Any recommendations and insight on the Computer Engineering programs of UCLA, UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara and Cal Poly SLO? My daughter is visiting those campuses to decide. She also got into UC Berkeley, USC, UC Irvine and UC Davis, but her top choices are the first four colleges I mentioned. Thanks. Aside from visiting the campuses, we would like to get a better picture of each school’s Comp Eng program, strengths and weaknesses, competitiveness, hireability, culture, etc. Thank you.
Was she directly admitted to the major at each school?
I don’t know how important, if at all, ABET accreditation is for Computer Engineering, but out of all those schools UCSD is the only one that does not have that accreditation for their program.
Does she have Regents at any of the UCs?
She got admitted for the Computer Engineering major in all of those schools What is ABET accreditation and what is the significance of that? She has Regents Scholarship for UCSB and UCD. UCSB is one of her top four choices. I know priority registration is awesome for getting the classes you want, but there is also a risk of losing that scholarship especially in a challenging major, so not sure if that should be a big consideration.
ABET accreditation is not generally that important in computer science or computer engineering employment, but it may be more relevant if she wants to take the patent exam or wants to seek Professional Engineer licensing (which is most commonly done in civil engineering).
It does assure that the program meets a relatively high minimum standard, although there are many computer science and computer engineering programs of good quality that do not have it. It is considered more essential in some other types of engineering, such as civil (especially), chemical, electrical, materials, mechanical, and nuclear.
Thank you for that explanation @ucbalumnus. Do you know what ABET stands for?
Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology
http://www.abet.org/
Thanks.
@windypoplars I have a kid who has a Regents for engineering at UCSB. I thought the GPA requirement would be tougher than it has been, although it still could be an issue. Of bigger concern than the overall GPA requirement is the requirement to not have 2 quarters in a row below a 3.2 GPA. I don’t know that Davis has the 2 quarters in a row requirement. You could have a 3.7 overall and hit 2 rough quarters half way through that leave you still well over 3.2 overall, but just a tad under it for 2 quarters. So it’s been a combination of motivator for him and also a bit of stress. The priority registration is a huge stress reliever and at UCSB they also get a priority time for when it comes to select housing after the freshman year. Bottom line, the GPA requirement is actually quite more doable than I thought. That said, our younger son was also accepted to UCSB and Davis this year with Regents and will most likely be going to UCLA w/o Regents.
ABET is the standard accreditation for engineering programs across the country. For some disciplines, such as Civil Engineering, it’s very important from a professional standpoint from my understanding. I don’t know that to be the case for Computer Engineering. I think UCSC also determined it wasn’t worth it to get their CE program accredited.
http://www.abet.org/
What engineering is your son in and why did he choose UCLA w/o Regents over the other engineering schools?
Mechanical Engineering. He just likes the overall feel of the school better, it doesn’t really have anything to do with specifics of the programs. We like the UCSB MechE program - it seems a little more hands on, especially the first year, but sometimes other factors come into play. He thinks the overall vibe at UCLA is more to his liking - he’s not much of a beach kid whereas our other son really enjoys the UCSB vibe. Based on our older son’s experience, I mostly have very good things to say about UCSB, so it’s not based on any negatives there.
Are you going to the UCLA Discover Engineering event this Sunday? We’re looking forward to seeing what they have to show.
Yes, we are. I wonder how much more competitive or much harder the UCLA Engineering program is compared to other schools. I don’t think it’ll be on the same level as UC Berkeley.
@windypoplars I think UCLA will be less cutthroat than Cal, but that’s mainly just based on what I read. We have talked to our son about being a smaller fish in a big pond at UCLA vs UCSB where we think he’d be a bigger fish in a smaller pond, but he’s OK with that. Based on the kids we’ve seen that got into UCLA and the ones that didn’t, it’s going to be very competitive.
Cutthroatism is probably mostly dependent on whether one enrolls in courses taken by those who need to compete for something highly selective (e.g. pre-meds, or those trying to get into competitive admission majors like business at UCB).
I know Cal Poly’s strength is hands-on and companies go there to hire because they’re industry-ready. Would love to know more about what sets the other schools’ Comp Eng apart, what their strengths/benefits are, what the culture is, etc.
Narrowed down to choice between UCLA Computer Engineering and UCSB Computer Engineering. Would like to get insights on each program. Things like competitiveness/collaborativeness, level of rigor, theoretical versus industry-ready, job/internship potential, quality of program, teachers, and/or other insights. Thank you.