Follow Slashdot blog updates by subscribing to our blog RSS feed

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Education Technology

The Best Colleges for Network Engineering? 477

Posted by Cliff from the a-higher-education dept.
viperstyx asks: "Ive come to that time in my life where I have to choose what colleges im going to apply to for my undergraduate degree. I'm very interested in Computer Science but I'm not sure if I want to major in Comp Sci, but I do have a high interest in networks. I hope to work on things like Internet2, or in a large business environment after college. I was hoping to find a college with a major, along the lines of Network Engineering, but I have yet to find one." What colleges have the best programs to prepare prospective networking engineers for the future?
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

The Best Colleges for Network Engineering? More

The Best Colleges for Network Engineering?

Comments Filter:

  • You also... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 06, 2004 @08:31PM (#8208317)
    You also forgot to add the part about the female to male ratio being 3:1 or so in your story... Just thought I'd be the first to correct your mistake. :)
    • I wish the ratio was 3:1, between selecting a combat MOS in the Military, selecting a geeky major, and working in a technical job, I would say more than 90% of the people I see on a day to day basis are male. Out of the 10% that are female they are either 45, ugly, married to a friend of mine, or a combination of more than one.

      I have always considered myself a heterosexual male but after looking at the choices I have made in life thus far I have to wonder what the hell I was thinking.

  • Colorado Technical (Score:2, Interesting)

    by dragin33 ( 529413 )
    Although i have not attended i think Colorado Technical in Colorado Springs is a very good school. They have an awesome course from what it looks like.

    • Re:Colorado Technical (Score:3, Insightful)

      by saden1 ( 581102 )
      You know how many Network Engineers are out of work and hurting right now? You'd better believe 4 years from now there will be a lot more out of work network engineers. You are better of going to dental school man.

  • It's not about the school... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by GuyZero ( 303599 ) on Friday February 06, 2004 @08:32PM (#8208320)
    It's about your own networks. People from unknown schools get onto interesting projects becuas hey know who's running them.

    Get networking... with humans.

    • Re:It's not about the school... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by PopCulture ( 536272 ) <PopCulture AT hotmail DOT com> on Friday February 06, 2004 @08:50PM (#8208505)
      agreed. there are unemployed grad students from uber cs schools, yet one of my best friends got a gig at Los Alamos after going to a {much} lesser known school...

      Probably the best thing you can do is be born wealthy and connected. Failing that, get in early to the IEEE, or ACM clubs at whatever university you do go to- those are way good ways to make professional connections as an undergrad.

      Don't just attend the meetings, meet the speakers when they come to campus. Talk to them, research the topics before so you can ask them intelligent questions. Be agressive but not rude... the professionals who go campus to campus generally have a personal commitment to making a difference.

      Beyond that, I'd say the best way to get in to any really cool research project is to go ahead and get that doctorate degree in the feild you are seeking. Bachelors degrees won't matter much at that point... so you have 4 years (or 6.5 in my case) to worry about what school to go to...

    • Re:It's not about the school... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 06, 2004 @09:40PM (#8208863)
      You are only partially correct, but partially wrong as well. Going to an unknown school and building a network of morons is not nearly as good as going to a good school and building a network of brilliant hard-working people.
      When you choose a school, you're number one consideration should be the people at the school. Going to a school where everyone simply shows up for their classes and then goes home is not that great, regardless of what is actually taught in the classroom. You want to be somewhere where a large portion of the students are active in an ACM or IEEE chapter, where people outside the school are coming to give colloquia, where there are a number of seminars each week, etc. If you do this, then you have a good chance of knowing a number of people running interesting projects and will get to choose among them.

      • Re:It's not about the school... (Score:4, Interesting)

        by GuyZero ( 303599 ) on Saturday February 07, 2004 @01:26AM (#8209936)

        You are only partially correct, but partially wrong as well. Going to an unknown school and building a network of morons is not nearly as good as going to a good school and building a network of brilliant hard-working people.

        Hmmm... yes. How could I disagree? I have only one caveat. It's often hard to tell the morons from the guys who will one day be running Internet22 in first year. It gets a little clearer in upper year but even then your classmates are only part of the picture.

        Go to conferences. Take jobs at great companies for possibly lousy pay. Then again, never take a joe job - always take intern positions that will push you & challenge you. Keep in touch with your bosses. Actually try to get to know those "old people" you work with.

        My networking has improved a lot over the years (mostly due to how bad it was in the first place). I missed a lot of opportunities as a student mostly because I had no idea what I wanted to do. If you know you want to work on computer networks, then start meeting the right people today.

        And yes, if you get into a top-tier school, that never hurt either. All the top schools are equally good. Apply to Waterloo [uwaterloo.ca] up here in Canada!

    • the school is the network (Score:4, Informative)

      by GunFodder ( 208805 ) on Friday February 06, 2004 @10:05PM (#8208992)
      One of the best things about going to a school like Harvard or Stanford is that many of your classmates are wealthy and connected. During your program at school you will have many opportunities to form networks with fellow students, their parents, and alumni who later in life will be able to get you a job.

