Hello all!
To give you some background, I am a High School senior living in the PNW (white and male if that helps). My GPA is ~3.98 (not weighted for APs), and my best single-sitting SAT score was 1450 (1510 is superscored). I applied to colleges for the major of computer science. Now, having heard back from a few I am struggling to decide what to do. Here’s my quandary:
I have been accepted into UCSD and UCSC with computer science as my major. I have been waitlisted at Cal Poly SLO for direct admission to their comp sci program. I’m still waiting to hear back from UCSB and Berkeley.
I’ve been searching the internet for the various reputations/opinions about these UC’s, their comp sci programs, and the general school vibes and have been getting a lot of mixed messages. So if anyone could help me answer these following questions I would be so so grateful:
-Does the quality of the computer science educations between the UCs (and SLO) really differ that much? (ie: would it be a mistake to choose UCSC over UCSD, or UCSB, or Berkeley for comp sci because the programs at one are so much better than others?)
-Is it better to go to a school that matches your personal vibe with a slightly less prestigious program, or go to more prominent comp sci UC and hope it fits my personality?
-What are the vibes at the different UCs? (are UCSD and UCSC as “boring” as some people say they are? I hope not because they very sound like cool options!)
I know there is some info about this already scattered through CC, but I thought it might be nice to have a single thread for it all. Any advice/experiences/input would be greatly appreciated 
I know that a lot of the experience is based on what you put into it personally, but it can’t help to get more info before jumping in. I just want to make the best choice I can with the possibilities presented to me.
For UCSD, verify that you actually have direct admission to the CS major. Getting into the CS major if you enroll there without direct admission is very difficult. https://cse.ucsd.edu/undergraduate/cse-capped-major-status
For UCSC, if you are not directly admitted to CS, you need a 2.80 college GPA in the prerequisite courses: https://registrar.ucsc.edu/catalog/programs-courses/program-statements/cmps.html
Both UCSD and UCSC have the residential college system that affects what general education requirements you have to take; students of any major may be in any residential college. Students (particularly upper class level students) do not necessarily live on campus in the residential colleges, though.
Can you afford the UCs at out-of-state prices?
On my application portal for UCSD it says, “Congratulations! We are pleased to offer you admission for Fall 2018 to the University of California San Diego as a major in Computer Science,” which I assume means I was accepted directly to the major. The same goes for UCSC. Thank you for bringing the element of different general ed reqs to my attention; I’ll investigate those. Luckily yes, I have talked with my parents and they believe that with good planning we can afford the out of state prices. Any input about the difference in comp sci education between the UCs?
@ucbalumnus Is “Mathematics - Computer Science” mean I got accepted for Comp Sci?
The residential college comparisons at UCSD and UCSC:
http://provost.ucsd.edu/colleges/compare.html
https://housing.ucsc.edu/colleges/
For CS major requirements:
http://www.ucsd.edu/catalog/curric/CSE-ug.html
https://registrar.ucsc.edu/catalog/programs-courses/program-statements/cmps.html
But also check the course offerings for each school to see if there are any particular areas of your interest that one school has better offerings than the other.
Both UCSD and UCSC are considered respectable by employers. UCSD is more selective generally and hence is viewed as more “prestigious”. UCSC is within driving distance to Silicon Valley computer companies, which can make recruiting easier.