<p>D has admission into CMU and USC Electrical Engineering / Computer Engineering program (ECE).</p>
<p>A few questions. Appreciate your input:
1. Is CMU ECE more difficult than USC's ECE/EE program? Meaning will she have a difficult time maintaining a good GPA at CMU as compared to USC. Does one college work harder than the other to see you succeed in school? Concern is, say a 3.3 GPA at CMU is at a disadvantage compared to a 3.7 GPA at USC (assuming USC is slightly easier school)
2. Which school is a better conduit to Northeast and Silicon Valley job market?
3. Does USC provide access to internships in Silicon Valley and Northeast?
4. Is social life at USC far better than CMU?</p>
<p>Grades will probably be lower at CMU but it will unlikely harm recruitment - CMU grads are highly valued and do very well placing even with Bs dominating As - on both coasts. Social life and alumni ties are night and day as you’d probably guess, the stereotypes hold here. If you want a D1 sports scene and more mainstream social scene USC is the obvious place to be. If coding and gaming define your gene pool, LA doesn’t exactly come to mind unless you find yourself at Mudd or Caltech. </p>
<p>I’m not too familiar with CMU. However, CMU is a top dog program in CS and very strongly recruited nationwide for CS. I think USC is obviously much more fun. USC undoubtedly has a very strong alumni network - but its strength is most strong in Southern California. For CS jobs in Silicon Valley and Northeast, CMU holds the advantage. USC is more limited to Southern Cal. If your D is interested in video game design, USC has a great program. </p>
<p>Thanks for your responses. Just to clarify, she is offered a spot in ECE program and not CS. While she is on the wait-list for CS at CMU, she is not interested in going that route. But at this stage like my other students, she could change her mind in next few months and lean more towards CS.</p>
<p>UCBChemGrad - do you know if it is easy/difficult to transfer into UCB in the second year? Would it matter if she went to USC or CMU.</p>
<p>USC has a good electrical engineering program. I like electrical engineering because it is a very universal degree with a wide variety of career industry options.</p>
<p>Transferring to Berkeley is going to be tough. They only accept junior transfers and give preference to California community colleges. Berkeley EECS program is probably the hardest major to get accepted as it is very impacted. </p>
<p>I’m a student just admitted by USC and I went to Explore USC this Monday. It is very easy to switch major within the Engineering department, so if your D wants to change her major to computer science or other majors in the engineering department it will be very easy at USC. Even changing to majors out of the Viterbi Engineering school is easy, though changing from non-engineering to engineering can be a little bit difficult.</p>
<p>Fallcat, thanks for the note and appreciate the insight re. switching at USC. </p>
<p>It was a tough decision for her but she just committed to CMU ECE. It seems that CMU might give her reach either on the east coast or the west coast once she graduates.</p>
<p>Thank you all for your insightful feedback.</p>