  • All you need is expereince (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Nicholas_D ( 548536 ) on Friday February 06, 2004 @08:32PM (#8208323) Homepage
    All you need is experience, alot of online resources for OIS, but get your hands on experience with a 3550, 4500, 6500, 7200 (from cisco) get a CCNA... A Dergee in Net Eng is useless if youve never actually implimented a network or worked with a network. Book smarts does not cut it with network engineering.. you need practical experience with both physical (wiring) and software (ois or what have you)... Nick D

    • I would agree. (Score:5, Informative)

      by b0r0din ( 304712 ) on Friday February 06, 2004 @08:39PM (#8208392)
      I think college, in fact, is overrated in a lot of ways, putting yourself 60K in debt is not worth it. I'd recommend a cheap state school if possible, or community college for the first two years of college. Keep in mind, a lot of people change their minds after two years in college, and decide they want to do something else (or may just not like the field).

      Moreover, I think technology is becoming extremely competitive. Better to try a field like nursing or maybe look for something in biotech.

      In any case, if you want to do something in technology, be prepared to study hard and keep learning, tech is one of those fields requiring constant reeducation to maintain an edge.

      • Re:I would agree. (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Gunfighter ( 1944 )
        Perhaps instead of a cheap state school, consider a cheap online school [accis.edu] and look for a local integrator/VAR to bring you on board as a networking apprentice-type. You may even be able to find a local network helpdesk type position working under some PHB.

      • Re:I would agree. (Score:4, Insightful)

        by L7_ ( 645377 ) on Friday February 06, 2004 @09:09PM (#8208636)
        "Moreover, I think technology is becoming extremely competitive. Better to try a field like nursing or maybe look for something in biotech."

        Close. People should study math or physics. You get enough exposure to technology in those majors that you can pick up whatever new technologies it is that you will need in any typical job situation. And with the math and logic skills that you will develop companies will actually want to hire you.

        Of course your coding might be loose and ugly, but it is >alot easier for companies to teach good coding practices than higher level mathematics.
    • I do not agree with this, if you plan to keep moving up you will need a four year degree, and if it's in networking all the better. Schools I would look at are RIT (IT program) Fort Hayes State University in Nebraska (INT program) and the University of Wisconsin Stout Telecommunications Systems program.

      I am currently in my last semester at UW-Stout in the Telecom Sys program, at least here I can vouch for getting hands on real world experiance on a variety of networking gear and protocols, a mix of old an

    • Re:All you need is expereince (Score:5, Insightful)

      by m0rningstar ( 301842 ) <cpw&silvertyne,com> on Friday February 06, 2004 @09:10PM (#8208642) Homepage
      Mmm. I'm not a big believer in certs, except to get past the HR people. All the CCNA/CCDA/CCNP/CCDP/CCSP show is that you can take the test. (Qualifier: I do have many of these, primarily since it was a promotion requirement)

      I agree with the experience thing, though I don't think the actual hardware is important; my lab when I was studying for my CCIE was 5 2500s and a 4000 used as a frame switch. And that was Feb 2000. I leased some time to learn ISDN and I got it, but I didn't have the expensive toys to study on. (I was working in the field; I was doing ATM at the time. Both of these helped ENORMOUSLY. I was lucky in that the company I'm with hired me with a CS degree and no certs and I made the time around the work hours to study.)

      More important, however, is understanding the theory. And that is what I look for when I'm interviewing; not if you know the command on whatever piece of hardware, but if you know what you're trying to do and can show me that you know where to find it in a reasonable timeframe. I don't care if you can rote memorize commands, or know every IEEE protocol by heart.

      It's in this theory and understanding area that, in truth, is where I see the college degree coming in useful. Mine (Manchester, UK) I've never used. But I do networking and security, and neither of those was a focus for that. It also took me 10 years in the field to realise that the theory was the important part.

      The degree also opens a lot of doors from HR people again, though I don't think I'd specialise early either. You could look for somewhere with a Cisco Academy and hopefully get the best of both worlds; the 'cisco cert' and a degree that hopefully shows that you know theory.
    • "All you need is experience, ... A Dergee in Net Eng is useless if youve never actually implimented a network or worked with a network. Book smarts does not cut it with network engineering... "

      I'd love to agree with you, but I've seen too many cases of realworld experience being looked over for the guys with degrees. Too many managers are impressed by degrees and certifications over experience and will hire the degree guy or elevate him above the others because that's what they are.

      I just finished wa

    • Re:All you need is expereince (Score:5, Informative)

      by geekschmoe ( 244913 ) on Friday February 06, 2004 @09:25PM (#8208759)
      I did exactly what he said. I got my hands on the higher end cisco routers/switches by working at Portland State University (located in Oregon) for $8 an hour. And used that knowledge to get a CCNA. Then used that CCNA and experience to get a job making good money without a college degree.

      I got to work underneath a very bright person (lead network engineer), who in my humble opinion provided me with a lot more useful information than a lot of the teachers did when I was a student there. I got to work with a large campus lan that used VLAN's, 802.11b (when it was $700 for a cisco base station), and even Internet2.

      Basically, I highly recommend getting a job at a University in the NOC or IT operations, as what the jobs lack in pay is made up with copious amounts of resources and experience.
      • The CCNA is almost worthless, there are over 55K CCNA's in North America alone, probably more than the demand for such people post dotbomb. The CCNP on the other hand is pretty damn valuable, only ~4,600 in N.A. The degree program I am studying since going back to school is a 2+2 program with the focus the first two years being the CCNA and the second two being the CCNP.
        • Hah.

