Anyone done with open house. What was the verdict?
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Good program, small size, not crowded like other UC’s, but not in the same league as U Texas, Michigan or UIUC which are engineering powerhouses for a reason. If a kid’s aim is to get hired by Amazon or likes, it will be just fine but if you want a broad spectrum of options for higher level classes, work in areas of AI/ML, the engineering school has a lot of catching up to do. It is really strong in optics, photonics because of Physics being strong but not as much in architecture or distributed systems or devices. My observations…
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They definitely picked an amazing day for the open house. The weather, the campus, the water - just an outstanding combo and they were smart to hold even their engineering open house outdoors.
Very surprised to see some of the top ECE professors come to the open house and answer questions. That was the exact opposite of our Illini Day experience.
Concur with the limited range of Upper Division courses. They are also very stingy with AP credits and that also minimizes the number of upper division courses one might be able to take.
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UCSB is very undergrad focused. Over 85% of the students are undergrad with less than 15% grad students. 2021-22 Campus Profile.
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We were surprised how down to earth and accessible the professors in computer science are. We were able to have a good conversation with the chair of computer science about technology and the challenges in designing courses in undergrad level in smaller colleges like UCSB. It will fit the kid who wants a smaller class size and close knit interaction with professors. It appears like kids have been decently successful getting internships due to proximity to silicon valley as well.
Of course, it cannot match the rigor and upper level courses availability in large colleges like UIUC for computer science.
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D22 in a similar situation. Trying to decide between UIUC and UCSB. We got the same idea about professors, class size, internship opportunities from the UCSB open house as you did. Let’s see how the visit to UIUC goes.
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That’s good to know. It appears like atleast 4 of us in this thread are in the same state deciding between UCSB CS/CE and UIUC CS/CE. We will exchange notes once we visit Illini day.
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we are in same state UIUC (CS+Ling) and UCSB CS. He is interested in NLP aspect, we also have a junior at UIUC
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Sure thing. When are you visting? We are there 4/20-4/21. D22 is in EE though.
Apr 15 - Illini day.
That is interesting! You should give us some tips on how to compare. Can I DM you to ask about UIUC?
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Same situation! UIUC CE vs UCSB CE.
I just committed to UCSB CE, as after a discussion with my parents we came to the conclusion that UIUC was just too expensive for us to afford without substantial debt burden, which I wanted to avoid.
Go gauchos! See yall on campus 
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Congratulations! Best wishes.
Other than cost did you compare other factors such as courses offered, internship opportunities, undergrad research opportunities? Did they compare?
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Yep, UIUC is 2x the cost of UCSB with worse weather 
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Courses offered - UIUC offers way more but given the core requirements no one is going to be able to take more than 10 or so UD courses
Research opportunities - Again, UIUC offers more but UCSB is a very small cohort and professors are very easily accessible
Internships - UIUC gets way more on-campus recruiting but with a little effort UCSB will provide a lot of options given proximity to LA and Silicon valley
Don’t ask me what I’d pick. The above is my case for UCSB but my son still hasn’t decided between the two. Actually, in his case its a 3-way tie between Berkeley, UIUC, and UCSB.
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Congratulations! UCSB CE is a great decision. Small class size. CS professors are really approachable and in-state fees are hard to beat.
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Thanks ucscuuw.
D is leaning towards UCSB. She wants to do Masters after graduation and we’ve had many people tell us how important a high GPA is to get into a good Masters program. UCSB is not known to have grade deflation. Although I’d imagine admissions would take into account grade deflation of a university.
Curious why you are considering UCSB if you have Berkeley.
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I personally would go to Berkeley but S22 insists he likes them all and wants to wait until Cal Day 
I liked UCSB CS too. Professors are accessible and it is easy to stand out in that small settings. But D is really confused even after visiting both UCSB and UIUC. We have 2 weeks left and worried that it will be a coin toss at the end.
I think the 100k tuition differential is hard to get past + the weather. The question is whether that is a price you are willing to pay for prestige and greater opportunities. It’s a hard call for a high school senior to make unless you are willing to introduce a constraint. For instance, I told my S22 if he chooses UCSB over UIUC I will bank that 25k into his brokerage account (which he actively manages).
Obviously, I only recommend nudging them like this if they are truly torn. In that case, you can break the tie for them by giving them a reason to pick one over another.
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