<p>I got accepted to both for Electrical Engineering. I realize that UCSD has a high rank in this field, however I want to know the pros and cons of each school, regarding electrical engineering. I plan to get a masters degree from a private university (e.g. MIT, Standford, USC) when I finish my B.S. Which of these schools would better prepare me for a graduate program?</p>
<p>I have no knowledge of UCI’s electrical engineering program, nor any concrete information on UCSD’s, so I can’t give you any hard advice.</p>
<p>For what it’s worth though, a friend of mine is a Junior at UCSD majoring in electrical engineering, and he enjoys it. He’s a smart guy and apparently it’s a pretty tough program, he has a large amount of Lab classes this semester and is definitely kept very busy.</p>
<p>I took a look at some of his lab reports, and they’re pretty incredible lol. Of course me reading his reports is like him trying to read my Chinese homework, as the only thing I recognized was the basic format for a circuit that I learned in physics back in high school haha.</p>
<p>Both seem to be great schools for anything technical, so my two cents would be to go wherever you feel happiest and could perform best, as that matters more both as a lifelong experience and when applying to grad school.</p>
<p>Good Luck!</p>
<p>In my opinion you are looking at it in the wrong way. My son has admits from ASU, UCI, UCSD, Purdue, TExas A&M for EE. Still waiting to here from Davis. He is also not sure as to what is better. If you look at the rating UCI and ASU don’t stack up. But my research ( I am an engineer - graduated in 1980) shows UCI and to some extent ASU have the best program if you just look at it from the point of choice of courses and specialization. My son just wants to do EE, but has no idea what area of EE he is interested in ( I don’t blame him and I am sure you are the same way). To play it safe I would ignore the rating and all other trivial elements ( Weather, fun factor, party atmosphere etc) and select a program with the most choices. If you really want to party you will find the time anywhere. You don’t want to end up in a school and later wish that they had classes in particular area of specialization.</p>
<p>I can’t agree more with greenfield. Just looking at ranking only can be misleading sometimes unless you fully understand the criterion how the ranking is reached. The curriculum is definitely good indicator of the program strength as greenfield mentioned. You might also want to check into the internship opportunity and job placement from its career service. The employers know.</p>
<p>Watermark - I agree with you. This college selection process is a pain. Have no idea how to find out what employers want these days. Regarding career service which is very important - Purdue, ASU, Texas A&M clearly provide information on who visits the campus. Almost impossible to get this information from the UCs. I guess they are too disorganized to provide this valuable service.</p>
<p>if you want to go to grad school, go to ucsd</p>
<p>Thank you very much, I will look more into courses and specialization as you mentioned greenfield. And yes, I have very limited knowledge in the different aspects of electrical engineering, however, I know that some electrical engineers have gone into the medical field and completed research in medical devices, such as artifical hearts and eplileptic seizure detection and prevention device. That is sort of my goal.</p>
<p>xxsteelxx - You are making some good decisions. Always look at how you want to apply EE rather than just doing EE. Not that I have done research but my gut says that EE applied to medicine and Bio engineering are likely to be the wave of the future. I have been trying to get that across to my Son too. Perhaps I will meet you at UCSD admit day (Apr 10th) as well as in UCI admit day ( Apr 17th). We are waiting to hear from Davis - Their EE program seems to have some flexibility where you can take unrestricted electives that can be used to towards some Bio engineering or biology courses</p>