Computer Science: Cal Poly vs UCLA vs Berkeley

Colleges and Universities A-Z Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
1

I am not in the computer science field. My son was just accepted to Cal Poly for computer science and I love what I know about Cal Poly and the Learn By Doing philosophy. My son is waiting to hear from UCLA and Berkeley. At this time my son is interested in working in the Bay Area in a start-up environment once he graduates. Can people who know the computer science field, or who hire computer science graduates, or students in those schools comment on the things to consider in choosing between the schools? All three are great schools but are very different from each other. We will be visiting all three schools in April to help him make a decision. What factors should he be considering? The cost differential between Cal Poly and the UCs is not a major factor for us.

My thoughts for Cal Poly is great location, laid-back environment, learn by doing philosophy, exposure to internships. How does the student population in CS differ at the three schools? My son wants to be challenged and be with others with similar abilities. But he also like sports and doing outdoor activities so doesn’t just want to be grinding away on CS stuff 24/7.

2

Congratulations to your son on the acceptance to Cal Poly!

Things to consider:

  • Impacted Majors – Assuming he gets accepted, ensure your son can major in CS at Berkeley and UCLA as slots can be limited.
  • Given that your son is very interested in working in a Bay Area startup, he might want to consider a school where he’ll interact with a high density of like-minded students, entrepreneurial professors, and venture capital firms. Fortunately, all three of the schools on your list appear in this reference: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/236912

Good luck!

3

Thanks venm1337 and magtf1. This is helpful information.

4

At UCB, did he apply to CS in COE or L&S. College of engineering is a direct admit. If L&S, he would actually be more like undeclared. He would need to take the pre-requisites and apply during sophomore year. It can be a difficult, as some the pre-requisites are considered “weeder” classes. Certainly many enter CS, but it’s not guaranteed.

5

svlab112: At UCB he applied to CS in COE - much harder to get in that way so there is no guarantee he will get in. He knew about the L&S pathway and some of his friends went that route because of the greater chance to be admitted.

6

Good luck. D is graduating from UCB in EECS this May. She also got into Cal Poly SLO and UCLA and opted to attend UCB. Overall, she’s been satisfied with her choice.

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Graduates from all of those schools will get good jobs. We can’t really rank them, because it depends on what your son wants his experience to be like. The biggest advantage at Cal Poly is class size. The biggest lecture in the nation is Intro to CS at UCB, with over 1000 students. He will have big classes at UCLA too.

What I would recommend is to do an admitted student’s tour of all three, and then go with his gut. He can’t go wrong with any of them.

8

svlab112: Congrats on your daughter’s success! I’d love to hear more from your daughter about what she liked and did not like at UCB. Is she planning to go on to graduate school or enter the workforce? Was there adequate interaction with the CS professors? Did she mind the super large classes? Did she get any internships and how easy were those to get? Which aspects of CS does USB specialize in?

9

She will likely get a job and she’s been interviewing. Her situation is a bit odd in that she entered with zero coding experience and no AP credit. She had one IB english classes she received credit for She had a steep learning curve and some catchup. She didn’t seem bothered by the class sizes. They seemed to have the lectures on pod cast and would even suggest kids watch those which worked for her. She did get some internships. I’m not sure if it was easy or hard. She’s an average student in her program at just the 3.0 GPA. Not getting As was a little tough for her as she was a top student in HS. It’s not through lack of effort, it’s just hard for her.

She had a difficult time in the middle of her program do to the suicide of a close friend (not a fellow student) and took some classes versus working on summer. She hasn’t expressed that the environment is super-competitive , but feels she’s had some gender related issues. She seems to have a few friends who have opted to signup for the same technicals together to form study groups. She has said sometimes the TAs are not always very experienced. She does go to office hours, but I don’t think she has any meaningful interaction with CS professors. I have little information about what she studies. I know she took an artificial intelligence class she enjoyed.

As eyemgh wrote, “all those schools will get good jobs”. I also have a student at UCLA currently and a senior who just got into Cal Poly SLO for ME. He is leaning towards CP Slo regardless of UC acceptances. I will say my UCLA student seems more balanced and enjoying college more. However, the two are wired differently. It’s not apples to apples.

If admitted, I agree attending the admitted student days can help. My S at UCLA was also accepted to UCB , and liked the UCLA vibe more.

10

As others have said above your son would likely do well at any of the three schools. But, when you say: “he also like sports and doing outdoor activities so doesn’t just want to be grinding away on CS stuff 24/7.” That sounds like he would be a good fit for Cal Poly. I have two sons in the COE and they could not be happier. They are impressed with the small class sizes (do not underestimate the importance of this), quality of teaching, and a being around a group of likeminded students who love the outdoors/sports.