          Every CCNA complains they cannot get a job with it.

          So they becomes CCNPs

          Event CCNP complains they cannot get a job with it.

          So they aspire to become lab rat CCIEs.

          There is massive oversupply in these realms. www.cisco.com/go/netpro - is cisco;s own message boards. Read what people say on the certification forums

  • Rochester Institute of Technology? (Score:5, Informative)

    by Cowclops ( 630818 ) on Friday February 06, 2004 @08:32PM (#8208326)
    RIT? I like the EE program, and a lot of CS students I know like it here.

  • Graduate School (Score:5, Informative)

    by Reverend528 ( 585549 ) on Friday February 06, 2004 @08:33PM (#8208330) Homepage
    Study CS in undergrad. Wait until Graduate School to specialize.

    • Re:Graduate School (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Thomas M Hughes ( 463951 ) on Friday February 06, 2004 @08:48PM (#8208490)
      I agree with this statement. Undergraduate education in the United States is really geared towards a much more general (and balanced) degree than most people seem to realize. They require you to take things such as Social Sciences, Hard Sciences, and the like, in addition to the stuff that you are going to major in. If you are going to a University for the sole purpose of getting a well paying job, you're probably going to be surprised. Universities don't train you to be good workers, they are supposed to teach you to think and be relatively well balanced intellectually. Most of the other posts in this thread seem to agree with this by suggesting you get certifications and experience if you actually want to do work in Computer Networking.

      That said, you can specialize in a specific field while still in the University requirement. As the parent to this post has said, you do this in graduate school. However, graduate school doesn't give you specialization that may be good for the job market. On the contrary, it may make you overspecialized, such that you've gone so far into theory that you no longer have any idea how stuff actually works in the real world. Going the full academic route is really on a good idea if you really care more for the field than you care for money.

      Notice: I am am currently working on my PhD, but not in the field of Computer Science, or anything really computer related (I'm actually somewhere between a social science and philosophy). While I do not have first hand experience with graduate studies in Computer Science, I do have experience with graduate school in general, and while the concepts learned are different, the culture and process seems to be similar across all subjects. Your experiences may vary.
      • Notice: I am am currently working on my PhD, but not in the field of Computer Science, or anything really computer related (I'm actually somewhere between a social science and philosophy)

        It sounds like this might be a pathetic attempt by a geek to say that he is interested in ethiiii, arrhhuuuuuuhh, ethicuuaaa, esics, um, something about being well behaved.

      • Re:Graduate School (Score:5, Insightful)

        by sasami ( 158671 ) on Saturday February 07, 2004 @02:36AM (#8210179)
        I agree with your post completely, but let me make an emphasis:

        If you are going to a University for the sole purpose of getting a well paying job, you're probably going to be surprised. Universities don't train you to be good workers, they are supposed to teach you to think and be relatively well balanced intellectually.

        In other words, education is not simply job training. But most undergrads are getting mostly the latter. People need to realize that a university's primary responsibility is to its graduate students. They are not optimized for undergraduates. The best undergraduate experience comes from colleges, which generally do not have graduate schools.

        This is borne out by the observation that graduates of small, high-quality liberal arts colleges outperform graduates of universities in almost all fields including science and engineering. To rub salt in the wound, many of these schools aren't very selective, taking B or C students and turning out top-notch competitors for spots in grad schools and the job market. (For more information, start here [amazon.com] but be sure to do more research.)

        This is not hard to understand when you realize that a genuine, broad education isn't meant to teach you stuff, but to make you smarter -- in exactly the way that learning assembly language or lambda calculus makes you a better coder even if you don't use it or even like it. For me, humanities courses were what really forced me to think faster, harder, and deeper than I imagined possible. NOTE WELL: this never happened with computer science because I was already good at that. The result is that today I'm a well-paid kernel developer and my friends who went to a techy college are unemployed Javaheads.

        --
        Dum de dum.

    • Re:Graduate School (Score:5, Insightful)

      by eap ( 91469 ) on Friday February 06, 2004 @08:56PM (#8208549) Journal
      Study CS in undergrad. Wait until Graduate School to specialize.

      It definitely helps to have a CS degree under your belt. Many companies consider this a more rigorous degree. As an engineer, I also visit campuses to recruit for my company, and individuals with networking type technical degrees with all the certs like CCNA, MCSE, DVDA, etc. are all over the place. We hire for these types of positions, but look a lot more seriously at someone with a CS degree. I'm sure you are one of the ones who actually knows how to think, but many companies think a CS degree is a better indicator of problem solving skills and believe the curriculum is more rigorous.

      If you find the right prof in college, you won't have trouble specializing in any niche of CS, including networking. Don't limit yourself to one single aspect of computers this early.

