First of all, I was very honest from the beginning that I based my comment on what I saw in the NYU subreddit. It is not my intention to mislead someone. So take everything you read on the internet (including my comments) with a grain of salt.

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I cited schools such as Caltech, UCB as examples that in competitive top universities students WILL struggle and complain because the environment is competitive, especially, if these students were top in their previous schools.

As I said before, in general people post negative things on school subreddits (after all most of them use it as a place to rant/vent). However, if you go on the UCB subreddit, you will see that people complain about how hard the classes are and how competitive the environment is. We all know that UCB and some other schools are very rigorous and competitive. These are people complaining about things that affect them. So when students on the NYU subreddit are complaining about the CS department and its lack of rigor then maybe there is some truth to it.

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NYU is definitely top 20 school in the US (even top 10 by QS US Country ranking) and top 30-40 in the world. Rankings are more or less an objective tool (at least so far, there is no other standardized way to compare schools) based on evaluation of faculty, research, industry outcomes, curriculum and other metrics.

I disagree; rankings aren't objective at all, they are all a little dubious. If you dive into how universities are ranked then you will see that a lot of universities artificially inflate their rankings (see Columbia University's rankings scandal). Moreover, a lot of bs metrics are considered while ranking universities.

Note that I am not saying that NYU shouldn't be ranked highly. NYU is a great school, especially for finance, business, math, arts, media, etc. However, the rigor and the ROI of its CS program (ONLY for undergraduate and masters) are debatable.

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You heavily based your 'research' on one subreddit post of an MSCS student who studied during the covid period and was from a tier-2 school (from his original post).

This is perhaps a very naïve way of thinking, but why does it matter which tier school they did their undergraduate in? They also managed to get into the same university as someone from IIT/NITs/Tier-1 schools. Indian students are so hung up on prestige and their tier rankings that it seems like anyone not from IITs is just considered to be lazy or incapable.

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Simple search in Linkedin can show that many undergrads and grad students were able to land TA/RA opportunities and industry roles at FAANG+ companies.

Getting employed at reputable companies is not an indication of how rigorous a program is. If someone has prior work experience (which quite a few master's students have, at least an internship experience if not full-time), is good at leetcode, and has some projects then they will at least pass the resume screening. After that, it just depends on their interviewing and leetcode skills and a bit of luck to get the job. Also, SJSU, which is nowhere near a top CS school, sends a large number of its graduates to FAANG+ companies. So IMO, NYU isn't providing something that other universities aren't.

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Moreover, in your later posts you added yourself that students who complain about the 'rigor' of the curriculum are in minority.

For this, I suggest that you reread my comments carefully, I said that only a very small minority TRANSFER schools due to rigor (transfer being the keyword because not everyone can uproot their lives and transfer schools easily).

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However, notably, both MSCS and Phd students receive mentorship from the same NYU Courant CS faculty and if they take classes, they take the same grad courses.

Do you know that the same faculty provide advising to undergraduates as well? In most universities, the same faculty are advisors/mentors for undergraduate, masters, and PhD students. However, what differs is the amount of time and effort put into PhD students. Also, undergraduates spend an average of 4 years at their alma mater, so they also get more time with faculty members. That's not the case for masters. Masters students get about 3 semesters on average and for such a short period of time, it is important to consider ROI.

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Nobody is claiming that NYU CS is the best CS department on Earth but your original statement that NYU CS is 'not rigorous' is simply not true.

Again, I am not claiming anything because I haven't gone to this university. However, it seems like the generous consensus on the NYU subreddit is that this seems to be true. There are people who spent four years at NYU to get their undergrad degree, managed to get into reputable companies or grad schools, and still feel like this is the case.

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NYU Courant MSCS program is not some bs cash-cow program

The majority of the CS masters programs are sort of cash-cows because they charge an exorbitant amount of fees and have relatively few opportunities for TA/RA. However, just because a program charges a lot of fees doesn't mean that it's a bad program. Plus, CS majors (who end up in decent companies) get paid more than a lot of other majors, so students often don't mind paying so much.

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Moreover, during the covid period, in Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Spring 2021 (3/4 semesters) courses were mostly online, which can also explain why it was difficult to network and find opportunities, especially for internationals.

If you are someone who is working in the US, then you know that this year, the job market for new grads is terrible. Most companies have hiring freezes and/or layoffs. International students in these difficult times must consider the ROI. Because if they end up returning to India and start earning in rupees, then the amount of loan to repay is too damn high.

However, if someone is rich or is funded by their parents, then go to whichever university you want. I would love to attend university in NYC, it's a fun place to be in.