<p>so, Im planning to major in computer science major but my gpa (3.45) is not that great and i dont have much extracurricular activities :(
and one of my advisor told me that i am most likely to get accepted to UCR, UCSC, San Jose State, and Cal Poly Pomona..
So im trying to choose between UC schools and Cal State schools if I get accepted... and I hear a lot that UC schools are more theoretical and Cal State schools are more practical and hands on. So what does this mean?????? i still dont get what the difference between those two are.... does that mean UC schools have no hands-on experience and Cal state schools are not going to teach something theoretical at all??
Also, which schools would be better for job employment??? does location also matters for job employment?</p>
<p>There is a bit of a misnomer that UCs are all theory and CSUs are all practical. This misnomer is even more exaggerated for disciplines such as engineering. </p>
<p>Firstly, if a student is studying in any engineering program, and the college is ABET accredited program, the student will have to master all of the fundamental theories of basic sciences such as chemistry, physics, and mathematics. The variance between UCs and CSUs are negligible in the areas of basic science coursework, in preparation for upper division engineering. </p>
<p>Secondly, once an engineering student beings to take core engineering classes he will encounter a more nuanced stylistic approach to his engineering education. And this is where the misnomer between UC being all theory and CSU being all practical begins. </p>
<p>For example, an Electrical engineering major in an UC is more likely to spend more time on understanding the fundamental solid state physics behind semiconductors, and learn more about new theories on improving semiconductor performance through utilizing new exotic material; And the students will perform experiments on studying the behaviors of these exotic semiconductors, and these semiconductors might or might not ever become commercialized. </p>
<p>Conversely, at a CSU engineering school, those same theories will be discussed, but will be given less emphasis and time. But instead, a CSU student will spend more time studying about utilizing existing semiconductor technologies to design a fiber optic communication system, and trying out possible designs in a design lab classes. And these communication system designs might become actual products sold by Cisco within the next 2 years. </p>
<p>So at the end, both UCs and CSUs engineering students learn the fundamental theories. You simply can’t be a good engineer without learning the theories. But the primary divergence between the 2 school systems is most apparent on what subject areas they emphasize and spend the most time on teaching. </p>
<p>As for employment, because of the emphasis I mentioned, CSU trained engineering students are very well suited to gain employment as a junior engineer because they can hit the road running and join, for instance, a microprocessor design team at Intel.</p>
<p>Conversely, an UC engineering will be very well versed on many cutting edge theories and thus well suited for further graduate studies and more theoretical aspects of engineering profession such as new technology research at Google research. </p>
<p>The location does matter. There is a reason why, for example, Cal Poly has the highest starting and mid-career median salary compare to all UCs, except for Cal and UCSD, and the third highest mid-career salary for public universities in the US. This is because it is located in California, and close enough to Silicon Valley for its students to readily gain 6 months engineering internships while in school and finding high paying entry level post graduation employment.</p>
<p>With that said, Cal engineering (and to certain extent UCLA) is world class institution with enormous respect. They have tremendous research/university budgets, top quality facilities, and outstanding faculty. Cal engineering graduates will receive an outstanding education and will also gain some of the top paying engineering jobs in Silicon Valley. </p>
<p>So at the end, it really depends on where you can get into and how much financial resources you can devote to your engineering education.</p>
<p>“and one of my advisor told me that i am most likely to get accepted to UCR, UCSC, San Jose State, and Cal Poly Pomona…”</p>
<p>I think your advisor has identified realistic choices based on your GPA. I personally think Cal Poly Pomona and SJSU are better choices over UCSC and UCR. If it were me, I would choose SJSU. Your intern opportunities and job prospects give the edge to this CSU, imo. Good luck.</p>
<p>I agree with Jshain’s good advice on school choices.</p>
<p>I agree with all the advice given above. If your GPA is 3.45 it likely means you are not interested in learning for learning’s sake and therefore going on to do research in CS. You most likely are interested in obtaining a job. SJSU is your best option for this. It will give you the best return for your money. If you find out later that you really do want to understand the latest theoretical research in CS, you can return to school and at that time it will be more important what work you have been doing in your job than what school you came from. Theoretical research in CS is very difficult and takes years of math training. Most of the interesting work has to do with how to handle large amounts of data, either searching through it (search engines), moving it around networks, storing and accessing it (databases) or figuring out how to process it to make decisions (Artificial Intelligence). You need a thorough understanding of the math involved in making fuzzy decisions whether it’s a search engine deciding to pull up a certain web site based on a few typed characters or a human language processor interpreting correctly what the speaker said.</p>
<p>these are the answers that i was really looking for… THANK YOU GUYS!
another question… so if I go to san jose state… then im I going to have to compete against UC Berkeley and Stanford students for job employment at silicon valley??? cuz UC Berkeley and Stanfod are also pretty close to silicon valley… Im getting scared :O</p>
<p>Some local businesses there affiliate themselves specifically with SJSU, I believe. I won’t be bothered to find a link proving that, but regardless, if you’re going to find a position anywhere within your reach, it’d be there.</p>
<p>“then im I going to have to compete against UC Berkeley and Stanford students for job employment at silicon valley??? cuz UC Berkeley and Stanfod are also pretty close to silicon valley… Im getting scared”</p>
<p>The ratio of high-tech industry to college students is tipped very much in the college student’s favor because of the sheer size of the area. Besides the Silicon Valley, you’ve got San Mateo County, San Francisco, Oakland, Contra Costa County, and Marin Counties. There really is not a glut of college students to choose from when filling all the potential intern positions in the area that will, hopefully, lead to permanent positions.</p>
<p>thank you so much guys… i think i’ve decided to choose san jose state
can anyone tell me about the life at san jose state (whoever attends sjsu??)</p>
<p>There are not any college sub-forums on CC but check out the SJSU website link below: </p>
<p>[url=<a href=“http://www.sjsu.edu/]San”>http://www.sjsu.edu/]San</a> Jos</p>