UCLA Math of Computation vs UCSD CS

College Search & Selection
1

D23 needs to choose between UCLA math of computation vs UCSD CS. Please help!

Ideally she wants to get into CS. The math of computation major allows 3 lower and 3 upper division CS courses.

The UCLA lower division courses are almost identical between MoC and CS. Theoretically she can take the lower division courses and apply for major change after 2 quarters, but the minimum preparatory GPA is 3.5 for the engineering workload, which may be stressful and unpredictable.

Which of the following options should we choose?

  1. UCSD CS
  2. UCLA MoC with a minor in Data Science
  3. UCLA MoC with additional CS courses without declaring the CS major

We will go to the admitted student day so she can feel the atmosphere at each school. But from the career opportunity perspective, what should we choose? Thank you very much for your input!

2

If you want to do CS, you should go into CS and not complicate things. UCSD is your best choice.

If you care about rankings, they are incidentally ranked the same for CS on USNews

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2 Likes
3

Thank you for your advice! Another factor is that she needs to take about 9 GE courses at UCSD but not at UCLA due to credits from dual enrollment.

4

agree with neela. If she wants CS, take the direct admit program.

5

You should see the GE courses as a positive.
This will broaden her perspective, and potentially lighten her load.

6

You cannot go wrong with either from job search perspective. The UCLA name will get more looks on her resume but for CS jobs and internships, the key is acing the technical interviews which she can prepare for by practicing on her own. These days, resumes are screened algorithmically and once key skills have been identified, the student is sent a link to complete a coding test (usually 90 minutes) and if you do well, you are then invited to a initial interview, followed by more technical interviews before finally proceeding to behavioral interviews, so as long as the student has the requisite CS skills and knowledge by taking all the appropriate CS classes, it is not crucial to show CS as the major. But in terms of successfully registering for high demand CS classes, CS majors will have more priority, so for less stress, CS direct admit would make sense. But if she absolutely loves UCLA and feels she will be most happy there, just know that simply showing the major alone on the resume is not enough…things like motivation, persistence, networking and diligent practice and preparation for those coding interviews would be more important determinants of success.

7

What you said makes perfect sense. It seems like the UCLA’s curriculum focuses on C++, while UCSD focuses on JAVA. Does it make a difference which one to learn if the interview process starts with a coding exercise?

8

She should learn the basics of python and C++, but algorithms and data structure concepts are the most important.

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