Feedback/input on CA CS programs

Parents Forum
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<p>Hi CC, 1st post here so look forward to connecting about this exciting process of the college decision. I often find I'm overwhelmed & stressed about it, so I will put down my paper bag long enough to ask some questions. Maybe it's just me,lol.</p>

<p>My D is finalizing her list, so would love some extra insight. She's planning to major in CS. </p>

<p>-Willing to go OOS but not driven to leave, prob would prefer to stay in CA
-Not focused on OOS publics because the aid won't be enough (ie: U of I Champ, Univ WA, etc) please inform us if this is not true
-More concerned with caliber of the program & coop opp/connections than the "prestige" of the school-some schools just happen to have both.
-Wants a larger school & not afraid to find her way to what she needs</p>

<p>-Good stats: 3.98, top 5%, Composite ACT 30-(but re-taking), 7 Ap's- all 5's & couple of 4's, UC ELC qualified, Presidential Education Awards, Scholar athlete (two-years), numerous EC's (NHS, CSF, International Thespian Soc) & some leadership. </p>

<p>She loved Stanford & Cal. Many schools on her list are also A ranked so she's narrowing down her list to include more schools with a higher match prob. We are likely to qualify for Fin aid & a Cal Grant for sure. She orig didn't plan on applying to any CSU schools, but I have suggested that she apply.</p>

<p>Should she get a 2nd tier UC ( ie: UCI which she did like) how would that compare to a CSU school like SLO? She's concerned @ location for internships & SLO is pretty remote. </p>

<p>Our goal for her is to have a great education & experience-(not accumulate debt) which I've told her she will get at any school she ends up attending. Also, side note there will be two in college fall of 2014.</p>

<p>Trying to compare UC/private/CSU options. Any feedback on comparing the CS programs given her stats is very welcome. Thanks. :)</p>

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<p>UCI is not second tier for CS, unless it’s being compared to the likes of Berkeley or Stanford. Personally I think UCI is a better choice than SLO as its facilities are generally more modern and many companies in the area are interested in its grads. If your daughter prefers UCI to SLO she should absolutely go there. </p>

<p>Btw, I worked for two Cal Tech educated engineering professors at UCI and many in the CS department have similarly impressive credentials. My former bosses designed an extremely important component for a famous science project (as in many non scientists would know about it) and they welcomed UG to work with them. I believe the CS department is the same way in terms of UG access.</p>

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<p>

That is true. For some reason residents of those states want their FA to go to in-state students. :slight_smile: There are some OOS public Us that will throw merit $ for top students (Bama being one mentioned frequently on these boards). I’ll defer on discussion of CS programs in CA. I’m sure UCBAlumnus will chip in.</p>

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<p>Be aware that CS is getting very popular at both Stanford and Berkeley. The introductory CS courses for CS majors are enrolling >700 and >1000 students respectively this fall.</p>

<p>At Berkeley, one can apply as either EECS or Letters and Science (L&S). EECS is probably more selective for frosh admission, but then you’ll be in the major as a frosh if admitted. L&S students enter undeclared and have to declare their majors after completing the prerequisite courses (currently, L&S CS requires a 3.0 GPA in prerequisite courses to declare, indicating that the department is at capacity; most other L&S majors just require a 2.0 GPA).</p>

<p>Stanford is also facing capacity limitations in CS. See [Stanford</a> Daily | CS?s rising popularity poses pressing questions](<a href=“http://www.stanforddaily.com/2013/06/04/cs-popularity-reaches-record-high/]Stanford”>CS's rising popularity poses pressing questions) and this thread <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1552396-lot-students-considering-cs-major-2.html#post16367986[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1552396-lot-students-considering-cs-major-2.html#post16367986&lt;/a&gt; .</p>

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<p>Generally true (except for UVA and UNC-CH), though some schools have out-of-state list prices comparable to UC in-state list price (Minnesota, NCSU, Virginia Tech, Stony Brook). Some other schools have large automatic-for-stats or competitive merit scholarships; see the sticky threads at the top of the financial aid & scholarships forum. However, you do have good choices among the UCs and CPSLO.</p>

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<p>Cal Poly SLO holds on-campus job fairs at least once per quarter. Tech companies are very happy to make the drive to recruit top-notch computer science and computer engineering students for internships and jobs.</p>

