Latest news with #GeneralCodingAssessment
Epoch Times
22-05-2025
- Business
- Epoch Times
San José State University Ranked in Top 10 for Computer Science
San José State University (SJSU) has been ranked 9th among the top 50 universities for computer science in the United States in 2025, 'I'm super happy and proud of our students for having achieved this,' Chris Pollett, chair of the university's computer science department, told The Epoch Times. The ranking assesses students' coding skills using the industry standard General Coding Assessment. CodeSignal, the platform behind the rankings, provides major tech companies such as Google and Meta with assessments to ensure that incoming candidates are qualified. Despite being one of the two top 10 schools in the list that were not included in the U.S. News & World Report's top 30 for engineering programs, SJSU is home to top coding talent. CodeSignal's tip for recruiters? Target overlooked schools like SJSU, which, according to the report, are significantly less likely to be targeted than Stanford, MIT, and UC Berkeley. Related Stories 5/20/2025 5/16/2025 The university 'Talent comes from everywhere—not just the schools traditionally recognized as top engineering schools,' the report states. Pollett said that in Silicon Valley, it's possible to 'perform above your weight class.' The university's location in the heart of Silicon Valley gives it a unique edge in students' job and internship opportunities. The area is home to tech giants like Apple, Google, Meta, Nvidia, and several others that are headquartered there. 'Silicon Valley is just chock-full of our graduates,' said longtime computer science professor Jon Pearce. Being at SJSU affords students plenty of internships that they wouldn't be able to find in other areas, Pearce told The Epoch Times. Pollett agreed that SJSU is a major supplier of computer science students to Silicon Valley companies. He said the university tries to give students opportunities to work with local companies. One such opportunity was taken by software engineering student Samarth Sharma, who currently interns at a venture capital firm. Sharma told The Epoch Times that his manager said he really likes SJSU because he's had great experiences with previous interns from the university. Software engineering graduate student Nivedita Nair and several of her friends have also found internships during their time at SJSU. She told The Epoch Times that the school hosts career fairs where students have opportunities to connect with recruiters from local tech companies, which can lead to internships. For Nair, the university's proximity to major tech headquarters was part of the reason she chose to attend. Besides recruiters, faculty members themselves often have experience in tech. They stay on top of current trends and advancements such as AI, so they're able to teach students what really matters in the industry, according to Sharma. He said that all of his current professors are industry professionals. As all these advantages have become available, the program has become more competitive, in recent years. Admissions requirements such as GPA are higher than ever, which Pollett said is improving the quality of students they receive. Pearce's impression is that the above average students are now 'way above average' and could excel at any university. Both Sharma and Nair appreciate how helpful their student peers have been, saying that they've learned and benefited a lot from them, especially those with industry experience. SJSU was 'That's certainly been the wisdom for a while now,' he said.
Miami Herald
15-05-2025
- Business
- Miami Herald
San Jose State University beats Stanford, Cal in computer coding
San Jose State University has shot past Stanford and UC Berkeley to a top-10 spot in a ranking of U.S. universities based on a standardized computer coding test. The school leapt to the No. 9 spot this year in rankings by CodeSignal, a San Francisco company whose General Coding Assessment is widely used by major technology companies to evaluate potential hires. That position put San Jose State in front of Berkeley at No. 19 and Stanford at No. 25, a giant leap from last year, when the school was ranked 32nd, and from 2023, when it ranked 48th. "This is great news," said San Jose State engineering school dean Sheryl Ehrman, who attributed the result to eager students, talented tenure-track faculty, and part-time instructors with tech industry experience who are "really trying to impart those real-world skills." Whether the university could continue its trajectory to the top of the rankings would require a dramatic upset. This year and last year, Carnegie Mellon took No. 1 and Massachusetts Institute of Technology came in No. 2, while in 2023, MIT came out on top, followed by New York's Stony Brook University, with Carnegie Mellon at No. 3. The downtown San Jose school is an "under-told story" behind Silicon Valley's success, said South Bay Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna. "It's always been such a key component of churning out engineers, churning out people in technology," Khanna said this week. "A lot of headlines go to Stanford and Berkeley. San Jose State and Santa Clara (University) are really important contributors, and San Jose, of course, being a public school, is more accessible for folks that can't afford Stanford or Santa Clara." CodeSignal CEO Tigran Sloyan said the general coding assessment is taken by the vast majority of U.S. computer science students, and is intended to provide a "data-driven view" of people's coding ability. Students generally take it annually starting in their junior year, and can share their results with prospective employers, he said. The 70-minute test includes four questions to measure different coding skills. Launched six years ago, CodeSignal's assessment has become very popular among tech and financial companies, Sloyan said. The test, Sloyan contended, gives prospective employers a much better idea of a software engineering or software development candidate's qualifications than a resume, which may attract an employer's attention for the presence of a particularly prestigious school without any guarantee the student or graduate developed the commensurate skills. Every school has brilliant, average and mediocre students, Sloyan said. "Most companies want to go beyond resumes and find great people regardless of which schools they came from," Sloyan said. Sloyan believes San Jose State's rapid climb toward the top of the university pack in CodeSignal's rankings reflects the effectiveness of the school's faculty and programs. "Clearly San Jose State is doing something right when it comes to tech education," Sloyan said. "So far, the observation is that what they might be doing different from other schools is having a more hands-on approach to education." UC Berkeley and Stanford declined to comment on the rankings. Harshil Vyas, soon to graduate from San Jose State with a master's in software engineering, pointed to the school's tech-veteran instructors as a key benefit, along with large numbers of fellow students like him who have worked in tech and share their varied experiences with each other. The school's location in Silicon Valley is another boon, said Vyas, 25. "It's somewhat a motivation when you see the tech industry around you," Vyas said. "It helps you push to the goal." Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.
