why?
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isnāt it better to go to UIUC, do the lower level CS courses, and transfer, vs. wasting a year as a gap year?
isnāt it better to go to UIUC, do the lower level CS courses, and transfer, vs. wasting a year as a gap year?
Not if UCB or UCLA are under consideration plus they only accept Junior level transfers so 60 semester/90 quarter units for transfer.
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UCLA and UCB give priority to CA CC transfers. The lowest priority is given to OOS and International transfers.
For OOS transfers in 2022, UCB admit rates was 7%(46 admits/654 applicants). For UCLA it was also 7% (55 admits/808 applicants)
In @Gumbymom everyone trust!! Especially when it comes to CA schools - so if Iām reading her comment correctly (which is bolded above) and your goal is a UC (and I know you have more on your list), youād be better to go to a CC.
That you got into UIUC is INCREDIBLE and while I personally donāt like the school (aesthetics), for a CS person- Iām not sure you can do better.
Plus - I just donāt understand starting a school with one foot out the door. Makes no sense. Pull the plug now if thatās really the case.
Thanks for sharing, maybe UCās arenāt an option then.
Among the non-UC schools, which of the above schools or any Ivies would be the most transfer friendly, and offer the best admit rate?
Donāt OOS transfer admit rates of 46/654 and 55/808 equate to 7% and not <1%?
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why not look up each schoolās transfer policy - including aid if needed. Itās all online.
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UIUC is one of the very best universities in the world for computer science.
One way to think of this: There are eight Ivy League universities. People think of āIvy Leagueā as the very top. However, there are probably at least as many other universities in the US which are just as prestigious (MIT, Caltech, Stanford, Chicago, ā¦). Anything in the top 8 or the top 10 or even top 16 is really, really, really good.
There are hundreds of universities that are very good for computer science.
The last time that I looked (which was very recently), UIUC is ranked in the top 5 in the US for computer science.
UIUC essentially is the equivalent of āIvy Leagueā for computer science (although again, the last time that I looked, it is in fact ranked higher than any actual Ivy League school for CS).
Assuming that you can afford to attend UIUC, my suggestion is that you go there, purchase a good winter coat, and make a very strong effort to do very well in your classes. Look for internship or coop opportunities, and plan to learn a lot.
If you cannot afford to attend UIUC, that is an entirely different conversation.
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I went by the posted admit % listed on the Summary table I linked but you are correct. The <1% is the percentage of admits that were OOS vs in-state but overall 7% of applied OOS students were admitted as Transfers. Still a low percentage and I will edit my post.
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Thank you! I like UIUC CS but Iād rather be at Cornell, CMU, or Berkeley. And overall, Ivies are considered so much more prestigious than UIUC.
Hereās the CS rankings from USNews:
- CMU
- MIT
- Stanford
- Berkeley
- Cornell
- Georgia Tech
- Princeton
- UIUC
- Caltech
- U Washington
Did you apply and get into any of those?
And why do you think any of those will lead to a better career outcome?
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This mindset is a recipe to be miserable. Best of luck.
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Are you looking at older rankings? I just checked the 2023 US News rankings that have UIUC at #5. I thought that this was true in 2022 also but I was not able to find the 2022 rankings just now in a quick Google search. However, the difference between 8 versus 5 versus 20 versus 1 really is not going to matter in computer science, and might be different next year (ie before you graduate). Rankings will vary.
I have worked in high tech for a few decades. I did this with degrees from MIT and Stanford. Really, in engineering and computer science the Ivy League schools are not more prestigious than UIUC. Hardly anyone cares that I got degrees from MIT and Stanford (although apparently the MIT sailing club cares ā it still has my sailing card on file and it is still valid ā I went sailing at MIT with a daughter a few weeks ago).
Also, once the job interview is over, people really do not care where you got your degree. I have trouble remembering where most of my colleagues got their degrees. People care what you can do. For the job interview, internships and coops are going to matter more than where you got your degree. I have worked with interns at multiple companies over several decades and in most cases the companies think of internships as approximately extensive job interviews. If someone does well in an internship then we can be confident that they will work out. Even internships at other companies look good when you interview with us.
