MechE and the traditional engineering majors tend to have a lot more prereqs for everything.
For a CS major that doesn’t require a lot of classes (UW-Madison’s CS major looks like a typical BA major for both the BA and BS degree, which is perfectly fine, IMO), fitting everything in to 3 years seems perfectly feasible. Biggest concern may be the requirement that 60 credits would have to be intermediate or advanced.
It could actually buy several of these if you’re selective…close to 4 Chevy Bolts if you stack up a bunch of incentives.
Sorry. I thought I read both were OOS. makes sense.
Well I work for a high end German automaker…my perspective is off 
Anyway I imagine wiscy will be a fuller experience…sports, Greek, etc if that’s of interest.
$80k is a lot tho.
That gets said a lot, but UCR typically has about 70% of frosh living on campus (a proxy for non-commuter students). While 30% presumed commuters is somewhat higher than many residential colleges, that does not make it a commuter school like (for example) CSULA.
Yep. UW-Madison is one of the few good CS programs left that aren’t exceedingly difficult/uncertain to get in to. WPI, Rose-Hulman, Santa Clara (CSE), and CalPoly SLO (if you have high stats) are the others. Also GaTech Computational Media in their Arts school if you’re more focused on front-end work and are willing to transfer in. Maybe some good Canadian unis too (besides Waterloo CS, which is now holistic admissions and as tough to get in to as an Ivy).
Even transferring is uncertain, though USC and UMich seem to take you as a transfer if you have a very high college GPA and math-CS at UCSD is reasonably easy to transfer in to as a CA resident.
Mind you, I include over 30 schools in the “good CS school” category (those whose CS grads do very well after graduation, so most of the Ivies/equivalents and some lower down as well as the top CS schools), but because either the overall college or the CS major is insanely competitive to get in to these days, there really are only a handful that an “average excellent “ kid has a decent shot at these days.
Oh, and arguably Lehigh should be on that list too.
CP is a bit different in that the choice of major happens at application, and admission to any major happens at the time of acceptance. There’s no second step to get into the CENG or to the specific major within the CENG. It is an algorithm based system with no subjective, squishy BS, just stats. CS is VERY competitive as they routinely get over 5000 applicants for 150-200 slots. SE is a little less so, but still they get roughly 500 applications for 25 FTF slots. Many of the SEs move in from CS, as SE always has more total students than 4x FTF. CS on the other hand has less. It’s hard (or impossible some years) to move from any other engineering major into CS/SE/CompE.
Yep, but there isn’t as much the uncertainty for admission to SLO CS as there is for most of the other top CS programs, which are holistic (either to the college or to the major). For Cal CS, you could earn your way in to CS after you got in but I’ve heard they will limit that to only a subset of admits going forward because of the huge crushing demand for CS classes.
And yes, I believe internal transfer at SLO now to CS from elsewhere in engineering is hard while internal transfer to CS from outside engineering or from anywhere to SE is now impossible.
My son had many requirements when he vetted schools, but one of the top ones was to avoid any program where there was any possibility of getting locked out of his desired major. He was a very good HS student and finished his BS and MS with a very distinguished record, but one never know going in how they will fare. Why gamble if you don’t have to.
True. My son is panicked in MECHE as a sophomore. 3.75 into the semester. Got a C in fluids. He’s relieved. Scared to see his materials grade tomorrow.
In these majors everyone coming in was a stud. But not everyone gets through.
I think I called I the wrong Dad. 
I believe, but I could be wrong, that you might want @DadTwoGirls. 
If you’re purely looking at educational value and advantages in getting a job, I don’t think the extra $20K a year at Wisconsin is worth it. If you bring in other factors such as the college experience and living somewhere new, it might be.
Thanks for bringing in different perspectives folks!
It may be a good idea to go to the campus and also talk with a person from UCR CS. Know someone’s kid who is a sophomore in CS and will go meet over the weekend. In the meantime if anyone else has any other insights I am all ears.
You can get the college experience at UCR - yes you have to work a little harder at it than at UW. There are something like 7 thousand students living on the UCR campus - many in very nice new dorms. Thousands more live in the surrounding area. There are frats, clubs and they play D1 basketball and baseball.
I don’t see UW as worth the premium.
I have been reading this thread. However, I have not managed to make up my mind what to say. I think that both are very good options.
This might come down to how much the original poster (OP) cares about the $80,000. I have more experience with UW Madison because I once worked on a software project with a team from there. But I do think that both are good choices. I think that it is hard to go wrong here.
I also see some advantage to being closer to home. This leaves me as undecided as OP.
I would be inclined to look at what courses are required for both schools both for general requirements and for CS program requirements.
3 years at UW-Madison would cost about as much as 4 years at UCR.
UW-Madison does award credit for CLEP while UCR doesn’t. CLEP credit doesn’t satisfy any breadth/GE requirements at Madison but the L&S majors there leave a lot of space for free elective credit (3/8ths of the 120 credits needed).
Obviously, graduating in 3 years would require bringing in a bunch of credit hours (AP, CLEP, and whatever CC/DE credits are accepted) and sticking to a pretty defined schedule (though a lot of leeway to satisfy the social science and humanities breadth requirements; many would have to be at the intermediate level or higher but they may actually be easier than intro level math/CS classes) so would mean not changing majors.
OP’s son would then have to decide on the various pros and trade offs.
I would choose Riverside in my honest opinion; hitting the ground running with less debt on your head is a prize many people overlook/take for advantage. You have to ask yourself and your son if either school would be a detriment to his future. Will one school hurt him in the future to employers? and if so? Why? UCR is one of the fastest growing schools in the country; and as many know, they recently just passed schools like UCM and UCSC in national ranking. Facilities are sprawling up on the campus at a fast rate, with a new dorm just opening this year I believe; called Dundee. On top of this new student centers are being created and such. Location is also a big thing; UCR is relatively close to hot spots like LA, Orange County, and Disneyland; although the location is in a dry hot area. At the end of the day, choose wisely.