Hi CC!
As May 1st quickly approaches, I’m looking for some thoughts on the respective engineering programs at USC and Vanderbilt. I’m currently leaning towards CS, but that could change, so opinions on both the CS departments and overall engineering schools are welcome. I did visit both schools and left with the same impression that internship and job opportunities are plentiful as long as I do well in class and get involved. I also left the visits confident that I could fit in well socially.
As of right now, I am leaning towards Vanderbilt because they offered my family a significantly better financial package, but my family is currently in the process of negotiating a better deal with USC as well, so we’ll see how that goes. Is there anything I should know about USC’s or Vanderbilt’s programs (or the universities in general) that I should know to help make my decision?
USC has a very good reputation for CS and Engineering. For some reason, I almost never hear of Vanderbilt CS and Engineering, although I’m sure they’re perfectly fine. It may just be that the programs are relatively small.
I have a graduate degree in IE from USC (and an undergrad in CS from another school), but if you like Vanderbilt more and it costs a lot less, go there. My daughter lives in Nashville, and it’s a fantastic town.
@vickbrewetine seems to me there is no obvious huge advantage to either (except perhaps the money which is always real). I don’t know Vandy that well, but as @simba9 mentions, Nashville is a great town.
CS at SC would be the obvious choice if you were at all attracted to CS and gaming/entainment/animation/etc. USC is actually extremely exciting in those areas, as well as having a very strong entrepreneurial flavor. But I don’t doubt Vanderbilt has really interesting paths of its own, and I’d imagine it has strong connects itself.
But I’d think a lot of it comes down to what you imagine you want to do after. SC network is extremely strong on west coast as esp SoCal. Also has a lot of Asian ties. I’d guess Vanderbilt’s network would be more southeast/Raleigh-Durham triangle centered, but others could speak more specifically to that. I would be wary of spending too much more to go to SC though. It is an expensive school. (Viterbi does have a 5 year progressive masters than can you save you some money if you are at all thinking about that.)