<p>I posted my situation in the Berkeley forum on CC, but I wasn't able to get much response.
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-berkeley/1312664-cs-ucbs-cls-cs-uclas-henry.html%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-berkeley/1312664-cs-ucbs-cls-cs-uclas-henry.html</a></p>
<p>Given my situation, should I choose UCLA over UCB?</p>
<p>UCLA Reagents is definitely something you have to accept. Period.
Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and is the birthplace of the Internet.
And really, do people really call it UCB? I think just plain Berkeley sounds so much cooler.</p>
<p>EDIT: I apologize if it sounds like I meant that Reagents is binding. I just meant to put emphasis on the perks of being a Regents scholar.</p>
<p>I wasn’t aware that regent is binding. More over, how is CS recruitment in UCLA compared to Berkeley?</p>
<p>Oh, no I’m not saying that Reagents is binding. I was just over-hyping the perks you get as Reagents. Getting a fullride, priority class enrollment, resume notation, and parking priorities are just way too hard to turn down (for me anyways).</p>
<p>I’m sorry but I don’t know enough about CS recruitment to give advice on that. I just have several friends and a roommate who are CS here. And what I hear a lot is that the game company Blizzard was started by UCLA alumni. That and the Internet was born here.</p>
<p>If you’re a CS major in most places, recruiting will be amazing for you. I believe it’s one of the top, if not THE top major to have for getting a job right out of college. For UCLA specifically I’ve heard CS recruiting is really good too. I have a friend who recently had the HORRIBLE decision (sarcasm) of choosing between interning at LinkedIn, Amazon, & Facebook, and possibly Disney, and another who’s an intern for Khan Academy. Whether you’re looking for a professional career track or research we have both - like phospholipase said this IS the birthplace of the internet! UCLA is really good with constantly having recruitment/information fairs too.
And Regents is just an amazing opportunity. Period. Although you can’t go wrong with either school, congrats on awesome choices!</p>
<p>Honestly the best advice is visit both campuses and see which one’s environment suits you better. You are going to have 4 years of your life at a university…taking a couple hours to visit each one is a small investment. And if Berkeley ended up making me much happier after my visit, I would by all means turn down UCLA regents and vice versa. The perks are awesome but its not worth your happiness.</p>
<p>2 of my best friends are CS here; one of them is a regents scholar . Trust me, recruitment is fine here. Big companies come every year like Google, yahoo, Microsoft, Amazon, LinkedIn, facebook, Blizzard, etc. They got interviews at all of the above and are going to have a nice job after June. Granted, my friends are smart but the point is they were happy with the school and did well. Regardless of whether you go to Cal or UCLA, you are going to have to excel in your classes + have ambition if you want to get interviews to the top companies and get in. Go to a school where you will be happy and the rest of the pieces will fall in place, as both schools give you the tools to suceed.</p>
<p>Guys, thanks for the inputs thus far. I will probably be a bit more decisive after I’ve visited both campuses in April. I have several questions regarding UCLA, though.</p>
<p>Granted, my regent scholar status will go away if I dip below a 3.0 GPA, how hard it is to get a 3.0+ when you’re a CS major. I read that engineering majors in general have very low GPA compared to other departments. </p>
<p>I’m not quite sure how much are the workloads yet, but I study for tests, and doesn’t procrastinate when I should be doing schoolwork (yes, even now in high school senior year). Will I be able to keep my GPA above a 3.0 if I continue to keep that attitude in college? Or does it takes a certain “talent” to be able to success as a CS major? I haven’t take AP computer science before; my school doesn’t offers it.</p>
<p>What do the CS courses generally teach you? Do they teach you from the basic, along with specific coding, or just the proper mindset and ways of thinking you need for a CS related job? If the latter is true, is there an expectation that I will need to self-learn all the coding?</p>
<p>Thanks. You guys have been helpful :D</p>
<p>The CS programs between Cal and UCLA are fairly similar, the schools may have strengths in different areas but it doesn’t really matter for undergrad unless you already know that you want to concentrate on graphics, networking or something like that. </p>
<p>I don’t know what you need to get a Regents scholarship but I assume you’ve got to be pretty good academically. In which case you probably don’t have to worry about keeping your GPA above 3.0 especially if you keep up with the reading, lectures and hw. Procrastination on CS upper div projects can really bite you hard, they’re not like term papers that you can pull an one nighter to finish. </p>
<p>UCLA generally recommends 12 units your first quarter to ease you into the system, but I didn’t have any issues with 16 my first quarter. I had no idea what CS was about when I got into it, so don’t think you need a certain “talent” to do well and you don’t need to worry about not having taken AP CS. If you’re worried, just pick up a beginner’s book on programming to get your feet wet over the summer. </p>
<p>Engineering CS at UCLA is fairly theoretical and gives you a solid understanding which you can apply to whatever specific language or system you may have to work on in the future. They teach you the basics and the theory which you will have to implement in whatever “sandbox system” or language (c/c++/java/etc) they are using for the hw assignments/projects.
