<p>Could you help compare USC Eng vs UCSD Computer Eng.</p>
<p>Some pros and cons at the top of my list:
+usc: no impacted majors. Easy to change between different majors within Eng.
-usc: campus safety. How much is it a real issue?
+ucsd: Fees 9k vs usc 36k.</p>
<p>How do USC graduates do in the job market vs ucsd? What about academic rigor? Academic prestige? Social life? What other factors will you consider one way or the other?</p>
<p>UCSD is great for engineering. I'd say it's better than USC, both education-wise and financially. When it comes down to it, it won't matter (undergrad) to employers anyway, but UCSD will prepare you better. USC is somewhat overhyped, in my opinion.</p>
<p>dmission, thanks for the response. I have heard about usc being overhyped. Could you elaborate what you mean by that. Is it overhyped in certain majors, good in others? Is it because it is an easier route for out-of-staters to get into California. (UCs seem to limit oos's too much).</p>
<p>No problem. I can't say I know all that much about it, but I do not it just doesn't have a reputation of being great for engineering, while I know that UCSD does. USC gets more of its fame from sports and location stuff than it does from academics.</p>
<p>I hear USC's Viterbi is actually pretty good. Our engineering (especially bio) is better, though. Do a search for rankings, there are a bunch on this forum.</p>
<p>I believe only the bio-related engineering majors are impacted in UCSD. Computer Science and Computer Engineering are no longer impacted.</p>
<p>dmission, why won't undergrad location matter to employers?</p>
<p>Because many engineers end up going to grad school too and where one gets one's last degree matters the most. It would be where you got your most advanced training. This goes for any field though. If you go to grad school or professional school it no longer matters where you did undergrad. Of course, if a B.S. is your terminal degree then, yes, it does matter where you went for undergrad.</p>
<p>Thanks, staneda2. </p>
<p>mathtastic_nerd, Okay, so how would you compare UCSD and USC in terms of your ability to get a degree from a top graduate school after an undergrad from usc/ucsd? Also, will it matter if the grad degree is in engg vs law/business after an undergrad degree in engg. Preferably, my D would work for a few years before pursuing a grad degree no matter what the field.</p>
<p>Both are R1 universities, so I wouldn't sweat this too much.</p>
<p>Basically ask yourself if you're going to be struggling for the next decade to pay bills because of tuition.</p>
<p>why are you asking this on the ucsd forum?</p>
<p>At UCSD, the only impacted engineering major is bioengineering.</p>
<p>Sorry that this isn't helpful, but oyama is right, for the most part it doesn't matter. They are both good research universities in the same area so there isn't too much between them in terms of graduate/professional admissions. But there are other things to consider. How set is she on engineering? Sounds like she might be interested in doing other things. Could she be interested by the academic versions of law and business; political science and economics? UCSD has top 10 departments in economics and political science and would be a great place to stage the beginnings of an academic career in either of those fields. On the other hand if she really wants to be in business USC actually has an undergrad business program (UCSD does not, it has a management science major out of the economics department and is not quite as applied as the traditional business major) so then USC might be better for her. For law you can major in anything from anywhere, as long as you get good grades and do well on the LSAT you are golden. (There really isn't any direct preparation for law school, only vague transferable skills like good reading comprehension and critical thinking skills.) UCSD does have BS/MS engineering programs that allow very good students to apply to get the masters' in one year extra rather than the usual two and its a different admissions process than the normal pool (only open to UCSD undergrad engineering students). So there is a plus for UCSD engineering and UCSD graduate engineering is fairly highly ranked (better than the undergrad). Of course, for both business and engineering, after one has worked for a while, the importance of one's alma mater decreases and the actual work one has done is what is important. I hope this helped a bit with the decision. I had a very difficult time deciding too, but i am very happy with my choice and i think i made the right one for me. Good luck deciding.</p>
<p>mathtastic, thanks a lot! Your comments are very insightful. Something for her to think about seriously on academic vs business differences. While she is fairly sure to complete undergrad engg (as sure as anyone who does well in Science/Math, but does not really know what engg is all about in high school), she is not so sure about continuing w/ it as a long term career. Hence, for example, she is not inclined towards schools like Georgia Tech, tho' it is much more highly ranked in Computer Engg.</p>
<p>@proton:why are you asking this on the ucsd forum?</p>
<p>I don't understand the question. It is usc vs ucsd. So either ask on uscd or usc forum (or both to get a balanced perspective). Do you have an alternate suggestion?</p>
<p>@Slorg: At UCSD, the only impacted engineering major is bioengineering. </p>
<p>I understand that is the case for this year's freshmen. Does that mean it is equally easy to switch around within Engg (minus bioengg). Of course, this is within first few semester before doing core subjects in a specific major. Or, do you get locked in at the time of admission?</p>
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At UCSD, the only impacted engineering major is bioengineering.
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<p>i thought electrical engineering was impacted</p>
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<p>nevermind. i thought that people in this thread would be incredibly biased in favor of ucsd.</p>
<p>Decisiontime09, it's very easy to change majors. You can switch to any engineering major except BioE, at any time during your college career, just by clicking through the UCSD website.</p>
<p>proton, Electrical Engineering was impacted three or four years ago (there was a huge class that graduated in 2006), but now the department is running at about half capacity. EE is not impacted and won't be soon.</p>
<p>UCSD has the better engineering program IMO hands down.</p>