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My perspective is biased because my son was looking specifically for schools like Cal Poly. That said, every company he has worked for (3 internships) has said that he far exceeded their expectations. He was offered a full time position after his last internship with starting pay well above the median starting salary. His roommate who is a SE major interned in SF for a company that paid him $44/hr, set him up in a SF apartment with another intern from Stanford, fed him and gave him a BART pass. He’ll be interning at Apple this summer. If he does choose Cal Poly, he won’t be lacking for opportunities and will be well prepared.

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Thanks for the feedback choroidal and eyemgh. I have no doubt my son will be happy at Cal Poly and get a great hands-on education that will prepare him for getting a job after graduation.

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My D admitted to SLO for ME and is waiting to hear from UCB, UCLA. She liked both SLO and UCLA after touring (did engineering tours at both) and could picture herself at either - only caveat re: SLO has limited major choices if she decided engineering wasn’t right for her. Her sibs are Berkeley students (one in engineering), so there’s a strong pull there.

Regarding SLO internships:

  • What process did your SLO student go through to get internships?
  • Was it through a SLO resource or did he find them on his own?
  • Were they meaningful?
  • Is it realistic to find internships after freshman year?
  • Were your student’s internships paid?
  • Is there a SLO resource to ‘find’ students to talk with - I think it would be really helpful to talk to senior MEs or even grads to get their perspective but not sure how to find them outside of this forum.

My D is desperately hunting for internships now for summer before college as she wants to do something “meaningful” but barring paying some company $$$ to send her overseas, she hasn’t found anyone willing to take her on here (yet). So I know she’ll be chasing a ‘real’ internship after freshman year.

You seem to know a lot about SLO ME, so any insight is appreciated

14

@eyemgh …my post was meant for you for your SLO experience (happy to hear from others too)

My D admitted to SLO for ME and is waiting to hear from UCB, UCLA. She liked both SLO and UCLA after touring (did engineering tours at both) and could picture herself at either - only caveat re: SLO has limited major choices if she decided engineering wasn’t right for her. Her sibs are Berkeley students (one in engineering), so there’s a strong pull there.

Regarding SLO internships:

  • What process did your SLO student go through to get internships?
  • Was it through a SLO resource or did he find them on his own?
  • Were they meaningful?
  • Is it realistic to find internships after freshman year?
  • Were your student’s internships paid?
  • Is there a SLO resource to ‘find’ students to talk with - I think it would be really helpful to talk to senior MEs or even grads to get their perspective but not sure how to find them outside of this forum.

My D is desperately hunting for internships now for summer before college as she wants to do something “meaningful” but barring paying some company $$$ to send her overseas, she hasn’t found anyone willing to take her on here (yet). So I know she’ll be chasing a ‘real’ internship after freshman year.

You seem to know a lot about SLO ME, so any insight is appreciated

15

Internships are challenging for anyone to get, no matter where they go, especially for underclassmen. I read a story about a Georgia Tech student who applied to over 100 positions and got word of any kind back from only 3 companies. Women and CS majors seem to have a bit of an advantage based on the results I read. Multiple companies have programs to bridge the gender gap. In an effort to meet that goal, they offer internships, sometimes even to freshmen. No matter where she ends up, I’d suggest she get involved with the Society of Women Engineers. They do good things.

Internships during the earlier years are especially challenging. Students don’t really have anything to offer. Thus, the ability to do meaningful work is pretty limited. Except for the cases mentioned above, companies don’t devote resources to students that will essentially be in the way. Most internships happen between junior and senior year.

My son was fortunate to fall into a paid summer position with a local structural firm. It’s not what he wants to do long term, but they did rely on him for drafting and to do some 3D lighting simulations that no one in the office had the background for. He did that for two summers and walked out with very solid AutoCAD and Revit skills.

The following summer, he worked in a paid position for an aerospace company doing very meaningful work. He went back and worked over the Winter break. They offered him a full time job.

Most of the applications he put in were direct or through contacts. He probably underutilized the Career Center, but his initial encounters weren’t that fruitful. He is very qualified, as evidenced by the fact that he got to the tech interview stage for some hypercompetitive positions (Tesla, SpaceX, MIT). What’s interesting and frustrating though is that he didn’t hear a peep from some of the lesser companies where he should have been a shoe in.

Internships can be helpful, but aren’t the be all end all as long as the student does something else meaningful like club involvement while in undergrad. I met a student on this forum who was offered a position at Tesla and Apple after he graduated and he didn’t do an internship.

