Besides the obvious choices, here's what I've heard from my friends: - UIUC has a pretty solid CS program, but it's cooold out there. - University of Michigan

Besides the obvious choices, here's what I've heard from my friends: - UIUC has a pretty solid CS program, but it's cooold out there. - University of Michigan is solid too. - NYU isn't the best CS education, but the amazing location will open a lot of doors for you. - Columbia's CS program isn't that great. If you could get into Columbia, you might as well go to one of the top 5 CS programs instead. - My next door neighbor here at Berkeley went to Brown for his undergrad, and spoke highly of his education there. Just my two cents :)