    • Re:Graduate School (Score:4, Insightful)

      by HidingMyName ( 669183 ) on Friday February 06, 2004 @09:13PM (#8208672)
      I agree with waiting to specialize. One thing to think about in selecting an undergraduate school is what kind of environment you want, and what you want to do after graduation.
      1. Big name research schools often focus on their Ph.D. programs, their undergrad programs may reflect this, you may wind up being taught by grad students (some of whom may be quite good) instead of the big names. Making contact with the big names can be tough.
      2. Some of the 4 year schools can offer some good teaching (e.g. Williams, Swathmore, Haverford, Colgate, etc.) and give good preparation.
      3. Some of the really big schools may have enormous student to faculty ratios in the introductory classes, and if you aren't a self starter, you may find it hard there.
    • If, in the future, computer networking is so difficult and full of gotchas and traps and weird little programming tricks that people will need a college degree to do it reliably, then today's engineers have failed miserably.

      The whole point of computer 'science' is to make operating, programming, and using computers productively be easy and transparent. It is not to create layers and layers of code, interfaces, and protocols that add massive plateaus of complexity to what is already a discipline wroght w

      • Re:College Degree in Networking? (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Lemmy Caution ( 8378 ) on Friday February 06, 2004 @09:28PM (#8208783) Homepage
        I think that the question is about someone who wants to work in the design and engineering of new protocols, not someone who wants to use off-the-shelf tools. If all the inquirer wants is to just be another network tech in a server room somewhere, then he doesn't need college. If he wants to design applications that use all the features of IP:v6, then he should get maybe a Master's. If he wants to design the heir to IP:v6, then he should study a lot of theory and go for a PhD.

        The trouble with Slashdot is that sometimes there's a lack of awareness of the gap between the tool-users and the tool-makers - the former, probably due to something of an inferiority complex, are pretty unaware of the realities of the latter.
      • This is a key point that no one in the Linux/Unix community seems to understand.

        What's more transparent, a series of easy to edit text files with names that correspond to the program they control, or storing all information for all programs in one giant binary file?

        UNIX is something that you don't seem to understand.

    • Re:Graduate School (Score:3, Insightful)

      by lysander ( 31017 )
      I also agree with this, but a summer internship or part-time work with a company that does the kind of networking you're interested in (while working on your degree) would make it all the better. This might affect your choice of school.

      And as someone else mentioned, a broader degree will introduce you to more fields, in case you change your mind about networking.

    • Re:Graduate School (Score:3, Informative)

      by cgori ( 11130 ) *
      Absolutely!!!

      Or study EE/CompEng (for example at Stanford you can major in EE with sub-specialization of computer software, or major in CS with sub-specialization of computer hardware -- they are very similar in terms of courses but the theory-classes you take will be different).

      Also, at the grad level, consider programs in Distributed Systems [stanford.edu] in addition to networking.

      ObPlug: Stanford has some excellent higher-division CS and EE classes in computer networks, and distributed systems. Stanford's MS prog
  • ...we're all about the Internet2 [umich.edu]. As far as major, I odn't know that any of our undergrad curricula cover that type of thing, but we have the School of Information [umich.edu], which is a graduate school with tons of IT-type programs and the like.

    Hope you're in-state though, 'cuz Michigan is the most expensive public university in the nation. And for some reason we're proud of this. Sheesh.

  • I know of a few great ones... (Score:5, Funny)

    by terraformer ( 617565 ) <tpb@pervici.com> on Friday February 06, 2004 @08:33PM (#8208334) Journal
    • Calcutta University
    • Delhi College of Engineering
    • Delhi Institute of Technology

  • CMU (Score:4, Funny)

    by STiNGEREGNiTS ( 601786 ) on Friday February 06, 2004 @08:33PM (#8208337)
    I've heard Carnegie Mellon University is the shizzle. I applied and didn't get in, therefore they must be pretty damn good.
    • Yeah, that'd describe us pretty well =)

      We actually do have a Inormation Networking Institute [cmu.edu], but it's a grad program and I haven't exactly heard the best things about it from true CS / ECE grads.

      • Re:CMU (Score:3, Insightful)

        by syates21 ( 78378 )
        That's because they they're jealous their starting salaries aren't as people are getting for a 1.5 year program :) Just kidding.

        Seriously though, at least half the INI curriculum is business-focused, so if you are looking to work in the "real world" it might be good. If you want to focus on more academic pursuits a pure technical degree would probably be better.

  • I think you just answered your own question (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Right from the Internet2 website: list of lead Universities working on Internet2 [internet2.edu].

  • outlook on things (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Kilka ( 694154 ) on Friday February 06, 2004 @08:34PM (#8208345)
    If your true to what you like to do, do it, even if the boat is already full. People that like IT for what it is will do better then most who are there to make a quick buck.

    -Kilka

  • Learn both (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Gunfighter ( 1944 ) on Friday February 06, 2004 @08:34PM (#8208349)
    Nowadays it would be very much to your benefit to be a jack of both trades (programming and networking) and master of a few more. You may want to look into colleges that have good CS programs and then either tackle networking on the side (start w/ CCNA or something), or see if you can get a job working with the university's networking department. Best way to learn networking is hands-on anyways.

    • Best way to learn networking is hands-on anyways.

      This cannot be understated enough. Sure, you can do it with just the books, but there is absolutely no replacement for the experience. I started on my CCNA a while back, and even though I understood the concepts presented in the material, it made much more sense once I set up a test lab to work with. I didn't just know the stuff. I felt it. Perhaps that's a rather abstract way to look at it, but it's the impression I got.

