Pitt - We were both surprised at how much we liked Pitt. We knew the kids would be happy, but everyone in the area seemed so friendly too. In contrast to the horrible admissions portals, the admitted students’ day was a well-oiled machine. Everyone was so enthusiastic and welcoming. D was happy with the SCI session and the CS offerings. She spoke with some students afterwards including some female SCI kids whom she said were all just really nice and seemed very happy at Pitt.
The campus had a more campus-ey feel than we expected being in the city, though it was odd walking along regular streets going from building to building and D’s not sure she wants that layout for a campus. But she loved how walkable everything was and that it felt safe to explore the surrounding area. We drove along other parts of the city that had cute shops, restaurants etc that would be fun to explore. She’s not sure how she’d feel being a CS major in the shadows of CMU, although a friend in Pittsburgh said the CMU kids are notoriously over-stressed, so D was glad she didn’t apply. She’s also not sure how well regarded a Pitt degree would be in California, especially if she ends up not doing CS.
Rochester - This was the school I was worried she’d love because it’s so expensive, cold and far away (they did give her $6k merit after she appealed). Online she thought it was exactly what she wanted in a school, but in person it just didn’t excite her. The campus itself was beautiful and the facilities seemed great. But maybe because it was just a regular tour on a Saturday, it felt very low energy and she didn’t feel connected to any of the students she met.
The admissions office had emailed before her visit encouraging her to reach out to departments she was interested in – she did that, but got no response. We mentioned it when we arrived for the visit and the admissions person took her name and said she’d follow up, but D hasn’t heard since. The tour guide was nice but unenthusiastic, so that didn’t help. Neither did the snow in the middle of April!
The campus is also at the edge of the city, next to a cemetery. The school built a faux downtown called College Town, but it didn’t have many shops/restaurants or real foot traffic (maybe it was an off day). We went to other parts of Rochester and really liked where the Eastman School of Music is as well as Park Ave, the LBTQ area with cute shops, restaurants, etc. Rochester was very LBTQ+ friendly so we did love that.
Phew! So after all that we’re down to her Final Four – UCSC, SLO, Pitt, WPI
(listed in order of distance from home ).
So we have pretty different schools with very different vibes.
I’m leaning toward SLO, my husband’s leaning toward UCSC, and D has no idea – with just over a week to decide!
Thanks for all the advice and for helping along on this ride!
Omg that update took me forever to write, but was a good exercise for me to remember what we saw since my notes were minimal. Thanks for your encouragement!
One question I have for those who know CS/SE – we have SLO and WPI in the hands-on camp and UCSC and Pitt more theory-focused. D likes both approaches (of course).
How would you suggest she decide which approach is better suited to her? Is it mainly whether she prefers to go straight to work or grad school instead? She’s (of course) not sure, although she has become more interested in game design (but major, minor or hobby, she doesn’t know!).
It wasn’t an off day. Middletown is always that quiet.
Also - Note to Full-Pay Parents: Never visit an expensive college on Accepted Students Day (ASD). Wait until the hoopla dies down and it’s just another college with a beautiful campus and nice kids.
For CS, any good major program will include course work to teach the relevant theory and have plenty of practice applying it in (usually programming) assignments and projects.
Everyone loves Pitt (minus the portal) - it’s one of the schools on the CC that you rarely read a cross word about - along with FSu and South Carolina. A Pitt degree travels well anywhere…it will be far more known, then say a WPI…but that’s not a reason to pick or not pick it. Being the right school for your daughter is the reason to pick it. Great write ups!!!
Thanks for the update. I am enjoying living vicariously through you and your D. SLO is such a nice town - we stayed there both times we took a scenic drive from SF to LA. Never been to SC, although I hear it’s nice as well.
On the other coast, I am a fan of Pittsburgh the city (have close friends there so I visit from time to time). Never been to WPI.
So much fun reading your reviews!!! Two thoughts popped into my head while reading.
My good friend and neighbor is a Silicon Valley engineer (hardware I think) and one of his favorite coworkers is a Pitt CS alumna. His son ended up at CalPoly because he was looking at a place in a team sport as a recruited athlete, but had that not worked out he would have gone to Pitt. Long story to say that there are Pitt graduates working in California
I’m one of the very few on CC that prefers the more traditional (or theory based as you call it) approach to an engineering education that puts the design and build elements of the education later in the curriculum, particularly for a student like your daughter that is not 100% invested in the engineering pathway. Having said that, most universities offer introductory design courses (robotics would be an obvious choice for your daughter) where students get hands-on experiences other than their science labs. My daughter is currently “living” in some engineering lab/maker space working with her team mates on a year long “design and build” project. Not sure how all this translates to CS though. I know she has some team mates that are in CS and they work on the control elements of their design.
I don’t know if your daughter ever did “Outdoor Ed” in elementary school in the Santa Cruz mountains. It’s a big part of the elementary school experience where we live (high school too, as the camp counselors that go with the elementary students are local high schoolers). It was one of my daughter’s favorite memories of school and the campus at UCSC reminded her of Outdoor Ed. It’s a very unique campus, you’re right.
Good luck with decision making! Her top choices all sound so attractive and I hope she is as excited for her choices as I am for her!
Presuming you mean the traditional ordering of course work in an engineering major that starts with math and natural sciences, followed by engineering science, followed by engineering design. This makes the most sense from a prerequisite flow standpoint, but may cause some students to lose interest before getting to the engineering design that they would be most interested in, or cause some students to find out too late that they do not like engineering design. The introductory design courses you mention would be helpful to avoid the latter problems even in a more traditionally organized curriculum.
CS is somewhat different in that programming assignments and projects to apply the theory taught in lecture and discussion generally start from the first CS course and continue in every CS course except for the few pure theory ones that are more like math courses (discrete math, theory of computation, algorithms and complexity).
Also, SLO will be opening another new dining facility that will include a Panda Express, Habit Burger and Chick-fil-A, etc. Opening for 2023-2024 school year:
There’s MANY food choices including Vista Grande (w/Jamba Juice), the new dining facility as well as an on-campus grocery store, Scout Coffee and food trucks (BBQ, Indian and Mexican). Also, up near PCV and CV, there’s an Einstein Bagels and other dining options.
We had the same reaction when we visited Pitt. I told my son if you don’t go there, I will. I’m not sure what the process is, but you could certainly inquire about switching from CS to Engineering.
It is hard to know what to say about the horrific situation in WPI. I’m sure the school is working hard to prevent it from happening again.
They are both great schools. There probably is a little more of a work-life balance at Pitt, which is probably a good thing.
For CS you need both theory as well as hands-on approach, both for industry as well as grad school. If she wants to enter into industry after grad then go for SLO/WPI, if academia then go for USCS or Pitt. Also compare the courses in all the collegs especially upperlevel ones. Some colleges D got admitted into, upper level courses were not that exhaustive.
Another thing I would pay attention is, if your D wants to double-major or minor in some arts side or humanities side (I remember you mentioned she’s a STEAM kind of a kid). I mentioned this in another thread, an acquaintance of my daughter is declining her CS acceptances in CMU and EECS at UCB and choosing Yale so as to progress in art/humanities side pathway as well.
In our case we also considered the ease to get to campus, be it by air or by road. We had about 6 colleges in the trajectory and one by one they got striked off based on D’s future academic/work plans.
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