf

As you can see, SJSU CE & CS grads make 78k and 73k fresh out school. Those are average figures, which means that top candidates can easily make over 90k. Again, fresh out of school. These are hard numbers.

http://www.sjsu.edu/careercenter/emp...rt_2011-12.pdf

Contrary to the "SJSU grads will have a hard time gaining employment with tech giants", the actual facts show that virtually all of the "big-name" companies in SV hire from SJSU, sometime even preferentially due to the incredible local access: Google, IBM, Oracle, Cisco, Intel, Apple all represented.

Speaking of Apple, which is only the world's richest company, ahem:

And Here's The Secret Reason Apple Is Crushing Google... - Business Insider

As you can see from the link above, Apple hires more engineers/developers from SJSU than it does from Standord. Go figure.

Apple= World's most profitable Company. King of Tech-Giants. Setter of Trends.
Primary Source of Talent = SJSU. *cough, cough*

Silicon Valley salaries: Developers make big bank in 2012 (infographic) | VentureBeat
(scroll down to the Education & Experience section)
And finally, as a suitable coup de grâce to the "SJSU ain't all that" line of thought, here is a survey showing that junior engineers/developers who went to a "Not Top School"(SJSU) make, on average, $10k more than eng/dev that went to a "Top School"(Stanford, Cal) in Silicon Valley. Again, these are hard numbers.

So while I definitely respect your local insight & knowledge, how do you reconcile what you've said on this thread with the overwhelming statistical evidence that shows that graduating from SJSU is incredibly strategic(due to local access) and opportunity-laden, in some cases, even better than going to Stanford where you'll come out with $200k+ in debt vs graduating from SJSU with minimal to zero debt.

Just to clarify: I have nothing against top schools. I'm not belittling Stanford. But from a pure opportunity-cost perspective, going to SJSU for CE/CS can be "better" than going to Stanford/Cal.

To recap:

- Average starting salary for fresh SJSU B.S grads = skirting $80k. Top students are invariably paid more. So $90k+ would not be uncommon for a top SJSU student with multiple internships and skill-sets that can be honed due to local access.
- Apple hires more engineer/developers from SJSU than it does from Stanford. Enough said.
- Survey from the global recruiting firm, Rivera Partners, shows that junior eng/dev(less than 5 year exp) from "Not Top Schools"(SJSU) make $10k more than their counterparts who went to "Top Schools"(Standford, Cal).

So with that said, please help me understand how going to SJSU for CE & CS is in any way "disadvantageous"

[nagleepark]

I can't explain the discrepancy between those reports & articles and what I see.

You are welcome to browse the job listings and see for yourself how many jobs are suitable for a new grad:

Apple - Jobs at Apple (us)
SF bay area internet engineering jobs classifieds - craigslist
SF bay area software/QA/DBA/etc jobs classifieds - craigslist

It is common for Silicon Valley to have weird contradictions. For example, to have companies complaining to magazines that they can't find enough people to hire ... and yet having a good number of qualified unemployed friends who can't even get a phone interview.

There isn't a reason for the people on this board to lie or to be especially pessimistic. If I thought that the job market was hot or that it's a great time to get a Comp Sci degree, I'd certainly tell you.