      Do whatever you can to get

  • A vote for my alma mater (Score:2, Informative)

    by T5 ( 308759 )
    The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, has a good network engineering track. Dr. Tom Dunigan, who also is involved with high performance networking/computing/security at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, is a big draw. SNMP was born at UT as well, where Dr. Jeff Case is known to make the occasional appearance when not running SNMP, Inc.

  • Experience Counts (Score:4, Insightful)

    by coronaride ( 222264 ) <coronaride.yahoo@com> on Friday February 06, 2004 @08:35PM (#8208354)
    Not that I know anything, but this applies to everything: experience is vital. Go out and do consulting work to get your hands wet. If you know absolutely nothing start off in tech support somewhere - you will learn very quickly. I don't know about what employers are looking for, but I believe that experience would be way more valuable than a bunch of theory that you may have learned from some junior college prof.
    • Uh. Consulting work is for people who know what they're doing, not a beginners market. If you know absolutely nothing, it is difficult to get into the tech support business (unless you are working for dell in India).

      I agree that experience is important in todays business world, but the "bunch of theory that you may have learned from some junior college prof" is just as important. Even if it just gets your foot in the door somewhere.

  • Is that really a college degree? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 06, 2004 @08:35PM (#8208358)
    Not to troll, but is that really a college-level degree? Unless by "work on things" you mean "analyze and design your own version of," I think a trade-school level degree, or some sort of MIS, plus the appropriate certifications might be your thing.

    However, by sheer virtue of the fact that you "made it" through a more in-depth degree such as CS or Computer Engineering, you'll open yourself up to wider options, and possibly a higher pay. These degrees mean that, in addition to the basic knowledge, you're capable of handing large, complicated projects (if you have a good Capstone program at the school you look at) and have good problem-solving skills, things that aren't, necessarily, taught at a trade-school or 2-year level institution.

    Of course, I'm biased as I'm about 3 months from finishing my B.S. Comp. Engr, and 1 year, 3 months from finishing my M.S. Electrical Engr (Yay, 5-year program!).

    Posted Anonymously to protect the names of the (not so) innocent.

  • The Necessity of Network Engineers?? (Score:5, Informative)

    by lake2112 ( 748837 ) on Friday February 06, 2004 @08:36PM (#8208360)
    I really don't feel you have to focus on exclusivity to Network Engineering. I feel that most schools with programs in Network Engineering are not the most recognizable. I suggest you focus on a CS degree or a computer engineering degree. If you perform well in either of these fields you should be able to land almost any job in the industry. Recruiters look at your college record and see what kind of person you are based on your grades, difficulty of classes, and experience gained. The actual information learned is rather insignificant to the kind of person you are.
    • I second this. I think that if you are truly set on network engineering, go get a combined computer engineering/computer science degree for your bachelors. This will give you all the requisite skills for network engineering. Beyond that, if you go for a masters or PhD, then you should specialize in networking.

      This comes from a computer engineering/computer science major who still has no clue what he wants to do ultimately. I like both the hardware and software sides, but with my degree I'll have the option

    • Re:The Necessity of Network Engineers?? (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      I have to take issue with your statement here: Recruiters look at your college record and see what kind of person you are based on your grades, difficulty of classes, and experience gained.

      I'm a successful Network Engineer, by successful I mean six figure salary. At every point in my career thus far i've had calls and emails from many technical recruiters and i've worked with a few to pursue new opportunities. I haven't, nor has anyone I know, ever spoken to a technical recruiter that was concerned with

  • University of... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Unnngh! ( 731758 ) on Friday February 06, 2004 @08:36PM (#8208371)
    I've heard that UoB, University of Bangalore, offers excellent training, and good job placement;)

  • You can do Cisco at most tech colleges... (Score:5, Informative)

    by mobiux ( 118006 ) on Friday February 06, 2004 @08:36PM (#8208372)
    They have the entire range of Cisco certification classes.
    You also may want to consider something in telecommunications as that covers a lot of networking as well.
    And then you can still apply for work outside of IT.

  • College First, then Certification (Score:5, Informative)

    by Supp0rtLinux ( 594509 ) <Supp0rtLinux@yahoo.com> on Friday February 06, 2004 @08:37PM (#8208374)
    I suggest you go with the college/CompSci degree, then spend another 6 months to a year in a certification-type place getting things like A+, Network+, Cisco basic certs, and some linux/unix sysadmin basic certs (the latter cause most linux/unix sysadmins know networking a lot better than most MCSE types since they are network-centric OSs from the get-go). And depending on where you go to college, many colleges let you take tests for *life experience*, so if you got some network-related certs while in college, you might be able to have them credited and not spend as much time.
    • I disagree. You don't need a CS degree to fix someone's computer. You either want to know how the computer works from the ground up, or you want to simply be able to fix it at the 10,000 foot level.

      In my opinion, you have to choose one or the other. Think about it -- if you're setting up some NT cluster or whatever, you're not going to be writing code to help you get your work done.

      On the other side of the coin, if you're writing code all day you're probably not worried about fixing other people's compu

  • Websites of interest (Score:2, Informative)

    by MikeDawg ( 721537 )

    I would definetly suggest checking out US News [usnews.com]. They have an awesome website, in regards to "rankings" of the U.S. top schools and such, and they have them separated by degree and "rankings". While this may not be THE DEFINITIVE answer, it is certainly a step in the right direction. . .

