UCLA vs USC Trustee (4k vs 13k) for Electrical Engineering

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Los Angeles
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<p>Hi, so I'm in dilemma of choosing college from these two...
So I got 9k scholarship from UCLA that I only have to pay 4k for total cost of UCLA (including loans) and 13k for USC (only received tuition awards for 4 years)
I visited both and here are my thoughts</p>

<p>UCLA
Pros: I pay less, it has better campus (personal opinion), people more like me, more ap credits
Cons: Budget cuts affecting college, too much people in the classroom, curve competitions, getting classes, attention....</p>

<p>USC
Pros: Trustee follows tuition increase, personalized (than UCLA), Trojan Connections
Cons: Not as cheap, none of my friends is going, ghetto neighborhood</p>

<p>I mean I like both of them. Their EE program strengths are similar too. (Some say UCLA is better, others say USC is) Does UCLA offer good Co-op, internship, or study abroad programs like USC does? I haven't seen their booklet yet.. My goal is to get into MIT for graduate school and get PhD degree in EE. My parents in Korea thinks UCLA has a better reputation and it's cheaper, but USC is growing with large money and I'm hard to ignore trustee scholarships... We don't know what will happen to UC system after budget cuts.. What do you guys think?</p>

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<p>Wow that is tough…So i think financial issues are sort of out of the picture, because at absolute worst you pay 13k at UCLa, which is the same as you’d pay for USC. I mean with USC you’d have smaller classes and more personalized attention with teachers so you’d get better more time with professors who can write you better LORs for grad school. and less people = more opportunity for you to get internship/research opportunity. If you don’t care about all that too much, then their pretty much equal in terms of academics, so this comes down to where you want to spend the next 4 years of your life as in social life, campus feel/environment, etc. And only you can answer you that question.</p>

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<p>Haha thank you very much for advice :slight_smile: Does anyone know how much UC tuition will increase in next 4 years??</p>

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<p>This really seems like a no brainer to me. You basically told us you want UCLA more.</p>

<p>You pay less and feel more at home at UCLA. You’re going to be spending the next 4 years of your life at whichever place you choose so you better choose the one you like.</p>

<p>To address your UCLA cons:
Budget Cuts - a legitimate concern I can’t alleviate</p>

<p>Too Many People in the Classroom - if you want individual attention, it is easy to get. Most professors are very understanding and are willing to meet with you outside the classroom if you need it. They all have mandatory office hours they must hold each week where you and other students who want extra help can go to their office and ask questions. In addition, most classes have discussion sections where you’ll go over the material with a smaller group of people lead by one of the Teaching Assistants. While there are big classes here, if you make an effort, you’ll get all the individual attention you need.</p>

<p>Curve Competitions - Really not much of an issue. In the Computer Science department (at least in my experience), classes generally aim for a ~60-70% average on tests to get a good distribution of the class. They then curve the class average to roughly a B-. This is the first quarter where I’ve had a single class that could possibly curve you down (CS 143). Otherwise, if you get a raw score of an A in the class, you get an A. Period. I’ve found bell curves to be rare in my department and assume EE to be roughly more of the same (if someone can elaborate more on this that’d be great).</p>

<p>Getting Classes - another good concern that I can’t really alleviate. I will say that if you have a lot of APs you’ll have an enrollment time sooner than most of your peers (which will help quite a bit). In addition, the counselors and professors understand the enrollment issues we’re facing and most are willing to help with it. If they can fit you in the class (with respect to physical seats, TA workload, departmental restrictions, etc), they generally will let you in.</p>

<p>As for USC:
Trustee follows tuition increase - that is helpful and I don’t think USC’s tuition is going to increase anytime soon (at least not drastically). Also, UCLA’s will only go up gradually; it won’t jump $5,000 in a year or anything extreme like that. With that being said, if you pay $4k per year at UCLA then you’ll end up paying $16k. If you pay $13k a year at USC you’ll pay $52k. So you’ll be paying triple for USC than you would for UCLA. Sorry if I misunderstood you, but that’s what I’ve gleaned from your original post.</p>

<p>Personalized - like I said above, you can either get lost in the crowd or be an individual. I’m sure USC has smaller class sizes than UCLA but that doesn’t mean you’ll get personalized attention there more than at UCLA. It entirely depends on you and what you want from the class.</p>

<p>Trojan Connections - in the EE world, I don’t think connections carry too much weight. Intel doesn’t care that you know this guy who worked there, they want to make sure you can design chips that won’t burst into flames when they run a current through them . Reasearch the programs at UCLA and USC and base your decision off that rather than “connections.”</p>

<p>USC Cons:
Not as Cheap - see above (and kind of self explanatory)</p>

<p>None of your Friends are Going - you’ll make new friends in all likelihood no matter where you go to school. Don’t let this be a deciding factor.</p>

<p>Ghetto Neighborhood - I have nothing to say about this; it is personal preference.</p>

<p>tl;dr Go read my ****ing post. I wrote it all for you.</p>