WINNER OF 2023 ASSOCIATED COLLEGIATE PRESS PACEMAKER AWARD, NEWSPAPER/NEWSMAGAZINE NAMED BEST CAMPUS NEWSPAPER IN CALIFORNIA FOR 2022 BY THE CALIFORNIA COLLEGE MEDIA ASSOCIATION AND CALIFORNIA NEWS PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION
Thursday, October 3, 2024
Volume 163 No. 18 WWW.SJSUNEWS.COM/SPARTAN_DAILY
SERVING SAN JOSÉ STATE UNIVERSITY SINCE 1934
News
A&E
Sports
Mahan to help San José downtown businesses
The Menéndez brothers star in Netflix's 'Monsters'
SJSU's Nick Nash sparks special strart to season
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ILLUSTRATION BY CIA CASTRO
SJSU recognized by Journal By Charity Spicer STAFF WRITER
The Wall Street Journal recently ranked San José State 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 handson 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.
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 c ompute r science department made it an easy decision for her.
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
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 firstyear 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 Aakash Krishnan a career related path, Second-year computer science student and lab instructor then the CSU system is pretty good, especially SJSU because we have i nvolve m e nt f rom Amazon, Adobe and all the tech companies in the Maya Abraham, a Abraham said she was paid better elsewhere,” area in the curriculum second-year computer able to do an internship Krishnan said. development itself,” science student who was her freshman year At SJSU, the maximum Krishnan said. previously homeschooled, through Engineering an instructor or lecturer talked about why she Success at SJSU. can make annually is chose SJSU over other She said the program $80,124, according to
The (computer science) department (at SJSU) is probably better than the rankings would place it as because if you were to look at at UC/ CSU systems, they have completely different purposes.
So, (SJSU) is in my opinion extremely underfunded. They have pretty high rate of faculty coming and lecturers just leaving the department because they’re getting payed elsewhere. Aakash Krishnan Second-year computer science student and lab instructor
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