<p>Thank you for taking your time to read my question, I really appreciate it.</p>
<p>So I've been accepted to the above schools as a computer science major, but I'm having great difficulty on deciding where to go.</p>
<p>Based on ranking, I believe UCLA/UCSD would be somewhat above UCI/CPSLO. However, ranking and prestige doesn't seem to be very important to me at the moment; I'm more concerned on job opportunities, difficulty and competition in classes, and overall college life. I've visited each campus, and so far there's been no clear-cut winner... It'd be a great help if some of you guys could help me decide where to go.</p>
<p>Some additional notes:
-ERC@UCSD, could this necessarily be a "bad" thing for me?
-I live in SD, but my family may move back to Japan soon. I suppose this could be a factor considering that I would have no home to go to during breaks :U
-What is the main reasoning behind going for MS/Ph.D? I don't quite understand the concept.</p>
<p>I am in a similar dilemma. Have got into UCI and UCSD and Purdue for Civil / Structural Engineering and waiting for UMich results. I feel ranking is for Graduate programs and the undergraduate program is where you are able to really discover yourself. I might end up changing my major or may take a minor in economics or art or drama. So for me an overall experience is most important with the following in descending order - summer internship / study abroad year / job opportunities.</p>
<p>Cal Poly SLO has an impressive job placement rate, even for civil engineering graduates in 2009. However, this may have a lot to do with the type of student who attends, as indicated by the strong bias toward “careerist” majors there which may spill over into aggressive seeking of internships and other “careerist” activities while in school.</p>
<p>PhD => cutting edge research in academia or industry. Most computer software developers are fine with a bachelor’s degree (or even without majoring in computer science if they have taken carefully selected computer science courses whose concepts are most heavily used in industry software development jobs).</p>