  • Go to a good college with a good CE or CS program. There are many classes that will teach you the theory behind networking, and some of the practical aspects. Then get sucked into a networking job administering routers. After a few years you'll have everything you need to know about it... namely that it's not 'fun.' The CE or CS degree will get you a ticket to any job if you do actually find out that networking isn't what you want, and if it is then those two degrees will prepare you for a good go at th

  • Cal (Score:4, Insightful)

    by brjndr ( 313083 ) * on Friday February 06, 2004 @08:42PM (#8208417)
    The University of California Berkeley is an all around great school for computer and engineering related fields. Although, when I went there I didn't major in CS or EECS, many of my friends graduated from those programs, and then went onto jobs dealing with networking technologies.

  • Communications Engineering (Score:4, Interesting)

    by IncohereD ( 513627 ) <<gro.eeei> <ta> <doelcamm>> on Friday February 06, 2004 @08:43PM (#8208436) Homepage
    I'm just about finished Communications Engineering [carleton.ca] at Carleton University [carleton.ca]. If it's really a professional engineering design degree that you're after, and not somethign with more of a technological slant, it's definitely the way to go. It was the first Comm Eng program in Canada (I'm in the third batch to graduate this year), and there's a strong batch of professors in the field. It also helps that Ottawa is 'Silicon Valley North'. Nortel headquarters is here, and various Alcatel and JDS plants, etc. Not to mention all the local start-ups.

    We cover everything from distributed network programming, to coding techniques, to circuit design, to protocol implementation, to allocating resources for quality of service. It's great, once you get past all the math and science at the beginning. Introduction to Communications Software was my favourite course ever.
  • I'm not sure I quite understand the point of network eng. as a stand-alone major. Network Engineering, while high in demand, very important and very difficult, does not seem to be the type of job where an academic college degree would be best suited. The poster seems like he is looking for a school that will teach him how to set up and run major network infrastructure and I'm not sure college degree programs are going to be set up to specifically train that. You will get a lot of the required problem solvin

  • Liberal Arts (Score:2, Flamebait)

    by ubiquitin ( 28396 ) *
    If you think that your college efforts are for the sake of a better job and not for a better understanding of the world around you, then you're missing out. Really.

    Consider spending your time studying as an undergraduate on literature, history, philosophy, political science, mathematics, an investigation of human happiness (Aristotle called this ethics), biology, astronomy or a cogent combination of these and other topics [thomasaquinas.edu].

    If it's job preparation you want, it's job preparation you'll get. That's all.
    • This is great advice...

      Bypass all hope of starting a career in network engineering, and get a degree that will allow you to enjoy your lifetime of unemployment!

      After you waste 4 years learning a technical trade that you can't sell, and have nothing rattling around in your head but packets and circuits, you'll wish that you were thinking of flowers and bunnies, and you'll kick yourself for not being able to express your anger in an eloquent manner.

  • Computer Science (Score:2, Informative)

    by DocLabyrinth ( 700915 )
    IMHO the best preparation available (in the context of an undergraduate degree) would simply be a solid program in Computer Science. There are lots of fundamentals to be learned... complexity theory, distributed systems, etc. Once you have a solid grounding in Computer Science you will still need to learn the hands-on material of network engineering ("What do I do with this Cisco thingy?") but you will be at a significant advantage. If you want to work on cutting-edge stuff an academic background is esse

  • This may come across as a conservative approach, but keep in mind that I am an academic and when it comes to education we are expected sometimes to think conservatively. Thus I say to you:

    Building strong foundations on the conceptuals and the foundations of computing is extremely important. You need a good grounding in mathematics, logic, and systems. This is something that you'll get if you majored in CS or math. CS is obviously preferrable.

    Once you have a good understanding of the underlying princ


  • From someone who is self made so to speak in the computing field, don't get a degree in networking. It is in a way a dead end. Most of what you learn in school will be almost obsolete by the time you graduate. Get a degree is MIS or a related field, technology managment, Information Systems Management , ect. Because while it is fun to be a tech for a while eventually you will want to be the boss and for that you will want a degree that mixes tech and buisness/management.

    Indiana University ( 2 to 1.5 fe

  • CS isn't such a bad idea (Score:5, Informative)

    by jbuhler ( 489 ) on Friday February 06, 2004 @08:52PM (#8208518) Homepage
    Disclosure: I am a CS professor (in comp bio, not networking), and my department (WUSTL) is well-known for networking-related research.

    If you want to get into stuff like protocol design, routing architecture and algorithms, and the other "guts" of designing and building high-speed networks, consider a CS or Computer Engineering degree. Besides the obvious courses in networking per se, you will have the opportunity to study algorithms relevant to the area (e.g. minimum spanning tree, network flows, suffix trees and other fast string matching methods for routing tables); hardware design (for building gigabit-and-up routers and other cool network gear); and design of large software systems, including the principles behind distributed systems like the DNS and peer-to-peer networks.

    Depending on where you go and what your interests are, you can also bone up on the underlying math (e.g. queueing theory for protocol design) and maybe even some physics/EE (signal propagation, etc).

