Transfer from Penn State University Park to UC

Transfer Students
21

California Polytechnic State University @ San Luis Obispo is NOT a private school. It is a CSU=California State University.

That’s the biggest problem; you are not a resident.
Priority goes to entering Freshman,
then California Community College students,
then UC to UC transfers, then
CSU to UC transfers,
then California privates,
then OOS universities.

Computer Science is impacted at most UC’s and CSU’s. That means they are full.

Just because you don’t like your current professors doesn’t mean you will like all of your professors wherever you go. Surprise! The UC’s also have professors that are not perfect.
Do you believe that you will like all of your professors at California schools?

People are different wherever you go.

@TomSrOfBoston is correct; the costs will be full fees at $60K per year.

22

@“aunt bea” , d’oh! You’re completely right! Sorry.

23

@“aunt bea” I don’t expect that any professor to be good. I don’t mind they are just OK. It is not only my current professor is bad but all computer science professors I’ve known in my freshman year. My current one is just worst of all. He confused the entire class. We have to explain what 's wrong with his code. His English is bad. And he will yelling at students.

24

My daughter had professors and TA’s that were awful. They were hard to understand. The problem sets were hard. The work was hard.

You don’t mind if they are just okay?
What if they are worse?
UC’s are public universities. Sometimes professors have their foreign graduate TA’s lecture the undergrads. What will you do then?
Apply.
The State of California needs your application money.

They don’t, however, have to admit you.

25

@“aunt bea” I have been thinking that for a while actually. What if the next college I go and the next professor I meet are bad? I think I can’t do much about that really, because I will be a junior at that time and I can’t really transfer anymore. But I can do it now. Instead of just staying here and thinking how am I going to pass next 3 years, at least I am trying to do something to make the situation better.

26

The US has lots of universities. You may get better programs at schools that are not full. Try to transfer to private universities.

27

@“aunt bea” My application will include but not limit to Cali institutions. I just not sure where I want to go exceptCali.

28

@nonenonenonenone there are a plethora of great CS departments across the US. You should look at engineering / technical oriented schools, such as Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, etc.



Research school CS Major rankings, that’s a good start.

29

@TransferStalker I don’t know if I can believe in ranking anymore. Penn State has good CS ranking. But I heard it is because they are good at research, not teaching.

30

Look, at MIT, where one of the best CS programs exist, there are bound to be bad professors. It is unavoidable. Inevitably, despite our best efforts, we land with bad teachers.



It is good that you would like to do something with your unsatisfactory education, but higher rank / moving to Cali will not truly fix your issues.



Thus, I recommend that you shift your expectations, and apply. Because I don’t think you should stay at Penn State.

31

If you really want to transfer to a good CS school in California, try Santa Clara University, for the following reasons:

(1) Higher education in California is dominated by state schools, like the UCs and CSUs. But it is very difficult to transfer into these schools from out of state, because they give priority in transfer admissions to California community colleges, as noted above.

(2) So you should look at private schools in California, instead of state schools. The best-known private schools, like Caltech, Stanford, USC, and Harvey Mudd, are very good for CS. But it is very hard to transfer into these schools too, because they are extremely selective and competitive.

(3) So what you need is a private school in California that is strong for CS, but not extremely selective. The school that best fits this description is SCU.

SCU is located in Silicon Valley, so obviously a great location for tech. Many people want to study CS or engineering in the Bay Area, but the top schools (Stanford and Berkeley) are insanely competitive, which means SCU gets lots of highly qualified students who need a backup. According to the asee.org online profile, SCU’s engineering program is now pulling students with 680-760 Math SATs, which is higher than most UC engineering programs (or Penn State’s). And SCU is not known as a major research institution; their strength is teaching.

For Fall 2016, SCU admitted 331 out of 771 transfer applicants, or 43%.

The downside to SCU is that it charges high private-school tuition, but is not particularly wealthy and does not have great financial aid. But if you are paying the full out-of-state rate at Penn State, you can probably afford SCU.

32

I second Santa Clara (actually came to post it and saw Corbett beat me to it!)

However if you want excellent teaching, you ought to look at the “best teaching” rankings.

Right now, those involved Miami Oxford, Rice, Wake Forest, Vanderbilt, u Wisconsin, WPI. I’d add UMass Amherst where CS is excellent, as well as Marist.

In addition, at Penn state, it means applying to Schreyer and taking the Honors sections, which typically have the best professors. Your GPA qualifies you so look into it quickly.