As for changing majors at Cal Poly, it’s not as simple as just saying you want to do something else. There’s a process, part of which is assessing if a student would have been admitted into their new major directly out of HS. As a ME, she could move to about anything else she wanted to with little to no problem.

Hope that helps.

16

@eyemgh

Congrats on your son’s offer of employment.

  • How did your son "fall into" his first internship?
  • You mentioned that some of his applications were direct - did he reach out to HR departments at companies or was he responding to postings on sites like Indeed?

I hear of all kinds of SE / CS grads who get great jobs without internships. Not sure how easy that is for other disciplines

17

He thought he had a position, but the company flaked out and bailed on him. I was telling his tale to an engineering friend of mine and it turned out, his intern bailed on him to go to a firm closer to his home. He interviewed my son and hired him as an intern.

He applied via postings on engineerjobs.com, glassdoor.com, mustang jobs, or through personal referrals. I think for SpaceX he went direct.

18

Ditto - you can’t go wrong with any. CS is a hot major, plenty of job opportunities regardless of school

My older D was accepted to SLO, UCLA & UBC. She never visited SLO campus and was determined to go out of state but “fell in love” with UCB on touring. I can’t articulate exactly why.

D graduated UCB EECS in 2017. She did not seem bothered by the large class sizes or lack of professor interaction although she’s very independent, resourceful and not one to complain. A few other EECS students were part of her close group of friends - which helped a lot. She was involved in a triath club as a freshman and opted out of competition when she was too busy. She worked very hard but did have time to get away for ski weekends and spring break. Social life was fine - not part of Greek life, but had friends who were so she did interact in some Greek activities. She secured a TA job starting in sophomore year (CS class) which helped her easily make decent money throughout school. D was not concerned with activism on campus or the Berkeley environment. She was happy to be near SF, spent time in Tahoe. Air travel from UCB to s.Cal is very convenient.

Another close friend had a more difficult time acclimating to the stereotypically “impersonal” experience at UCB and commented that there are a lot of stressed out students there, everyone is on their own, everything is very competitive. She also is a bit uncomfortable with the environment around campus.

Re - Internships at UCB (I posted this elsewhere):

My D got an internship after her freshman year through the “Berkeley Global Internship (BGI)” program. You apply for a specific location (Singapore, Paris, Mumbai, Toronto…) If accepted into the program, BGI works with contacts in that select city to find you a suitable placement. It is not typical for freshman to be accepted and I think she picked her location because there was a higher probability she could get accepted as a freshman. We had to pay for her housing/meals, and she was not paid. I believe some internships might offer a small stipend, but I think there is a work Visa issue so most positions are unpaid. It was an investment for sure. But - she got excellent experience, worked directly on a Biomed project which culminated in her making a project presentation on her own, and received publication credit. She said one of her most valuable lessons was learning that she needn’t be a BioEng to do this line of work - her boss was a EE, the other project lead was a CS, and she ended up switching to EECS in her sophomore year. The unpaid internship experience definitely helped her land 2 great paid internships after both her sophomore and junior years. As eyemgh said, CS majors fare well in opportunities, so I’m sure without that first unpaid internship D would have been fine, but it did put her on a pretty good path.

Re: EECS Jobs after UCB
D was offered a job from her last internship employer but wanted to be in SF.
D and all of her EECS and CS friends had jobs lined up before graduating, not surprising.
Almost all are in SF although they had great opportunities elsewhere (Boston, NYC, etc).

Berkeley definitely has a unique culture which may not be for everyone so it’s really important to visit.

Good luck

19

I would add just a few things to the above. Your son can’t go wrong with any of the schools you mentioned. An additional pro for CalPoly is that he might have a better chance to stand out at CalPoly than the other schools. Finding internships and a full time job post graduation should not be a problem. I would caution about going to a startup though. As a long time veteran in the industry, startups can be problematic for junior people. The environment can be hectic, opportunities to connect with more senior people in a meaningful manner more difficult and it is iffy if he gets the real experience required. Fresh graduates take years to turn into professionals and they need a proper structure and guidance in the critical early years. A bigger company is much better positioned to offer that, generally offers more money and stability (the chance of having a competent manger that you have as manager for long enough). Plus, big companies these days make significant efforts to create a startup atmosphere to attract talent. Good luck.

20

Thanks iulianc and byebyebaby. Well my son just heard that he is waitlisted at UCLA so unlikely that he will get in there. I think he will hear from UCB a week from today. They all sound like great places.

iulianc - interesting comments about working at a larger company with a start-up atmosphere. As you say, that might be the best environment initially out of school.