    Yes, you can probably work your way to a strong practical knowledge of how to build a network, and getting your hands dirty is essential to success. However, the point of a CS degree is (1) breadth in computing fundamentals, which I hope I've persuaded you are relevant to networking, and (2) quickly getting up to speed on how to *think* about networks, independent of any particular protocol or hardware standard.

    Oh, and speaking of getting hands dirty... if you go to the right place, you might be able to get on board a networking-related research project!

  • NJIT... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ktulu1115 ( 567549 ) on Friday February 06, 2004 @08:54PM (#8208533)
    I would have to agree with some of the other posts... Get an undergrad degree in CS or perhaps IT (I'd recommend CS) and then specialize in graduate school.

    Depending upon how good your existing skills in CS are (I'm talking about mostly programming and general computer knowledge), I can recommend NJIT [njit.edu] as a recent (2 weeks ago) BS in CS graduate. If you happen to live somewhere near the NYC metro area, it's not a bad education if you go in with a good background and don't mind teaching yourself when you can't understand the profs (that happens at most tech schools from what I hear). I thought it was rather easy but then again I started really programming in 2nd grade - most of my classmates wouldn't have agreed with me on the ease of the program though. ::thinking to self::...Maybe I should have gone to MIT...

    Price is reasonable and if you have high enough GPA/SAT scores you could apply for the Albert Dorman Honors College [njit.edu] - they paid for almost my entire undergraduate tuition, but I must warn you it is a lot of work.

    One bad thing I must say though is the quality of campus life - it fucking sucks. ~85% men here and as for the 10-15% left of women... well, you get the idea. However we are about 10 miles due west of the financial district of NYC, about a 30 minute train ride right to Penn Station and there's *plenty* to do in the city, so it' really up to you.

  • Northface University (Score:3, Informative)

    by yintercept ( 517362 ) on Friday February 06, 2004 @08:54PM (#8208535) Homepage Journal
    I recently went to an open house for a new school called Northface University [northface.edu]. They have an extremely interesting bachelor of science degree in computer science where you will spend 28 weeks working on state of the art IT. The teachers include Terry Halpin and Joe Celko. The school is in its first year of existence. That actually means you would be working directly with the professors as they establish curriculum. The idea is to pack a full bachelors degree in a 28 month intense programming fest.
  • Shit, I'm only 26 and aleady I'm jaded...

    --D

  • ask yourself (Score:5, Insightful)

    by illuminatedwax ( 537131 ) <stdrange@alumni. ... u ['go.' in gap]> on Friday February 06, 2004 @09:09PM (#8208638) Journal
    Here's the real question: do you want to be a scientist or an engineer, or do you want to put stuff together?

    Because if you want to STUDY or MAKE things, go to a good CS school: MIT, U of I, Purdue, Carnegie Mellon, University of Chicago (shameless plug, plus U of C will teach you more than just computers). Those are just the top schools off the top of my head, and are necessarily the best schools. I'm sure your own local schools might be good enough. My advice is not to look for a "networking school" as that amount of specialization is not what you want from a university education. See below.

    However, if you want to USE things, then get yourself to a trade school, community college, or hell, just teach yourself and get the certification. No need to waste all that money learning about theory, writing papers, etc., when you can just study how to build and maintain networks.

    Of course, I'm not saying that this is somehow a 'lesser' pursuit; instead you'll learn more specific skills suited to where you want to work: networking.

    --Stephen
  • Might I suggest the University of Washington [washington.edu] in Seattle? It has one of the finest Computer Science [washington.edu] departments in the nation. If you don't want to go into something as scientific as Computer Science, there's always the Informatics [washington.edu] program (one of the only programs of its type in the world) which looks at computers and information in the context of humanity, something that works well within the setting of network engineering.
  • I'm currently a student at Rutgers University [rutgers.edu] College of Engineering majoring in Computer Engineering [rutgers.edu]. Now while that's fine and dandy, I also am able to work at the school doing real networking work. I am able to work with equipment that most *professionals* have only seen pictures of, let alone worked on (Cisco 12000 series routers, for instance). My suggestion to you is find a good (big is nice too) school that you can get real experience at. The reason I say big is because schools typically don't have

  • Penn (Score:2)

    by Corvus ( 27991 )
    Just a data point: I work at the University of Pennsylvania in the core networking department. We do the stuff you are interested in. All of our Network Engineers here have at least a masters degree in either Telecommunications or Comp Sci from the university.
  • By all means take the usual Computer Science or Computer Engineering, but -- get some experience. ASAP, get a job doing something related to networks -- whether it's adminning Cisco gear, servicing small offices, or just pulling cable, it all helps. Working summers and weekends will help you pay for school. But more importantly it will help you understand what you're studying in school. Finally, it will give you the experience you'll need to get a good job after college. It's not just about having "x"
  • First, buy a copy of something like "Computer Networks" by Andrew Tanenbaum. Study it and try to make sense of it all. You don't need to understand every word, instead you just need to realize that it is a good introduction to what you'll be doing in network research. If you just want to set up Cisco routers in fancy ways, then network research probably isn't what you want to do and a few good Cisco certifications are you're best bet.

