UCLA, UIUC, or UW Seattle for Computer Science?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hello,</p>

<p>I have been accepted to UCLA (University of California, Los Angelas), UIUC (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), and UW (University of Washington) Seattle for Computer Science.</p>

<p>The problem is: I cannot decide where I want to go to!</p>

<li>Pros for UCLA</li>
<li>I’ve lived in California before, it’s almost like my home town.</li>
<li>Good weather!</li>
<li>Overall good reputation, name recognition.</li>
<li>Relatively urban compared to UIUC.</li>
<li>I have friends and relatives there.</li>
<li>Cons for UCLA</li>
<li>Its rank is considerably behind UIUC and UW for engineering (not sure if this actually means anything but it sure affects my view).</li>
<li><p>It doesn’t have a dedicated CS building like UIUC (or does it?)</p></li>
<li><p>Pros for UIUC</p></li>
<li><p>People say it has an outstanding CS program.</p></li>
<li><p>It has a dedicated building for CS.</p></li>
<li><p>Good ranking for CS.</p></li>
<li><p>Cons for UIUC</p></li>
<li><p>It’s in the middle nowhere (I’m not sure how true this is). Is UIUC really in the middle of nowhere? Are there no cinemas, radioshacks, K-marts, etc?</p></li>
<li><p>Bad weather, etc.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>I’m not looking into UW Seattle that much, but if you have any comments on it please go on!</p>

<p>General Questions

  • Is UIUC really in the middle of nowhere?
  • Is UIUC’s CS program “superior” to UCLA’s CS program? Why?
  • Both universities are quite big, but UIUC is bigger. Can this be a problem, or is it actually good?
  • What are the sizes of the actual classes? I prefer smaller classes.</p>

<p>Unrelated Questions

  • If I go to UCLA, should I, and can I switch majors from CS to CSE? Is there a big difference?</p>

<p>If there’s anything else I should know, I’d appreciate the information.</p>

<p>Thank you!</p>

2

<p>bump, bump.</p>

3

<p>You might want to ask some of your UCLA questions in the Ask Flopsy thread. He is a recent CS graduate from UCLA Engineering. He can tell you everything you want to know.</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-los-angeles/155712-ask-flopsy-ucla-engineering.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-los-angeles/155712-ask-flopsy-ucla-engineering.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

4

<p>UCLA student body and campus is too small, though weather would be very interesting to experience for basically 4 years. I would keep in mind University of Washington- Seattle and University of Illinios- C</p>

5

<p>^^Too small?? There’s 38,000 students here dude, how many more do you want?</p>

<p>I’d suggest UW; their CS program is nationally renowned, and it’s in Seattle, a HUGE tech industry area. So great internship possibilities. It rains a TON though, so idk if that’s your can of soup.</p>

6

<p>Yeah, I thought UCLA was pretty big, although it’s still smaller than UIUC.
Thanks for your input on UW, I guess I’ll have to look into them a bit more !</p>

<p>I want to ask something a bit more specific. What’s different about each university’s CS course? Why would one be “better” than another? Should I just go for the one with the highest ranking?</p>