I’ve been fortunate enough to be accepted to these schools…but now I have make a decision. If anyone has any advice about which school is best for the Computer Science major as well as any info about the school itself (atmosphere, student body, anything related to Computer Science, job opportunities/connection opportunities)…
It would be greatly appreciated!
background: I currently live in the east coast but will be moving to california this summer, was waitlisted at San Diego, UCLA, and Berkeley L&S for Computer Science
Have you visited the schools? Hard to make a decision without visiting.
@Emsmom1 Was not able to visit, but I was able to see through virtual tours, youtube videos, etc. What the actual campus (like Santa Barbara beach resort vs Davis cow-scents) isn’t really that important to me. I’m more interested about the Comp Sci majors itself, I guess. But any info in general would be appreciated!
I know nothing about Comp Sci, sorry. I did go to Davis and a) the cow scent is only strong on one part of campus (i.e., by the cow barns) b) the town is a quintessential college town which to me is a good thing c) both the town and school are fantastic, in my opinion. My brother went to UCSB and it was a huge party school. But maybe that has changed. Good luck with your decision.
Have you compared the CS curriculums for each school to see if there is an area of interest (courses) offered at one school vs the other?
If you prefer more city life, UCI would be best. Beaches, then UCSB and as noted above the college town experience then UCD.
Have looked into ease of the transportation (direct flights) to any of these schools from the East Coast? John Wayne Airport for UCI, Sacramento Airport for UCD and Santa Barbara Airport for UCSB? Or is your whole family moving from the East coast?
You will get a excellent education at all these schools, so what fits you best academically/financially and socially is up to you.
Virtual tours are not the same. You will have to live there for 4 years, so you should visit and see if the school is a fit.
For UCD, it isn’t a farm; the “cow scent”, is in one area, and it is rarely smelled; there is not a “herd”. (That’s off-campus outside of the campus). The campus is HUGE and beautiful. The Napa vintners have sponsored some iconic buildings. The train is a short walk from campus and you can get to SF, Berkeley, and Sacramento.
For UCI, you need to visit, because only you can tell if you would like the campus and the commuter environment. The campus is near Long Beach; there are lots of community activities and things to do every weekend in the SoCal community within decent driving distances.
For Santa Barbara, yes, it’s on the beach, but you do realize that the water temps are cold? It does get breezy/windy and cold. It’s north of LA ( a good drive in bad traffic). Beach resort? Not in my mind. The Santa Barbara community is small and there is no real “direct”, fast access to the school. The school is removed from the city of Santa Barbara.
No financial aid for OOS, so the costs will be $60K per year, give or take.
One structural note: CS at Irvine is in the school of Information and Computer Science, whereas CS is in Engineering at other campuses. Maybe as a consequence of this, there seems to be a good deal of flexibility at Irvine with respect to upper division concentration. Irvine doesn’t require physics (though you do have to take a year of a laboratory science). Irvine also has a game design major. Also, a comment on Irvine’s setting: it’s suburban more than urban. But Irvine is the epitome of 1960s Southern California master plan thinking. Many surface streets in the area have six lanes (some even more) with a median, and with speed limits of 50 mph (or higher?); i.e. higher-capacity roads than every road in New Jersey except for the turnpike.
UCSB: well, it’s not the Caribbean, but it is really nice for a college campus, and the beach/ocean definitely has an influence on life there. You’ll need a wetsuit to surf except for maybe July-August-Sept, but you can do it between classes, if you choose. UCI is 3-5 miles from the beach, but it’s far enough that there is no beach vibe at all (though some students do live in Newport Beach, surf in the morning, then drive to campus for class). I believe that Davis probably shares more in common with Ames Iowa (which I’m not putting down–it’s a nice college town in an agricultural area) than it does with Southern California, or even the coastal Bay Area–but that’s based on very little first-hand experience, so I’ll defer to others here for impressions on Davis.
Regarding job opportunities/connections, etc. My impression is that CS majors from all of these schools are pretty heavily recruited. There are probably some regional differences–e.g. Irvine might have more ties to the Silicon Beach gaming companies. But in the grand scheme of things, they have the same profile–CS programs ranked highly (~10th-40th in the US, depending on the ranking criteria//organization), public university in California, undergraduate populations drawn from the same pool for the most part.
We are also from the east coast and just came back from a visit to Davis, which my daughter loved and decided to commit to. We had previously visited Santa Barbara, which my daughter also loved. They have very different vibes though.
Davis has a down to earth community feeling to it and I like that the town is walking distance to the school and very safe. Although it feels out of the way, it is 20 minutes from Sacramento and 1 1/2 hours from San Francisco with lots of public transportation available.
Santa Barbara is very picturesque with the mountain and ocean views. It does have more of a party school reputation and the town to walk to is Isla Vista, which has a little bit of sketchiness. It is about a 2 hour drive from LA.
Have never been to Irvine and don’t know much about the Comp Sci departments…but would be happy to answer any questions about the school environments at Davis and Santa Barbara.
If you’re from the east coast, you might not be familiar with the climate differences between Davis and the coastal locations. Davis will hit 90-100 degrees F pretty much every day from late Spring through early Fall, with essentially no rain. Winters are cool, but not East-coast cold, with all of the rain mostly coming Dec-March. The central valley gets winter Tule fog–you can go days at a time in grey, damp, low–visibility fog. If it starts driving you crazy, you can take a road trip to the Sierra foothills–once you gain even a few hundred feet of elevation you can often climb into brilliant sunshine.
Coastal California is more temperate. UCSB won’t get terribly hot or cold, even in the middle of summer. You get a lot of coastal fog from late April through June, and often into July. The only time it is likely to get truly hot is when you get “Santa Ana” conditions–when high pressure over the interior of California gives rise to strong, dry downslope winds that blow offshore (in contrast to the prevailing onshore winds). This is when you can get 90 degree days with 5% humidity and strong winds–and that’s when you get the biggest brush fires in the hills. This happens most often in October-November, but can happen pretty much any time of year. Irvine is similar to UCSB, just a little bit warmer in summer (farther south and slightly more inland), and probably a tad colder at night in the winter. Winters on the coast are beautiful–after a rainstorm the air can be crystal clear and the visibility is incredible.