There are some CS courses that are more heavy on the theory (algorithms, databases) vs some courses that are heavier on coding/implementation (graphics, AI, compilers). The basic lower div courses I think were about 50/50 with a lot of busy work at the time but I hope they’ve changed that up these days. </p>
<p>One major difference between Cal and UCLA is the semester vs the quarter system. The quarter system is very fast paced, and 10 wks of material + 1 week of finals goes thru very quick. Cal’s semester system is 15 weeks with 2 weeks of finals and I believe they take 5-6 classes a semester? UCLA you’re pretty much doing 4 classes a quarter, maybe 4+1 lab so its almost like you are sprinting every quarter to keep from falling behind. </p>
<p>I will say I much prefered UCLA’s campus, campus life, location, & social and entertainment scene over Cal’s. And a free ride is definitely a plus in today’s economy</p>
<p>After weighing both schools, I’ve decided to attend UCLA. However, my parents are hell bent on me attending Berkeley. I decided on UCLA because students seem to be happier there. This will be my one and only four years college life, and I want to live the best of it. </p>
<p>My parent points to Berkeley CS students’ high starting salary. Even though it’s 10k above those of UCLA CS students, I’d be nearly 40k in debt when I get my degree from Berkeley.</p>
<p>They also saw UCLA as a party school with rich kids. How should I convince them that it’s a work hard, study hard school instead? They also don’t think much of the fact that UCLA gave me the Regent scholarship, even though there’s only ~400 Regent scholars in UCLA.</p>
<p>I’m not a conservative person by any mean, but I don’t think Berkeley’s culture is what I’m looking for =/</p>
<p>The starting salary numbers can be so iffy because it depends so much on the person. If you work hard, and network well, then it doesn’t really matter whether you go to Berkeley or UCLA. People are saying how desirable Computer Scientists are, and they’re supposed to be in high demand in the following years.</p>
<p>UCLA is already a very nice school, and getting a fullride anywhere is just amazing. Are your parents saying that they’ll pay that 40K for you? If they’re not going to pay for it, then it should totally be your choice not to accrue that debt by attending UCLA instead.</p>
<p>From stories that I hear, Berkeley can be a pretty big party school, too. I don’t quite see how your parents think UCLA is full of rich people, and ignore our academic prowess. We’re a top 25 school in the US, and we’re internationally ranked, although I don’t know the numbers. We have the best hospital west of the Mississippi, and kids and parents in Asian countries dream of their kids going to UCLA. Hahaha these are just anecdotes. Really, I don’t know how to convince your parents that students here don’t just party.</p>
<p>Are your parents pushing berkeley because of bragging rights ? Or are they worried you won’t be able to make ends meet because of that 10k difference. </p>
<p>They seem to have a pretty warped view of ucla. Perhaps they have yet to visit the campus or spoken to any other students or parents of ucla students. You could show them school rankings although those types of stats are mostly meaningless. </p>
<p>Both schools are UCs with pretty similar acceptance criteria. Not sure why ucla would be full of rich kids and not Berkeley as well? Ucla is a fairly diverse campus and many students from lower income families. In state students are usually fairly close to 50/50 norcal/socal. LA is not all belair/ Beverly Hills. If anything that’s a very small portion of la county</p>
<p>Your salary depends a lot more on your negotiation skills.
Don’t take the debt. The benefits of a free ride + priority enrollment are nothing to sneeze at either. Your happiness is not worth compromising for your parents’ perceptions.</p>