UC Davis Regents + Provost VS UC San Diego Computer Science Undergraduate

College Search & Selection
1

I have been admitted as a Regents Scholar to UC Davis and have also received the Provost Award, making my total scholarship USD 20,000+ per annum. I have also been admitted into UC San Diego (Warren College). I am an undergraduate majoring in Computer Science for both and I need to choose one of them.

UC San Diego has a wonderful, wonderful program according to what I’ve heard (comparable to UCLA’s) which is really a cut above that of UC Davis. Also, its professors and internship opportunities are better, according to what I’ve read online and heard from current undergraduates. For example, Qualcomm has a hiring facility set up specially for UCSD students. I don’t think UC Davis has anything like that.

However, at UC Davis, I would graduate with more than 80,000 extra USD in my pocket. Also, I am in the honor’s program, meaning that I will get a lot of very useful perks. Enhanced interactions with professors and the other perks of the honors program would help me stand out at UC Davis, and this might surprisingly provide me with better opportunities of getting an internship at a top company like Google as compared to UCSD, although I’m not too sure about this.

I am not opposed to either college’s campus and I love them both. Also, while the extra money is an important factor, I can definitely afford UCSD without too much difficulty.

Could I have some help choosing between these two options?

2

If money is actually no object, I’d suggest reposting this thread without mentioning the $80,000 saved at Davis. A lot of CC posters, myself included, will be inclined to tell you to take the cash and run.

And if money is actually no object, then even without Regents I think UCSD would be the stronger choice. From what I’ve heard from SD’s Regents Scholars, the perks are fairly negligible anyway. Priority enrollment is meaningless when everyone in CS is guaranteed their classes, and everyone has access to professors if they want to get into research early. It’s not facilitated interaction the way it is with Regents programs, but professors are always willing to guide and hire talented, motivated undergraduates.

If you visit the UCSD subreddit right now, there’s a thread about a Google recruiter telling a CS professor that UCSD is their top school for recruiting. The distribution of UCSD grads at top tech companies reflects this. Davis’ proximity to Silicon Valley does not give it a leg up on hiring, and anecdotally, I can think of at least one or two people who have worked at each of Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, Twitter, Uber, Visa, Seagate, Intel, IBM, Cisco, and, of course, Qualcomm. (I’m not CS, so my interaction with CS people is also relatively limited.) Obviously YMMV, but if you’re trying to give yourself and edge an alumni network at your dream companies helps.

Then, there’s the decision between La Jolla and Davis. One is a great college town, and one is not. However, San Diego has a much better startup scene and tech sector than Davis/Sacramento, and you’ll never run out of things to do. A friend of mine visited UCSD twice and always marveled at how much stuff there was to do in the city. He also liked the cliffside La Jolla campus better.

But, if money is some object (and it always is to a degree), is all of this worth $80,000 to you? Do you think going to UCSD will actually give you >$80,000 more in future earnings? Are there other perks of Regents at UCD that I don’t know about or that you value? Have you visited both campuses to see if one is a better fit? These are questions you definitely need to keep asking while deciding.