My S accepted at Pitzer for Class of 2022. Is it better to do CS at 5C’s vs UCSD CS. My son accepted into UCSD Math-Computer Science. Any thoughts. He loved Pitzer campus.
Congrats to your son! If he is very specifically interested in the Math-CS program at UCSD, and wants the large research university environment, then UCSD has a great deal to offer, particularly if he got Regents (registration priority, mentoring, research opportunities). But, if he might end up wishing he were in the CS department in the engineering school, that is going to be extremely difficult to accomplish. (Also, even if Math-CS is really his jam, there will be quite a few others in that department who are there as a second choice because they couldn’t get into CSE.) He would have far more flexibility at the 5C’s where there are not admissions barriers to particular majors. Mudd CS is top-notch, and he could still take the math aspect as far as he wanted to, but he wouldn’t be locked into that focus.
But a lot of it is personality. If he thrives on competition and wants the big UC vibe and a huge variety of CS and CS-adjacent research activity that he’s willing to fight his way into, then he may thrive at UCSD. If he wants small classes, a collaborative environment with a liberal arts foundation, and a small college within a larger consortium (and still one of the top CS programs in the country), then he may prefer Pitzer. The residential college system at UCSD does try to make a big school more manageable, but keep in mind that each residential college is nearly as big as the whole Claremont consortium, and most students move off campus after the first year or two. Pitzer would be a true, residential, small-college experience… but that means it’s super-important that he really like the college enough to live in that community for four years. He can get a great education either way, but two very different experiences. Is he happy with the residential college he got into at UCSD, and its curriculum and distribution requirements? How does he feel about the Pitzer core curriculum in comparison? Hope he can attend accepted students’ events at both schools and really picture himself in both places before deciding.
@aquapt thanks for the great reply