Hi: I’m interested in opinions on Santa Clara’s Computer Science department from current students, parents, alumni, etc. I’m giving some thought to this school as a Junior transfer student. Curious as to your overall satisfaction level with coursework, professors and graduate outcomes. Any and all feedback or color is appreciated. This question was posed awhile back but got little traction, so thought I’d try again. Thanks.
I will try to get the party started here, although I think you are looking more for current students. My info may not be specific enough, but can share our perspective. I have a CS major that’s a junior at USC and one starting SCU in the fall (hard to keep the initials straight in conversations), also in CS. We got really familiar with what schools had to offer over the last several years. We like that CS is within engineering (although there is also CS within math). After doing a few tours and talking with a lot of people we were really surprised and impressed with how great the program is at SCU. Their opportunities and connections with industry in SV are fabulous, but also the program itself seems very top notch with great personal attention - seems you can grow and go as far as you want to within CS at SCU. My junior at USC gave this program a total thumbs up for a sibling - the size of this school is a better fit for this one, with USC being 43K students now, the size of UCLA. SCU seems very hot right now for CS and engineering, it is getting some great recognition in the rankings, both as a top CS school and a top engineering school. When we went to the engineering welcome reception (held at the Google campus) everyone of the seniors there (over 20 we spoke with) had a job lined up post graduation. Internships seem readily available as well (of course some of that is up to you as well). We really like the size, flexibility, and being able to know your professors and work in a partnership with them that a private school provides over their public counterparts. That’s just our priority, may not be yours…good luck!
Thanks My son is thinking same so this is very good to hear…Can you give me any idea of what your child’s stats were when they applied to engineering?
hackerman1996, sorry more people in CS aren’t responding to your question. I get the feeling that most of us on the list have incoming CS freshmen. That said, my son has been quite impressed with the CS and engineering students he has met on campus and at the Google reception. It seems like summer internships are quite feasible for sophomores on up. From what we have heard, the computer science courses are excellent. The school is small enough to give a personal and flexible approach to education, which is something my son values. My son was assigned a more advanced CS major as his mentor. This mentor has taken my son under his wing and has offered a lot of useful advice.
Juno1956, the stats of the admitted freshmen engineering students I have met or heard of seem to be pretty high but I am not sure what the average is. I don’t know anything about the stats of transfers from other SCU departments or schools.
@juno1956 I promised her that I would never discuss her test scores and scholarships received. She didn’t even share that with her best friends so I am not allowed to share it, sorry! She didn’t want to appear boastful or risk making someone feel bad, and I do respect those motives… I can “legally” say she had a 4.6 and had taken 11 APs, since that was made public at hs assembly, and took AP Calc BC as a junior. She got accepted to some top tier public engineering universities as well, but we like what privates offer and the social aspect, while being close to SV.