r/cscareerquestionsEU • u/LegitimateChimp772 • 2d ago

Does master's university prestige still matter with FAANG + quant internships?

For some context: I’m from a European country, but not one with top-tier education (not UK, Switzerland, France, or anything like that). I’m just finishing my bachelor’s degree in computer science at the top university in my country, which is around top 200 worldwide.

I’m deciding between doing my master’s at my current university or at a different one that is slightly worse (around top 400 worldwide) and not really as well known as my current one. My goal is to intern at one of the top quant firms next summer as an SWE, but I’m afraid this might lower my chances a bit.

I already have some internship experience, and by the end of summer I’ll have had 2 FAANG internships plus 2 quant SWE internships (not top-tier ones, though). I’m wondering whether choosing the “worse” university will lower my chances of getting interviews in any way. Do recruiters care about this if it is not a top-tier university like ETH or ICL, especially when I already have some experience?

It is not like the other university is bad or anything. I know at least a few people there who got internships or new grad offers this year from companies like js/citadel/hrt, but it is definitely not as respected as my current one.

Thanks

0 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

40% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

View all comments

7

u/sh1bumi Senior SWE | FAANG | German | 5 YoE 1d ago

You are overthinking this.

The university doesn't really matter in Europe..much more important is work experience and a way to show "passion" (for example years long steady stream of open source contributions etc).

I saw people with very good university degree + grades getting reject and I saw people with bad grades and degree getting hired.

For example, I studied ~10 years at TU Clausthal (a small technical university in Germany nobody ever heard about) and finished both degrees with bad grades.

What I did instead was:

  1. Focus on open source contributions
  2. Focus on topics I found interesting, back then that was Linux, Containers, Cloud Native etc.
  3. Lots of experience as work student, Google Summer of Code Internship, etc.

2

u/LegitimateChimp772 1d ago

You're probably right that I'm overthinking. However, afaik the trading companies care more about your university, hence why I'm asking

1

u/fruini 19h ago

University name is only relevant in research or when fast tracking executive positions (very rare in Europe anyways).

Otherwise it's only relevant at the start of the career. Typically a big tech or quant role will outweigh your studies.