@NateandAllisMom My kids aren’t CS/Engineering majors, but I always refer back to this 3-4 year old article about Silicon Valley hiring:
I like UCSC a lot, even though it’s a bottom tier UC. I may have mentioned it before, but my gym buddy is a recent UCSC grad and has a great job at Twilio.
@skkm0906 Yes, this! Two years ago when my daughters withdrew or declined from schools on their portals it asked right there where they were going. This is more than sufficient. If there is no decline or withdraw app, then you can email the school but if there is a withdraw/decline, then you don’t need to go out of your way to send an email to the school or the AO.
Thanks. UCSC really fits my nature loving son and it’s an easy drive home but cooler and getting away. We will definitely need to dig in on before passing it over, but he is already into some other higher ranked schools so IDK. They say it’s more about what you do once there than where you go in CS. Plus wildcard is he might switch over to natural science so UCSC is a great place for that. Bonus: cheaper and we get something extra for the taxes!
OTOH, socially it’s weird how they don’t have a campus hub. If he didn’t get a dorm experience either than might be kind of a dud experience. More to dig in on but I’m not sure when we would be able to trust them to be open.
Thank you ! It was fun making the avatar!
I have 3 kids (out of 4) in the CS field. The rankings can mean a lot or not. My son who did not even go to college, now has his own startup but when he was working at his prior company in SF, they generally did not hire graduates from MIT. Those students were not a fit for what they were looking for. A lot of companies have these little tests for screening as part of their interview process and those graduates couldn’t pass the tests. So, perhaps there is something that UCSC students are not being taught that show a weakness in terms of companies in Silicon or SF. It could also just be courses that are not offered there because as you mentioned it is a small program. Another thing to look at when considering CS programs is look at the Faculty and see where they got their degrees from. If they came from CS powerhouses like U-Washington, Stanford, CMU, MIT, etc then that says something, if they came from places that you are not familiar with, or are not on the CS map, that also tells you something.
Lastly, another thing to look at is the career planning and internship opportunities and job fairs. Do they have them, what companies come there, or are students on their own? How many students upon graduation have jobs?
Many people think you have a CS degree you automatically have a job, but that’s not always the case. Many people are also going to those programs and getting certificates and think suddenly they’re experts in programming and that also is not going to necessarily guarantee them a job.
My son that just got into UVA last night is now seeing that as phenomenal of a school UVA is, it may not be the right fit for him since their CS program is not that strong. He has to weight a lot of factors into the equation as to where to place that on his list and while Purdue is not high at all on his list especially since about 20 kids from our school got in, he also sees the benefits of that CS program and what they can offer over UVA from the academic perspective, but he also has to take all factors into account, just like everyone should when they make their final decisions.
Congrat!!!
It was the UC COSMOS summer program. They had a networking and programming cluster a couple of years back. Not sure if they are offering it this year. Very cool and nicely run program for high schoolers.
@srparent15 thanks for that perspective. We will definitely investigate some of that. My husband and I are not in tech and out of touch. They are up at U Dub today. It’s so tough to get OOS direct admit CS up there unfort.
They didn’t offer that subject last year. I guess would have been canceled due to Covid anyway. It is a really cool program. He got waitlisted twice at UCSB so we were looking for an alternate.
I just asked D about this. Nope, no access for me to college emails for either kid. 
The email is titled “we can’t wait to meet you…safely.” What’s up with that language? If UCSC rejects her I’ll be PO’ed. 
UCSC is just over 17 for us. When you dig in further, please share with me/us. It’s a viable option, if she’s admitted.
Can you elaborate, what’s the problem with freshman housing at UCSC?
Agree with you about the deferrals - so painful. Someone commented on another post “when EA is neither early nor action” and I completely agree there seemed to be little advantage gained this year in our experience.
I’m going to pm with you and will share the email body.
We just declined on each portal for S19. As far as I know, he only wrote two emails. One to an AO he got to know pretty well and one to a young alum he interviewed with at another school. I think he turned down ten schools so most didn’t get anything personal from him.
You should be able to decline in the portal. If so I would do it there. Admission offices are busy right now!
This is my thinking…yes, decline in the portal where that’s possible.
Given that it takes a minute or two to send an email to an AO thanking them for their support, it’s easy to do this piece too.
S21 send two declines a month or so ago, and both AOs responded with nice notes (he had had no prior communication with either).
Given that 30% of students transfer college why not have a positive communication in the file? An increasing number of colleges aren’t requiring transfer apps (or greatly abbreviated ones) from students who were initially accepted, some even honor the same level of merit they initially offered. Keeps doors open and it’s easy.
Good to know!! D will write emails to the AOs when she decides where to decline!
And with that said, I hope none of our ‘21s have to transfer!
@Mwfan1921 I second that! It will be an interesting stat though. I wonder if this class will be transferring more…
It wouldn’t be surprising, as so many of them haven’t seen campuses.