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<p>She should make sure she applies to UCLA and UCSD - both are top notch for CS. She can also apply to all the other UCs she’d be willing to go to including UCD, UCI, UCSB, and others. To make it easy she could just check all the campus checkboxes on the UC app but it’ll cost the app fee per college but that’s a drop in the bucket in the scheme of things of the upcoming college costs. She might even get surprised with some offers at the non-top 3 UCs (or maybe even at them if she does fantastic on upcoming SAT/ACT tests).</p>

<p>The ELC means that she’ll definitely be accepted to one of the UCs but not necessarily one of her choices - i.e. it could be UCR or UCM or UCSC, etc.</p>

<p>For internships she really shouldn’t worry too much about the college location since internships are typically done in the summer and she can travel to where the internship is if she wishes. Of course, the Bay area, LA area, and San Diego area all have a lot of companies and a lot of internship opportunities - especially the Bay area. OTOH she might want to experience somewhere else for an internship like the opposite end of California from where she currently lives, or Wash DC, Boston, Texas, or someplace else.</p>

<p>IMO it doesn’t make much sense for most people to go to an OOS public when in California, especially for CS since some of the top CS programs in the country are in the state college system in California. However, it’s always possible she could get a scholarship to an OOS public if she’s really motivated to go OOS. They might at least match California in-state full pay.</p>

<p>For privates in California the obvious ones are Stanford, Harvey Mudd, CalTech, (all s/b considered ‘reaches’ by anyone), USC (which is usually quite expensive but often offsets at least some of it with merit grants but shouldn’t be considered easy to get into), and some others.</p>

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<p>Location does help – many companies recruit primarily at local schools. Silicon Valley is local to Stanford and Berkeley, of course. But UCSC, UCD, SJSU, and SCU are all within driving distance.</p>

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<p>Thanks for your replies & insight. </p>

<p>ucbalumnus - when we met with EECS this summer they said acceptance was VERY hard/selective compared to L&S. Plus, if it’s a no for EECS, it’s a no for Cal as a whole.</p>

<p>Based on her stats wondering how realistic merit scholarships will be in general, given the caliber of the applicant pool these days. Things have not just changed since back in the day when I went to school, but significantly in just the last 5-8 years.</p>

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<p>If we lived in CA my son would have definitely applied to some of the CA schools. I remember talking to a guy in the field, (he works somewhere in Silicon Valley), and he felt at the time that UCI was great and underappreciated. I’m pretty sure that many firms recruit at the local schools. My son did some initial interviews via telephone and then was flown out for the final interview.</p>

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<p>Here are some merit scholarship threads:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-19.html#post16145676[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-19.html#post16145676&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1461983-competitive-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-4.html#post16224918[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1461983-competitive-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-4.html#post16224918&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>She may want to take the SAT as well as the ACT, since some students do better on one test compared to the other.</p>

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UCB is very selective in general and I’m not surprised that EECS is even more competitive. The same is true for UCLA and UCSD - i.e. that they’re very selective and that the respective Schools of Engineering have their own ‘cut’ which is typically higher than for the L&S but some of them may reject from the School of Engineering but still accept to the L&S (UCSD used to be like this - don’t know if it still is but I thought UCB used to be like this as well - maybe it’s changed - UCLA was different in that if the Sch of Eng rejected then that was it - a rejection from the whole UCLA). Moreover there are people who get rejected from UCLA but are admitted to UCB and vice versa and it can be true for UCSD as well. </p>

<p>This is one reason to apply to all of these as long as she’s willing to attend them - it increases the chances she’d be accepted to one of them. However, she should make sure she applies to others (other UCs plus some other colleges) as well to ensure she gets in someplace reasonable no matter what.</p>

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<p>GladGradDad </p>

<p>Thanks. Yes all good UC’s & she will be applying to those. UCLA & UCB both are the same story for EECS. A no is a no for the school as a whole. UCLA EECS put it this way…“too many apps & when we pass we don’t send it back to start over in another dept.” At UCB you do have the choice of applying L&S or EECS, this isn’t available at UCLA. Only UCLA L&S option is COMPUTATIONAL & SYSTEMS BIOLOGY.</p>