UC: San Diego, Santa Barbara, Riverside, Irvine CSU: San Diego, Fullerton, Long Beach, Northridge Major: Linguistics (Language Science at UCI)
I have googled everything I possibly could & went on plenty of forums, but cannot figure out which programs are best. I can’t find much info at all about the CSUs, especially the way that the UCs show stats on Admit/Enroll GPA ranges.
For the department, school prestige, & any other additional factors, how would one essentially rank these school’s departments &/or the schools as a whole? I feel like you can’t always say that any UC is better than any CSU. Take money out of the equation also.
Time was that CSU was definitely the second tier to any UC [was not even allowed to offer graduate degrees as I recall] but some of the UCs you mention did not exist back then. What are you aiming at? If you plan on going to grad school, I think a UC is still the way to go, unless one of the CSU you mention is known in the field. You might check out the Graduate Cafe website forthat information.
IMO, I don’t believe that it necessarily matters where you go attend for school whether that is a CSU school, UC school, or really any school. At the end of the day, it is what you take away from what you learned and how you will apply those skills in your future career after graduating. That being said though, it is still important to find the right suited school for you. The CSU schools tend to be more hands-on teaching whereas the UC schools are more research-oriented. This element is very subjective, so it just depends on what you desire as an academician. Factors such as a good department/program and student resources/opportunities are a couple of other vital considerations you want to keep in mind when deciding where to go (missing a lot more, but hopefully you get the picture I’m getting at). A factor you should never rely on is a school’s prestige. Of course, attending a prestigious school has its advantages societally, but it shouldn’t be your end-all. Wearing the name of the prestigious university across your chest absolutely does not hold any ounce of significance if you’re unable to be a successful student from there (e.g. lack of resources/opportunities, bad department/program).
Most of the programs you list are pretty selective, have you been admitted?
In general, the rank of the college you attend matters a lot less than you think.
What will set you apart as a recent college grad are good grades and relevant experience. You can get both of those at any of the schools you list In fact, it is probably easier to do both at a moderately sized CSU than one of the top UCs. As a student, you have much easier access to faculty, which if you take advantage, will almost certainly improve your GPA. Leadership opportunities in clubs, as well as internships and local jobs can also be easier to come by as many CSU students have to commute and/or work and have less time to pursue them.
I would agree about the grad school part. Because UCs are more research oriented you’re a lot more prepared to go to grad school. CSUs are more hands on and can get you the experience you need to get ready to go out and work in the industry after you graduate. This is kind of the reason why I see CSUs are more like a vocational school, but in a traditional university setting. You can tell by the kinds of majors CSUs offer, since there can be broad majors but they also have majors that can be more specific to what you would want to study. Because UCs lack that “experience” field, a lot of UC students find internships to fill that gap.
It’s really what you’re looking for. In terms of ranks, you can find ranks that can rank a university really high or really low it just depends on how you look but most of those rankings don’t include how they’re evaluated for that rank. I would do a little research (if you’re concerned with ranks) what kind of Linguistics program they have at each university to see which one you would want to go to.
@NCalRent I can see how getting an internship at a csu might be less competitive ?
@hoshizora Ranks were just my way of understanding if a major does well at preparing you, but seeing as CSU & UC prepare in different ways, it’s hard to say
@davidls I want to be able to work right after undergrad then go back to get a M.A. basically
If you want to work but then get an MA I suggest you go to a UC since it’ll prepare you for research for your MA. If you’re worried about work experience for before you pursue your MA maybe get an internship while you’re at a UC.
All things being equal. Costs and your personal preferences.
UCSD and CSUSLO have an excellent national reputation. All the uc schools and CSU schools are respected. In your question was regarding rankings. The two mentioned above have the highest name bran value from a general perspective in the northeast. Imho only.
Unless you become a linguist and there’s a linguistic ranking within the industry, those would be one of my two choices.
And yes a CSU can have a better general and subjective ranking. SLO. Imho is tops outside of the UCB UCLA UCDish group. UCSD and SLO are right there too. In some areas UCSD is elite as well.
The lines have blurred over the years regarding UC’s and CSU’s. Many CSU’s including SDSU and CSULB offer research opportunities and master’s programs so they are not only confined to the UC schools. As stated by @privatebanker, personal preferences and affordability are a big part of the decision. Rankings can give some guidelines on the quality of the schools programs but why not research the specific school curriculums to see if they meet your academic and career objectives.
A friend’s daughter just got accepted in a MS/PHD program for Biostats and she did her Undergrad at CSU Fullerton. It is not where you go for Undergrad the will define you, it is what you do with the opportunities you are given that will make you successful.
I left CPP because it didn’t have my major & I’m pretty sure SLO doesn’t either
I’ve heard mixed thoughts on UCSD students wishing they attended SDSU, but chose the prestige. Also, that UCSD professors are hard to connect with.
I looked at my major between CSULB & SDSU (the admitted CSUs) and SDSU requires a Minor for my Major, which I already wanted to do & it’s about the same units as the regular Major at LB without a Minor.
@Gumbymom You replied the same time I was typing that I compared curriculum between the CSUs. I haven’t compared it to UCs yet, because I wanted to compare the ones I was actually admitted, but I’ll probably check it out anyways
@ste1111 Yea I got into LB & SDSU so far, no UC emails yet. I don’t plan on doing speech pathology at all. A lot of places have that as a specific major, rather than using Linguistics. I don’t want to work with people, but rather computers/software. Occasionally, working with people, but not as my direct day2day career. Maybe I’m jaded from customer service hospitality jobs Haha.
I’ve always been glued to a computer since I was old enough to use one to play LeapStart games or if my after elementary school programs had CPUs. I originally was a CpuSci major, but realized it wasn’t the same fulfillment I was looking for & didn’t yet know how to combine language & computer into a job, none of my counselors understood what I was looking for. A calculus professor of mine randomly told a story that mentioned a guy deciding between being a Computer Scientist or a Linguist & literally a lightbulb went off.
UCLA & UCI would be a dream come true to attend, but very much a reach for me, since I was a lost student, losing motivation & can’t fix my grades at my first university unless I return, but they don’t have my major, so that transcript haunts me forever ??