<p>Hello everyone! :)</p>
<p>I have come down to my final choices for college: UCSD and UCB for a comp sci major + finance/accounting/economics minor/double major. I'm having trouble deciding:</p>
<p>UCSD:
Pros: Close to home, very interesting research going on + I know some of the profs, I have Regents (so first pick for classes), I LOVE the campus/weather, love the nice/chill people, 5 year BS/MS option, very very VERY good internship opportunities (Microsoft and Amazon take more interns and hires from UCSD than any other school), good support structure for undergrads.
Cons: Not so thrilled about the ubiquity of Greek life on campus, I don't think that UCSD has the same level of prestige as UCB when I apply for grad school/industry work later on, dorms aren't that great, food isn't that great
Cost: 28k per year</p>
<p>UCB:
Pros: PRESTIGE, got admitted to EECS (I know that's an amazing program), close to Silicon Valley,
Cons: I have a few friends there that say that they regret ever going there, no Regents (so places me in limbo when it comes to choosing classes), I've heard bad things about the number of hobos XD, very hard to do a double major and fit classes in
Cost: 33k per year</p>
<p>Can anyone help shed some light on my situation? Thank you so much :)</p>
<p>It sounds like UCSD is a better fit for you. UCB might be the better school but why be miserable for four years. You won’t be able to do your best work if you’re unhappy.</p>
<p>It’s tough because I don’t think UCSD has finance. If you change your mind about EECS, UCB has Haas, but you must apply after 2 years(I believe).
The Greek life at UCSD is horrible, not like USC at all, not well run, so I don’t know what you mean by ubiquity.</p>
<p>If it helps, I don’t for a second believe that there is anything that you can’t do from UCSD. You have already pointed out that there is great recruiting. Grad schools are going to look at you and what you did, they aren’t going to think, “this would be a great student if he had only gone to Berkeley”… Students coming from strong programs do get a bit of a gpa weighting tip in CS grad school admissions, but UCSD is a strong program, it isn’t Lower Middle Tech U. And even Lower Middle might field a great candidate who has a conference presentation on his work with cryptographic algorithms. UCSD’s own prominent crypto group might even be interested in him. So get your internships and/or do your research --that’s what they will be paying attention to.</p>
<p>I think the Regents is too much an advantage to give up if SD is your preference. But if you want to get out of your comfort zone and go there for the program, Berkeley is a really cool area next to a really cool city. You could do much worse than to get to know it and the local culinary and natural delights.I won’t go into the complex social issue of homelessness but I do know that it doesn’t go away just because you can’t see it where you live.They must have some kind of course you can take to educate yourself about the issues surrounding this problem, solutions that have been tried, and ponder yourself how to improve the lives of these people and this community. I miss the Bay Area.</p>
<p>I didn’t see any homelessness there when I took my daughter to Berkeley, except she refused to get out of the car. I have no idea why. </p>
<p>Berkeley EECS, then work for a few years and then pursue an MBA. It would be very rare for an employer to pay you more for a combo CS + finance double major. You’ll either get an entry job in CS or finance. </p>