Hi, I really am looking for a school on the West Coast and since I’m from the East Coast money is a major concern to me since all the UC’s cost 60k+ a year for an out of state student I just can’t do that. However, SJSU is significantly cheaper and seems to be a great school for my interest area (computer science but it seems my academics don’t meet the impaction score at all so I guess I’d have to put computer engineering as my alternate and hope for the best)
Though I have seen from a bunch of different sources that most people don’t graduate from SJSU in 4 years which would mean for me the money saved would be redundant as I’d have to be there for 5 years and then go back to school for my masters.
As it improved at all? Also, off topic but if you don’t mind giving me a chance about the Computer Science and Computer Engineering majors with these academics:
Normal EI scores: 30 ACT, 3.56 CSU GPA
Engineering Modified Score: 28.5 ACT, 3.56 CSU GPA
According to the recent scores, my stats wouldn’t meet computer science threshold aside from one year, so I guess it’ll all come down to luck and who else applies sadly. But is the Computer Engineering department competitive with the CS department in terms of academics and employment opportunities?
It looks like you probably won’t make their threshold for CS but, they do look at alternate majors so, if you listed something less competitive, you may still make it in. I think you’d be a fool to pay OOS tuition to attend… a private school like LMU or USD is typically a more affordable option - and you don’t have the over-crowded campus to fight with. Hopefully, you have a viable in-state option.
to answer your question, kinda but a bright, well prepared, motivated student can navigate a program like SJSU in 4 years. You’d need to take some 8am and 5pm classes from professors you might not like but, it is doable (from a scheduling perspective). Many CS students find the workload hard to manage and take fewer than the 15ish units you need a semester to graduate on time.
Both those schools cost in the 60k+ to attend per year whereas SJSU only costs 40-50k. There is a ‘viable’ option in my state, viable as in it’d work and get me an average job but I would have to spend the next 5 years of my life not being happy with where I’m going to school. Maybe I’m just a weird person but my parents and I are much more willing to spend more and accept a higher debt for me to be happy the 5 years I’m in college and have a better chance of landing a job I enjoy. My local university isn’t awful for computer science, in fact, they’re top 150 but their grads really only ever get jobs locally, there’s the occasional outlier that sometimes goes to a place like Google or blizzard entertainment, facebook, etc but they’re certainly not common. I’m not saying going to SJSU or any school in California for that matter will automatically get me a job but it will put me dead in the middle of a region that will allow me to network with people who are in the industry and with the proper amount of work on my part give me a pretty good shot at it.
Edit: I’d also be okay with putting Computer Engineering as my major since it seems my COE EI score typically meets the CE impaction threshold and their curriculum sees pretty focused on the computer science part of CE rather than the EE part of it.
I think Santa Clara University, the University of San Francisco, and Stanford University are better options for you. Out-of-state public schools are not worth it IMO
There are other private schools in the bay area, but none of them offer CS I’m pretty sure