Hi All,
Need help making the final decision call among the following:
UC Davis (Computer Science)
UC Irvine (Computer Science)
UC Santa Barbara (Computer Science)
Also got in UC San Diego (Cognitive Science)
Not too much inclined toward Cognitive Science, So need help closing on the above three. Any help would be appreciated.
Tell us a little about what you want from your college experience. The social scene at the three schools is very different.
Thanks, lkg4answers for your response. I am looking for good academic exposure and opportunities from the college experience and looking to make good lifelong friends.
I wanted to make sure there are ample opportunities for the internship/jobs perspective and the reputation of education after graduation.
If I have no specific inclination, In terms of ranking and career prospects, is there one university better than the others?
My opinion (take that for what it is worth) is that you will receive good academic exposure at all and will make good lifelong friends wherever you go. I also think the reputation is comparable between the three schools.
Are you looking to live in northern California or southern California after graduating?
Maybe someone else with more CS knowledge can chime in about the difference in CS departments.
Do you have a specific area of interest for CS such as Artificial Intelligence, Data science, Software Engineering, Cybersecurity, Game Design?
I would compare the curriculum and available courses to see if one of the campuses has specific areas of interest you would like to pursue with your CS electives.
https://www.ucdavis.edu/majors/computer-science/
https://engineering.ucsb.edu/undergraduate/majors-programs/computer-science
I agree that academically they will all be comparable. Location and general student vibe will vary between campuses.
Internships/Jobs will be available through the Career centers and your own networking skills. I would check out the Career centers for each school and see which employers actively recruit.
Thanks again lkg4answers for the response and adding more details. I would aspire to live in the bay area after I graduate.
I am interested in Machine Learning/ Artificial Intelligence.
Good idea, I will reach out to the career center for these universities.
I think UCD will lead to more opportunities in the Bay Area with UCSB next and UCI leading to more opportunities in southern California.
I’ll try to describe my impressions of the different social scenes at the three schools. Full transparency, I have a child who is a student at UCD and I am an alum of UCSB and Cal.
UCD is a large biking campus with a surrounding college town. I think they say there are more bikes than cars in Davis. The students are friendly and the campus tends to be more collaborative than competitive. In general there is a more earthy, organic, bohemian vibe to UCD students.
UCSB is also a biking campus. It is 20 min north of the city of Santa Barbara. It’s college town, Isla Vista, is kind of a beachy student slum. Don’t get me wrong, students love IV but it isn’t the well manicured community adjacent to UCI. UCSB is 90% undergrad and 10% grad students. It has a beachy party social scene. I was much more focused and disciplined with my school work at UCSB compared to Cal because I knew there was always going to be something happening in the evening and on weekends.
UCI is a smaller walkable campus. It doesn’t have an adjacent college town and is pretty quiet on the weekends as a lot of locals go home. There is a bridge from campus to University Center with a lot of restaurants and retail stores. It is more commercial than the mom and pop type of businesses you will find at UCD or UCSB. https://www.shopirvinecompany.com/centers/irvine/university-center
Thank you so much lkg4answers for the detailed answer. I really appreciate you sharing all the details.
After weighing in all of my options, I am getting inclined toward UCSB, especially given it allowed the students to take on graduate courses with no restrictions on the credits, etc. I looked at the graduate courses and those look appealing to me. The other schools seem to have more constraints about picking up graduate courses in undergrad.
Is my assumption correct?
@hulahoope I am not sure about the graduate courses at UCSB. It is easier if you are in the College of Creative Studies which is an extremely small and competitive program to get into.
I would be careful about getting ahead of yourself in looking at graduate courses before you start. @Gumbymom do you know anything about the ease or difficulty of taking grad courses as an undergrad at the UCs?
@lkg4answers @hulahoope: I do not know the procedure for taking graduate classes at the UC’s. My son took some CS graduate classes at SDSU, but he was only able to register for these classes after all the graduate students had registered. He also had to have Senior undergrad standing so it may be similar at the UC’s. I would contact the CS departments to get the most up to date information.
@hulahoope . . . I just wanted to add an outcome perspective to the links gumbymom provided:
Here are UCD’s ASEE degrees awarded in engineering in 2018 (including CS degrees):
http://profiles.asee.org/profiles/8083/screen/21?school_name=University+of+California%2C+Davis
Here are UCI’s ASEE degrees awarded in 2018:
http://profiles.asee.org/profiles/8233/screen/21?school_name=University+of+California%2C+Irvine
Here are UCSB’s ASEE degree outcomes in 2018:
Despite Davis’s long list of majors within engineering by combining them, it’s actually Irvine that has seemingly the most comprehensive E-offerings. Within this, the number of CS-related degrees that Irvine offers is quite large; you can look at them yourself.
But if it’s feel of the campus, I don’t think you could go wrong with SB. Its E program is pretty small, and that might be good for you. But wherever you go, it’s going to be a grind and will be very tough.
Edit: Let me add that the engineer that has funded Irvine’s E programs is the same who’s funded UCLA’s. His name is Henry Samueli, who’s a UCLA graduate with BS/PhD from the University, and started his company in Irvine. Thus his affinity for both universities. Both schools of E are eponyms in his honor.
All the best…
Thank you @lkg4answers. I might try to get into CCS, after going there and exploring.
Thank you for the information @gumbymom . Yes, that’s what I have read on the UCSB that you have to have the senior undergrad standing and showcase with the upper-level courses. I guess its similar across UCs. Looking at the UCSB though there doesn’t seem to be limit and quite a few courses are open for undergrads.
THanks @firmament2x. This is great information. Thanks for sharing. It definitely gives the perspective for me to make a final call.