The Wall Street Journal recently ranked San José State University as No. 4 on its list of top public universities and 16 overall in the nation.
The U.S. News & World Report rated the engineering, computer science, and business programs as some of the best in the nation despite not offering doctorate degrees based on departments within SJSU, according to their website.
Aakash Krishnan, a second-year computer science student and lab instructor at SJSU shared that the hands-on approach that SJSU upholds influenced his choice to come to SJSU.
“The (computer science) department (at SJSU) is probably better than the rankings would place it at because, if you were to look at UC/CSU systems, they have completely different purposes,” Krishnan said.
While UC Berkeley and Stanford University typically get the majority of attention nationally for their computer science programs, SJSU provides a more intimate and resourceful experience, according to Krishnan.
“My brother goes to (UC) Berkeley. His maximum interaction is with grad students who are there to grade the class or just lead lab section,” Krishnan said. “Here it seems they're placing the students, like peer connections, as learning assistants in classes… to interact directly with students and ensure that you can discuss it with questions you have with someone who has done the course before you.”
On SJSU’s Computer Science program catalog and website, the majority of in-person major classes are after 3 p.m. and are taught by visiting lecturers, utilizing Peer Connections for assisting students.
Maya Abraham, a second-year computer science student, who was previously homeschooled, talked about why she chose SJSU over other top universities.
“When looking for colleges, I was looking for ones that were primarily based around a lot of businesses or opportunities that were relating to that,” said Abraham. “San José is a hub because Google and Apple and all these other businesses surround it.”
On choosing where to go after high school, Abraham said that the reputation of SJSU’s computer science department made it an easy decision for her.
Abraham said she was able to do an internship her freshman year through Engineering Success at SJSU.
She said the program helped her make connections with other students and gave her the opportunity to work on projects surrounding Virtual Reality.
Due to a budget constraint, SJSU recently let go of all their graders for the computer science program for classes of 75 students or less, according to Abraham and Krishnan.
“So (SJSU) is, in my opinion, extremely underfunded. They have a pretty high rate of faculty coming and lecturers just leaving the department because they're getting paid better elsewhere,” Krishnan said.
At SJSU, the maximum an instructor or lecturer can make annually is $80,124, according to their most recent faculty salary schedule. While UC Berkeley assistant professors—the lowest division of ranking—can make a maximum of $101,400 annually, according to their 2024 salary scales report.
Thomas Huynh, a first-year kinesiology student, said that the overall scenery and campus experience has been great so far.
However, Brandon Sanares, a first-year SJSU student shared that some of the biggest areas of improvement at SJSU would be the parking and the student housing facilities.
“The hot water, they keep shutting it off and shutting it back on a lot. It's not constant whether you have to take a cold shower or a hot shower that day,” Sanares said.
Despite these hurdles of transportation, housing, and financial support, SJSU has kept up its reputation for academics and job placement as shared by students.
“If you're looking for a career related path, then the CSU system is pretty good, especially SJSU because we have involvement from Amazon, Adobe, and all the tech companies in the area in the curriculum development itself,” Krishnan said.