    If you still are interested, then get into Computer Science (or possi

  • Ignore the certification trolls (Score:5, Informative)

    by anticypher ( 48312 ) <[moc.liamg] [ta] [rehpycitna]> on Friday February 06, 2004 @09:32PM (#8208824) Homepage
    Firstly, congratulations on wanting to go with a real degree before jumping into the networking field. Its the way to go if you want to have any future beyond "button pushing lackey". Your entry level CCNA job has already been shipped to India, shoot higher.

    There may not be a specific "Network Engineer" degree at all universities, what you want is to study Electical Engineering, add in some Mathematics (queue theory, statistics), and top it off with Physics (optics, particle physics). All of these elements are required to actually understand what is going on with networks. Specific topics to concentrate on include circuit design, transmission lines, antennas, material science, compiler design, signal processing, queue theory, and statistics, lots of statistics.

    If you want to be the guy who actually writes new RFCs to be used by everybody else, gets hired by companies like Cisco to create new routers or protocols, and be the chief designer on world spanning networks, ignore the certificates for now. Concentrate on getting the background information necessary to understand all the aspects of network design, like speed of light limitations, electrical characteristics of transmission lines, radio circuits and complex mathematics. Picking up a cisco certificate will then take a week of your time when you are ready to join the workforce, and you'll know not just the HOW, but the WHY.

    There are a ton of CCIEs on the market today, those without university degrees are flipping burgers or repairing PCs. The interesting work, such as creating optical switches or ultra efficient routers, can only be done by people with advanced degrees. The cert holders sit in the NOC at 3 AM, working their way through a never ending stream of trouble tickets, wishing they had a real degree to get a real job.

    That said, from my experiences with US university grads, I'd recommend UC Berkeley, Purdue, CalTech, or UoWashington.

    the AC
    who just let his CCIE expire, because its worthless in todays job market
  • The Computer Science department [wisc.edu] is consistently ranked as one of the top 10 in the United States, and also ranks in the top 10 in several specific CS graduate areas. The department and its faculty and staff are the recipients of numerous honors and awards [wisc.edu]. The CS department has a wide variety of research areas, including computer networking, and operates the Wisconsin Advanced Internet Laboratory (WAIL) [wisc.edu], a one of a kind laboratory for network testing and research.

    The University of Wisconsin [wisc.edu] itself is a p
  • Research in networking tends to occur under CS and EE programs depending on which layer of the problem you're interested in. EEs and physicists tend to focus more on the physical layer, i.e. how to tramsmit and receive the bits over a cable or fiber, while CS tends to be more interested in organization and protocols. Of course there is a lot of cross-over. Get a bs degree in one of these fields to learn the fundamentals. Then get a job or go to grad school to do actual work in the field.
  • Be careful about forming too strong an ideology about post-college life while still in high school. For example, there are lots of kids who after watching one too many shows on the Discovery Channel think they want to be great engineers or marine biologists or whatever, then choose their school based on this dream, go to that school, and burn out after the fifth semester of calculus or find they really wanted to be a musician all along but are now at the wrong school for that. It is perfectly fine to se
  • You need to take some English courses. You're obviously American - I've worked with ESL students and you make purely American mistakes.

    what colleges im going to apply to

    I'm not going to get into stylistic subtleties here ("what" instead of "which", preposition "to" separated from its object, using "but" twice in the same sentence with differing puncutation). Instead, I'd like to remind you that the first person singular pronoun is always capitalized in English and that contractions contain apo

  • "Ive come to that time in my life"

    I'm going to recommend you avoid the ivey league.

  • Texas A&M University (Score:3, Informative)

    by aggieben ( 620937 ) <aggiebenNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Friday February 06, 2004 @10:16PM (#8209052) Homepage Journal
    I know I'm plugging my own university here, but A&M has a really great environment if you want to do networking. Also, the CPSC degree plan is pretty flexible.

    Check out the
    VNE [tamu.edu] and this list [nsa.gov]
    of schools that the NSA has designated as "CENTERS OF ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE IN INFORMATION ASSURANCE EDUCATION" which also largely have good networking programs. This list of course includes Texas A&M University :-). Also, note the NE program at TAMU: http://vnelab.cs.tamu.edu/network_engineering_vne. html

  • IUPUI (Score:5, Informative)

    by Pionar ( 620916 ) on Saturday February 07, 2004 @01:46AM (#8210016)
    Not a very well known school, but it's a campus of both Indiana University and Purdue. I suggest checking out the Informatics [iupui.edu] major. IUPUI also has a part in Internet2. I'm not sure of the details, as my area is bioinformatics, but there's something under the library :o).

    Otherwise, you may also be interested in Purdue's CPT [iupui.edu] program. They offer a Network Engineering Degree. Purdue is perhaps the best engineering/tech university in the midwest, maybe even east of the Mississippi. In fact, maybe even east of California. And unlike IU, their football team doesn't entirely suck.

    Plus, Indianapolis has lots of things going for it for someone in the industry. Plenty of large companies that need tech workers (the headquarters of Lilly and Conseco and Thompson Consumer Electronics North America and Simon Property Group - the world's largest mall owner) as well as many regionally strong tech companies.

    Yes, I'm a little biased, but for good reason.

Slashdot Top Deals

Beware of Programmers who carry screwdrivers. -- Leonard Brandwein

Close