Hello there,
trying to find input on this - ASU Barrett Honors college vs UC Riverside, for my kid, for CS undergraduate.
We are in CA. Barrett gave decent scholarships and that has made both UC Riverside and Barrett at the same cost (almost…and so cost is not a factor). We have not visited either of these campuses (pandemic )
My daughter had selected Data Science for Riverside (and got it) but she wants to change to CS - however, Riverside did not allow at this stage and said that she will have to wait till Fall semester. My daughter has been very inclined towards Barrett and Riverside delaying major change has also made her move more towards Barrett.
For this question - lets assume she gets CS in UC Riverside. How both compares - UC RIverside and Battett?
@Sandydjdm i read your 2014 post about Barrett. Any input from your kid’s experience?
Daughter accepted to UCSB, UCSD, CalPoly SLO, and SDSU Weber Honors. She picked Barrett not because of the full tuition ride, but because she felt at home there.
After her first year, COVID and all, she had a great experience. She is in WP Carey Business School. Has a great summer internship in Supply Chain. Lots of social life, and academically thriving.
While UC Riverside is a very good school, it doesn’t offer the entire college experience as Barrett does. Barrett students are treated very well, and they get first pick with classes, which is a huge advantage at a big public university. I also think for CS, ASU has a very good reputation. It has a tremendous amount of resources that even only a few UCs have.
@sbdad12 Thank you so much for your input. I can relate to “at home” with Barrett, even as a parent, with all interactions with them so far. They have been flexible, very prompt and very supportive.
We are thinking of visiting Barrett to get the feel and hopefully meet some faculty and students.
Two things I am trying to find out:
I heard that Barrett does not have many CS related honors classes and “small-size”-classes are mostly in human event programs.
Can we take the scholarships awarded as freshman as granted for other 3 years? For example, she has been awarded New American University Scholar - Dean’s Award.
Hi @raj.may6 - My DS is a senior in CS. Very few of the sections are smaller class size. He is starting to take some graduate classes and those are still pretty large. They try to counter the lecture size (100+ sometimes as many as 300) with recitations. These are smaller subsets of the larger class that meet with a TA at a different time of the week. The professor is also available during office hours.
With regard to the Scholarship - the NAMU is a 4 year scholarship. There are some stipulations for renewal (grade point avg and minimum credits required), but most students get renewed easily.
As campus visits return to normal (fingers crossed) coordinate with the Barrett admissions people. They will set up several great meetings. My older DS was a student assistant in their office and helped coordinate all those meetings.
I don’t have much to add to what @sbdad12 and @usma87 wrote. A good thing in my opinion is that CS is considered an engineering discipline at ASU.
Most lecture classes are pretty large but recitation classes and labs are quite small, so it’s not an issue.
Scholarships are for four years, and if somehow you fail to meet the renewal requirements by a small margin, you can get into the maintenance plan which gives you an opportunity to get back on your feet. See Scholarship Maintenance Plan | ASU Students | ASU
You might want to read the book " Inside Honors 2020-2021: Ratings and Reviews of 40 Public University Honors Programs" to get more info about ASU Barrett.
Thank you @usma87@sbdad12@NJEngineerDad . You all are awesome. I am very new into this group - feel like very close-knit group. It’s hard for first-time-parent, to find genuine input, feedback and support, especially if you have not been to college yourself in the US. So, thank you and great to be part of such virtual-extended family
We do ok at trying to provide accurate info with as little fluff as possible. The first time through the process can be intimidating. This part of the board is pretty level-headed.
My CS kid is doing an internship at Garmin this summer. His girlfriend is doing one with Apple. Her previous internship was with NASA/JPL. My point is the CS program has some good connections to industry to help get students plugged in early.
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