Really, you are already in at an exceptional university with an excellent computer science department. Classes will be demanding. Your classes will be full of very strong students. When you get a job after graduating you might be working with a few MIT graduates, a few Stanford graduates, a few UCB graduates, many graduates from many other schools, a few Canadians, and many, many graduates from very good schools in India, and no one is going to care where you are from or where you went to school. They will care whether your code works and whether you fully test your code before you merge it into the main branch and whether you are reasonable to work with.
There is one big problem that you are going to have in transferring into a highly ranked school: The top schools in the US want incoming transfer students to have a good academic reason to transfer. If you are already studying at a top 5 or even top 20 program it is going to be very difficult to justify that you have any academic reason to transfer.
Go to UIUC and do well.
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Overall as a university, yes. But for CS - no. And the latter is what should matter to you.
I work in the industry and can tell you UIUCās CS program is highly regarded. Many well known tech founders have come from there.
You seem to have misinterpreted the USNWR rankings. There are multiple schools at the same ranking level and therefore considered equivalent by USNWR.
Therefore, at the top you have CMU, MIT, Stanford, UCB
Next best: Cornell, GT, Princeton, UIUC
Followed by: Caltech, UWash
So there are only 4 schools ranked higher by USNWR than UIUC, but as @DadTwoGirls mentioned, this difference is meaningless. Thereās no point transferring merely to climb one step up based on a magazineās rankings.
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Plus, those rankings leave out schools that donāt offer PhDs, and are based on a single metric, institutional reputation.
Now add to that that the top employers of all those schools will be the same, Google, Apple, Amazon and Meta, and you should see why this exercise is really meaningless.
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Hereās another thanking - or a list of rankings.
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There are so many variables which go into a kid loving or hating their college. But there is one constant- if you go off to college already looking into transferring- thatās pretty much a guarantee that you are going to hate your school. Ranked number 1, number 12, number 40. Wonāt matter, you will hate it. The grass is always greener somewhere else, the smoothies in the dining hall are always sweeter, and the professors are always more accessible at the college you are not attending.
Thought experiment- put a date on the calendar- December 1? and circle it. Then put any thought of transferring out of your head until then. Then take all the energy you are expending researching transferring- and put it into the actual college you are enrolling in! Research the fun and interesting and cool extra curricular opportunities. Research the transformative volunteer work students are doing in the community. Research the professors who have gotten major grants on subjects that sound interesting- even if you donāt really understand what they are and what they are looking for. Get a calendar of which visiting dignitaries and scholars are coming to campus this fall for symposia or lectures and put them on YOUR calendar. See how far your dorm is from various on-campus coffee lounges, and figure out how to hit all of them in your first two weeks.
See? Doesnāt that sound more productive than worrying about transferring OUT of a college you havenāt even shown up at?
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A couple more things to keep in mindā¦
- all the big name tech firms (plus plenty others) will be recruiting at UIUC. Itās up to you to make the most of these opportunities. If you donāt get hired at Google it wonāt be because youāre at UIUC instead of CMU.
- after youāve worked for a few years, no one will care which school you went to. The only things that will matter are your (hard and soft) skills and the experience youāve gained.
In my nearly two decades of hiring experience, where the candidate went to school was never the deciding factor.
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Hello! Thank you for sharing your experiences and providing feedback.
Can I ask you, if tech companies give more weightage to graduate degrees (MS CS) vs BS CS? UIUC has a 4+1 BS/MS program in CS, so my options could be 1) BS CS and start working 2) BS/MS CS at UIUC 3) BS CS at UIUC and MS CS elsewhere 4) BS CS at UIUC, work, and then do a MBA.
I was interested in transferring to Ivies or MIT is because of my interest in quant companies (e.g. Citadel), which I hear give more importance to college prestige (which tech companies donāt) and tend to hire students from Ivies and MIT.