UCSD vs. UCSB vs. Cal Poly SLO

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Santa Barbara
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<p>I'm planning to major in Computer Science, and have been accepted into all three of these schools. I'm having a lot of trouble deciding between the three, and wondered if anyone had any insight into the social and academic experiences at these schools. Any input is appreciated.</p>

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<p>Are you in the engineering department at all three? Is it CS or CE?</p>

<p>Social life at UCSB is excellent, the campus is known for it, and the atmosphere can’t be beat, imho. Also UCSB is ranked very highly in its Computer Science department by scholars, according to the National Research Council ranking (which is put out every 15 years, this one came out in 2010.) Click on ‘s rank high’ at the table heading to make the results line up by scholar rank. <a href=“NRC Rankings Overview: Computer Sciences”>http://chronicle.com/article/NRC-Rankings-Overview-/124721/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Hopefully, current students will see this and chime in.</p>

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<p>Going by the USWNR rankings, UCSD is best of your options for computer science (15), followed by UCSB (34), though these rankings were assigned for their graduate programs. Cal Poly isn’t rated for computer science, but was ranked as number 3 in undergraduate computer engineering.
<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/engineering-computer”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/engineering-computer&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/computer-science-rankings”>http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/computer-science-rankings&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Socially, UCSB has the best atmosphere of your options. UCSD has been known as the UC Socially Dead. As for Cal Poly, these threads might be worth a look: <a href=“Did I pick the wrong school? (to current cal poly students) - Cal Poly San Luis Obispo - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/cal-poly-san-luis-obispo/1358114-did-i-pick-the-wrong-school-to-current-cal-poly-students.html&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/cal-poly-san-luis-obispo/1466294-cal-poly-s-social-scene-party-life.html”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/cal-poly-san-luis-obispo/1466294-cal-poly-s-social-scene-party-life.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Thanks for the replies. I am in the engineering departments for CS. I understand UCSD has the best rankings, but how big of an effect does that really have on internship/job opportunities? I am a little underwhelmed by the social experience at UCSD, especially compared to UCSB. Both have great locations though. Cal Poly’s a little harder to place, although there CS program seems to have amazing connections. Something else to not, FA is not an issue for me as the Cal Grant basically makes the cost of attendance the same at all three.</p>

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<p>Remember Cal Poly doesn’t get considered in most rankings due to it being a Master’s college. However employers have ranked it number 1, and in other polls it is ranked very high. If you want to work in the industry I doubt you could do better than Cal Poly, small class sizes, professors teach virtually every class, wonderful opportunities for internships, great study abroad options etc. If you plan to go into research of teaching choose a different college, Cal Poly prepares students to enter the workplace running which is why they are picked over other schools for jobs and internships. If you know anyone in the industry that is involved in hiring, ask them, I bet they agree with me.</p>

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<p>The National Research Council ranks UCSB as tied for 3rd in computer science and UCSD as 7th. That is scholar’s rankings, not US News. So it depends on who you are asking. You might want to look at their varying methodology.</p>

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<p>

Essentially none. And on this forum kids put too much weight into the school name, as if it is a talisman that delivers great results to EVERY kid that gets to put that name on their resume.</p>

<p>In point of fact you outcome at any of these three schools, it doesn’t matter which one, is going to be determined by one thing. You. Get good grades, learn the material well so you can answer questions on interviews (the 2 items are not necessarily the same), take part in student engineering activities, and have internship or coop experience (coop is better but delays graduation). Do these things and you will be beating off employers clamoring to hire you. </p>

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<p>I don’t think rankings matter much for engineering…Go with the best fit.</p>

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<p>I agree go with the best fit but I don’t agree with the rankings from NRC because UCSD is known for CS for a long time, just check out the Facebook’s career section for students. UCSD ranks in the top 21 schools, not UCSB, nor UCI( even though this one has very good CS program as well), and not USC. I researched and looked at these schools when my daughter was applied last year.
According to all the research paper that was published and Google ranks, UCSD ranks #2(only second to UCB) among the UCs. UCSD has 20 homegrown Nobel Prize Winners, UCLA has 6, UCI has 3, UCSB has 3, UCD has 3, USC has 1. Only UCB beats UCSD.
Also check out the CSE professors at UCSD, a lot of them has graduate degrees from UCB, MIT, Caltech, Princeton. In fact, my first boss out of college at a premier engineering company that was started by an MIT grad, who is now a professor at Princeton in CS, one of his Phd students is now a professor at UCSD. Talking about the world is round.</p>

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<p>@DrGoogle the point I was making is that it depends on your methodology which ranks higher. NRC is highly legitimate, but may be looking at different things than you did. So each applicant really has to decide what is important to that applicant in ranking schools. The rankings are useful in a rough sense, but not, imho when it comes to final selection between good schools. Then it depends on what elements of a program are most important to a particular person, and where you most can see yourself enjoying four years of your life.</p>

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<p>@collegevetting, I looked at the S-rank, do you believe UCSB ranks the same league as MIT,Carnegie Mellon, and Princeton. Because that is what it ranks UCSB #3, MIT #2, Carnegie Mellon #3, and Princeton #1. And if you look carefully, it ranks for graduate program.</p>

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<p>From a technology standpoint, I would pass on Cal Poly. My son is finishing his third year as a CS major, so we know the program well. I’m also a Silicon Valley software engineer, so I think I know what industry is looking for. Unfortunately, the CP Computer Science program seems 20 years out of date. I have a long post (a bit of a rant, I admit) at: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/profile/reactions/100288637/Phyzik?reaction=helpful”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/profile/reactions/100288637/Phyzik?reaction=helpful&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>I think it is fair to say that CalPoly CS has not embraced the internet. No web programming/python/ruby. Very light weight and poorly taught networking class. Big emphasis on writing efficient code, but little emphasis on readable/maintainable code. </p>

<p>The one really positive thing about the program is the small class size. Biggest class size is 70, not 700 like at the bigger schools. Teachers all speak English. There are some TAs, but they are just students and do not teach. Most of the teachers do seem to care about their students.</p>

<p>When we choose the school, we did it based on the reputation. Now I wish we had looked deeper into the program.</p>