Hey guys, I just got off of the waitlist at UCLA today. I was, and still am, pretty set on CCS for math, but my parents are urging me to consider UCLA. I was wondering if any of you, especially CCS math majors, have any advice. My goal is to go to a prestigious grad school and get a PhD in math, and I think CCS offers the best preparation for grad school, but my parents argue that the prestige of UCLA will get me into a better grad school than CCS will. What do you guys think?
how did your parents arrive at that decision? They are so completely wrong its not even funny. They are impressed by the ucla name, it probably sounds good to all their friends too, and so they think grad schools will be as well. Read thru the material CCS writes about itself. It’s grad school for undergrads, a chance to work closely with profs and take advanced classes, all while an undergrad. The stuff grad schools actually care about.
So here’s 2 views of the world. Your parents, where the name ucla vs the name ucsb makes a difference and not much else matters. The real world of grad school admissions, where letters of recs, advanced classes, and having taken part in published research are what sets kids apart.
You already made one big tactical mistake. Once you got into UCSB CCS you should have turned down the ucla waitlist. Why on earth did you stay on it if you knew it was not preferred to the option you already had? Even if your parents forced you, you could have contacted ucla yourself later to decline it and tell them “I changed my mind”. Now, it wouldn’t surprise me if your parents make you go to ucla. Their minds are made up and facts are unlikely to change them; after all if they cared about facts they would have looked into them before deciding ucla is better. You know, something like checking with an actual prof about grad school admissions. No, they “know what they know” and I bet that’s the way it turns out.
To play devils advocate, though, I will give them this: if you change your mind then ucla may be a better place to be. Its difficult to switch into engineering at a UC, so if you decide you don’t like math so much after all then you’re going to end up as a liberal-arts major. Job prospects for them are probably better out of ucla than out of ucsb unless you do the ucsb accounting option, or apply for grad school. Law, med, they don’t care too much about what school but about your scores and grades and recs.