UCLA vs USC Computer Science (Games)

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Los Angeles
1

<p>USC w/ Presidential 1/2 Tuition Computer Science (Games)
vs
UCLA Computer Science</p>

<p>USC more expensive, but within budget.</p>

<p>UCLA surroundings are more pleasurable to the eye, but I think USC surroundings are safe enough although may not enjoy strolling through neighborhood. Son likes the 55%/45% female-male ratio @ UCLA.</p>

<p>UCLA CompSci selectivity "feels" stronger, many students choose UCLA instead of Berkeley. I believe they said all accepted incoming freshmen have 4.0 UW GPAs.</p>

<p>USC Game Design is tops, and if my sons had his mind 100% committed to Game Design, USC would be hands down the choice. But he said he is interested in game design, but is reluctant to say 100%. UCLA is clearly weaker in Game Design.</p>

<p>USC seemed a little over the top on the school spirit. They referred to UCLA an inordinate amount of times. When in UCLA, I only heard one comment about USC.</p>

<p>I think it will come down to how committed my son is to game design vs computer science in general. He needs to sleep on it and let the "high" from our recent visit to UCLA die down. Every time we visit a campus, we feel he should attend there. These campus visit guys are professionals, and we are amateurs.</p>

<p>He needs to go into a meditation to decide how committed he is to game design. And once he decides that, I think his decision will be clear. </p>

2

<p>I just realized I got tricked by the wording at UCLA.</p>

<p>They said that the median UW GPA of the accepted students was 4.0.</p>

<p>I mistook took that for the average GPA, and inferred that for the Average to be 4.0, all accepted students would needed to have a 4.0.</p>

<p>But looking at the definition of median : the median is the numerical value separating the higher half from the lower half.</p>

<p>Therefore the only thing I can infer is that half for the accepted frosh have an UW 4.0.</p>

<p>Tricky!</p>

3

<p>I remember reading USC CS curriculum was going through a change last year. If he is sure about Game then USC otherwise I would go with UCLA.</p>

4

<p>Other Ranking comparison:</p>

<p><a href=“World University Rankings 2013-14 | Times Higher Education (THE)”>http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2013-14/world-ranking&lt;/a&gt;
UCLA 12
UCSD 40
USC 70</p>

<p><a href=“Subject Ranking 2013-14: Engineering & Technology | Times Higher Education (THE)”>http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2013-14/subject-ranking/subject/engineering-and-IT&lt;/a&gt;
UCLA 10
UCSD 43</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.shanghairanking.com/ARWU2013.html”>http://www.shanghairanking.com/ARWU2013.html&lt;/a&gt;
UCLA 12
UCSD 14
USC 47</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.shanghairanking.com/FieldENG2013.html”>http://www.shanghairanking.com/FieldENG2013.html&lt;/a&gt;
UCSD 13
USC 18
UCLA 32</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.shanghairanking.com/SubjectCS2013.html”>http://www.shanghairanking.com/SubjectCS2013.html&lt;/a&gt;
UCLA 9
USC 10
UCSD 11</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.topuniversities.com”>http://www.topuniversities.com</a>
UCLA 40
UCSD 63
USC 125</p>

<p><a href=“QS World University Rankings for Computer Science and Information Systems 2014 | Top Universities”>http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/university-subject-rankings/2014/computer-science-information-systems&lt;/a&gt;
UCLA 16
UCSD 51+
USC 51+</p>

5

<p>I don’t know if I trust those rankings, I think US news is ok but I don’t trust it explicit. Here is the top colleges for CS that Facebook list on its website for students.
Brown
Cal
Caltech
CMU
Columbia
Cornell
Georgia Tech
Harvard
Illinois
Michigan
MIT
Princeton
Stanford
Texas
UBC
UCLA
UCSD
UPenn
Washington
Waterloo
Wisconsin </p>

6

<p>

</p>

<p>Last year, 39% of all admitted students had a 4.0 UW, and 30% of all enrolled students had a 4.0 UW:</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.admissions.ucla.edu/Prospect/Adm_fr/Frosh_Prof13.htm”>http://www.admissions.ucla.edu/Prospect/Adm_fr/Frosh_Prof13.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

7

<p>Average UW GPA for CS this year was 3.954</p>

8

This is a really late feedback on my original post.

Son chose USC because of Game Design and is very happy.