Hey guys, I had just committed to Ucla’s computer science program a while ago, and am beginning to wonder if I may have made the wrong choice. Ive started to hear on some forums that ucla’s cs is considered “mediocre” (along with USC?), which is making me very confused. I was under the impression that ucla engineering was in the top 10, a tier down from cal berkeley, and not mediocre by any means.
In the end I’m not really upset about choosing ucla, as their Game Lab is very interesting, but would like to clear my conscience as to whether or not their Computer Science is actually mediocre or not. I ended up picking them over uMich, Purdue, and RPI, whom which I considered equals, and would like to know whether or not they truly are. Thank you.
(For context I plan to pursue game development, which is why i did not consider berkeley as a school I’d like to attend. Usc was too expensive.)
UCLA (and their engineering) in general is very well-respected, and while it isn’t known for its CS program in particular, it certainly isn’t mediocre.
(That URL is a little strange, but I think it’s the official US News rankings.)
Michigan is also tied for #13; Purdue and USC are tied for #20, and RPI is at #52. These rankings are for grad school, but it gives you at least some idea how the departments are perceived.
Not trying to say this is the One True Ranking – or that you should worry that much about rankings in general – but it’s at least one very well known one that rates UCLA highly.
@csdad2 I stand corrected.
Also, I just want to take a moment to complain about USNWR in general. They rank UCSD as #15 in grad school CS within the U.S., but #9 in the world for CS. How does contradictory methodology become so influential?
Yeah rankings are quite strange. Especially for undergrad haha. Im just more worried about having given up the better school for a much lowergrade one, as cornell and UW were pulled out of the equation due to costs. As long as ucla isnt considered mediocre I’m satisfied haha.
I think the OP intention was a (humble!) brag.
Otherwise, a CS program which gave birth to the Internet could be anything but mediocre (especially in comparison with the other programs which were available to him/her)!
“These rankings are for grad school, but it gives you at least some idea how the departments are perceived.”
People keep saying this but it is just not the case. Those ratings are about the reputation of the department. The quality of the department is relevant to undergrads and graduate students.
Many people in NY would be horrified to hear anyone say that UCLA CS is mediocre cause of that is true, where would SUNY fall. Oh goodness!
I’ve only heard positive things…about UCLA that is.
Usualhopeful, Ratings are relative. The OP is asking if UCLA’s program is mediocre. Implicit is a comparison with others. I believe Stony Brook has the highest ranked (Using US news ranking) CS program in SUNY. It has a reputation rating placing it at 40. (Bing is 112; buffalo is 63; Albany is 101) That is quite good. But UCLA is listed as 13. Calling UCLA mediocre would mean those 30 or 100 slots down the list are considerably below mediocre. But UCLA isn’t mediocre. It is outstanding. So that elevates those down the list too.
You guys are totally right I feel ashamed to have let myself be swayed like that. Ive just met my fair share of ucla alumni failures/idiots in the past 2 weeks (all whom cheered on ucla) and its made me really confused. I guess stem’s student body is extremely differentiated from humanities…
@redbering Not only does UCLA completely ROCK for CS, its also located in the top town for jobs in the WORLD! LA actually surpassed Silicon Valley for jobs. Troy NY and West Lafayette Indiana do not come close to UCLA for location, or job connections, although they have very solid job connections to California as well as the east coast jobs. RPI is a great school for gaming though. Purdue is very well known for mechanical and chemical and aerospace and building up CS very nicely, especially cyber security is strong. Michigan is a top school for everything but those buses going back and forth,in the freezing cold? You made the right choice. Enjoy the great weather and UCLA’s intense CS program. You cannot go wrong there. And you can always do a masters degree in a cold weather place later.
"LA actually surpassed Silicon Valley for jobs. "
for CS jobs? Or jobs in general?
I highly doubt that it offers more CS jobs, especially if you look at the entire SF Peninsula, which includes both SF and SV.
@Ballerina016. I think this is overall techy jobs not just CS jobs and this compares to Santa Clara County only, not Berkeley and Oakland, so not sure its 100% accurate. Here are some articles discussing the boom of jobs in the LA area:
I read a book a few months ago called, “The Rise and Fall of Urban Economies: Lessons from San Francisco and Los Angeles.” It compared the economies of the LA area and the Bay Area. While the LA area has more jobs because it’s larger, the Bay Area has more tech jobs and Bay Area jobs on average pay more than the ones around LA.
Even with the high cost of living, for a tech job the Bay Area is the place to be.
I would’ve made the same decision that you made simply because LA is a great place to be. I’m not too familiar with game design, but for overall CS I’d say, Michigan > UCLA > Purdue > RPI.
With regards to UCLA CS being “mediocre”, it really depends on what your definition of “mediocre” is. If by “mediocre” you mean in comparison to all the universities in the U.S., then UCLA is far from mediocre. If you’re comparing UCLA to other top schools, then you could probably call the CS department “mediocre” in the sense that it’s not what UCLA is really known for and it’s not the first thing people would think of when they think of top schools for CS.
From my experience growing up in the Bay and interning at SV tech companies, the hierarchy for undergrad (alphabetically listed) would probably go something like this: