UCSD vs. Georgia Tech vs. UT Austin: Computer Engineering

College Search & Selection
1

Hi,

Just wondering which has the better Computer Engineering program. Also, which is the better school, according to location (safety, access to tech companies, etc.), better food, and better dorms.

Thanks so much!

2

Hi all,

Sorry for the repeat post. I need to decide which college is my top choice soon, and would really appreciate any/all insight! I’m trying to find the best school holistically.

I know that GTech > UT Austin > UCSD in terms of the Computer Engineering program, but I also want to consider campus location, internship availability (big priority, in terms of recruitment to top tech companies like Apple and Google), and living conditions.

Thanks again!

3

Any help is appreciated!

4

Are you admitted to the major at each school?

Net price at each school?

5

@ucbalumnus Yes, admitted to ECE at each school.

GaTech = 47K
UT Austin = ~54K
UCSD = ~30K

6

Seems like UCSD is the obvious choice if you were admitted to your desired major and it is significantly less expensive than the others.

7

I agree, no reason to go with GA or UTA over UCSD at those price differentials–they won’t offer enough of an advantage (if any). USCD has a very good CS program and whether you get jobs or not will depend much more on your demonstrated skills and what you did in college than which of these three you attend.

8

@ucbalumnus @insanedreamer isn’t it true that most internships out of college are granted primarily on where you went to college? I know, for example, a Cal EECS degree or a degree from Stanford is really good when applying to companies like Google or Apple or FB.

Is it the same advantage given to UCSD students? And won’t UTA and GT over a better prospect of such internships, since their program carries much more prestige (not that this matters in the long run, but…)

9

GAFAM are large companies that recruit widely.

UCB and Stanford do have a local advantage to Silicon Valley, but that applies more to the smaller companies that have neither the needs nor the recruiting resources to recruit all over the place. Some Silicon Valley companies may find UCSD to be more convenient to recruit at than GT due to shorter travel distance.

10

Won’t UT + GT have job/career fairs with these companies to recruit?

I doubt if distance to the Silicon Valley plays a factor in recruiting, since the actual recruitment can happen online (video interview) or on-campus job fair.

11

Which schools Apple/Google/etc get most of their employees: http://www.wired.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/in_schools_f.jpg

  • Distance does seems to play a factor. I doubt SJSU or WWU would appear on the above chart if they were on the East Coast. And setting aside the Indian schools (who work for IBM in India), nearly all of these schools are on the West Coast. That can't be a coincidence. Of course big companies recruit at top schools all over the country, and I'm sure graduates from UA and UF also get hired by them, but your **odds** of getting in seem to be higher on the West Coast or a top CS school like MIT, CMU and UT-A.
  • Despite that chart (which isn't the all in all) I'm pretty sure those companies recruit at UCSD, UTA and GT. What you could do is check the list of companies which attend the job fairs hosted by those universities. That'll give you an idea.
12

UCSD…silly to pay more for the others unless your parents are wealthy and won’t miss the money at all…and you just want to go OOS.

Your education and job prospects will be very good graduating from UCSD.

Would anyone be taking out loans to go to UT or GT?

What are your parents saying? Are they wealthy?

13

Note the locations showing regional biases:

Yahoo: 5/5 in California
Microsoft: 4/5 in Washington
Apple: 4/5 in California
Twitter: 4/5 in California
Google: 3/5 in California
Facebook: 2/5 in California
IBM: 2/5 in Telangana, 2/5 in Karnataka

14

UCSD, though I can understand the question.

15

@insanedreamer’s chart is definitely incomplete. This http://qz.com/183958/what-facebook-twitter-google-and-apple-employees-have-in-common/ article puts UCSD above UT-Austin and GTech for most of the big four. And I’ve seen a LinkedIn chart somewhere (can’t find it now) that says the top 4 Googler alma maters include Berkeley and UCSD.

Also, UCSD has a pretty entrepreneurial culture, so you’ll find a large portion of the alumni network in local and Bay Area startups.

16

Using LinkedIn and searching folks that currently work at Google, the top 5 was:

(2351) Stanford University

(2136) University of California, Berkeley

(1297) Carnegie Mellon University

(1031) Massachusetts Institute of Technology

(979) University of California, Los Angeles

Searching on UCSD, I come up with 608. GT was 539 and UT-Austin was 566.

For Apple:

(1499) San Jose State University

(1258) Stanford University

(1207) University of California, Berkeley

(874) The University of Texas at Austin

(618) University of California, Los Angeles

UCSD is 438, while GT is 378.

Keep in mind that some of these Alumni work in sales, HR, support, media, etc. This tends to drive up the local schools totals a bit.

17

Thanks for the info!

I ended up committing to UCSD. I was very, very keen on going to either GaTech or UT Austin. I visited all three schools and those two were the nicest. I fell in love with GaTech completely, and could see myself as a student there.

However, my family could not afford those (seeing as UT + GT would be OOS tuition)…

I know UCSD wasn’t my first choice, but I’m trying my best to get over the unfortunate situation. Looking forward to doing the best I can there!

18

@psychic90807 Congrats on your choice! UCSD is a great place and I’m sure you’ll have a fantastic experience regardless of the circumstances.

19

Thanks!

20

Sometimes I just wonder if you know OOS tuition is out of question why applied to them the 1st place. OOS pubic schools rarely give scholarship to OOS students, understandably.