<p>I'm a senior at a high school in Northern California. I have heard back from all the colleges I've applied to, and I'm having trouble deciding where I should go. The schools that offered me admission to their undergraduate program are UC Santa Cruz, UC San Diego, and Virginia Tech. I'd rather choose UC San Diego over Santa Crzu, but I would also like to go to Virginia Tech. There are some things that are holding me back from accepting either college. </p>
<p>San Diego: I got into Revelle, and I have heard that Revelle has a lot of GE's, and it's more difficult than the other colleges in UCSD. Doesn't have a marching band :( But I really like Southern California. </p>
<p>Virginia Tech: I didn't get into the Computer Engineering Program, I got into University Studies (basically the same thing as Undecided.) I don't know how hard it is to transfer into the Computer Engineering Department. I might not even be able to, so it is sort of a risk. I got into the Computer Engineering major at UCSD though.
At Virginia Tech, I applied to be a Civilian Cadet in the Corps of Cadet. I want to be part of their military marching band, and I think that would be really fun.
Still, Blacksburg is kind of in the middle of nowhere. There doesn't seem much to do around the campus, but correct me if I'm wrong. </p>
<p>I think Virginia Tech's tuition is about 5000 more than UC San Diego, but my college counselor told me it would probably take me 5 years at UCSD to finish anyways.
I know in the end, it's my decision to make, but I'm hoping some of you could offer some insight as to which is a better school, who has a better comp. eng. program? </p>
<p>^Thank you for the response, I will post there, but I do not think they will be able to answer my question without bias, or provide information on UCSD.</p>
<p>I would find out how difficult it is at Virginia Tech to change to your preferred major. If they indicate it may be difficult then I would go to UCSD. And yes, Blacksburg is in the middle of nowhere so you have to like being in a rural environment. There is a downtown mainstreet with a movie theater etc but still you are far from a larger place.</p>
<p>Yeah, my vote would have to go to UCSD. I know the Marching band seems fun, but band is a huge commitment during school- and with engineering, it may be a lot to handle. Also, band will not support you for the rest of your life, but a CompE degree certainly will. And lastly, money… 5k may not seem like a lot now…but it will add up. Go with the sure thing and save yourself the headache of being 3000 miles away from home and paying extra for an undecided major.</p>
<p>If you do a search on the VT board for “university studies” you can find out all the information you need regarding transferring from university studies to the engineering college. It’s not difficult - I think you only need a 2.0 VT gpa. However, in order to stay on track to graduate in 4 years there is one freshman engineering course that you would want to take in advance (it is often a prerequisite to later courses). The course can be taken on-line at the local CC so it’s not really an issue for motivated students.</p>
<p>Freshmen start out as general engineering and declare their majors later so transferring from university studies isn’t really an issue anyway.</p>
<p>Yes Blacksburg is kind of in the middle of nowhere but the campus is huge. It’s not like you can’t find something to do with 20,000+ of your peers.</p>
<p>It doesn’t sound like there’s a cost difference (5 x UCSD) versus (4 x VT) so I’d suggest you go to whichever school you liked the best.</p>