My D has been accepted to many good schools and her intended Major is CS. We are instate for California.
She is debating between
UIUC - CS
UCSD - CSE
Other than ranking UCSD seems to be a good fit for her. Keeping cost aside what will she miss if decides to go to UCSD? Anything that stands out significantly between these 2 colleges?
She has been accepted to UT Austin (EE), Purdue(1sr yr eng) & UW Madison(general engineering) as well. Does any one see reasons to bring any of the above school in the mix.
bump for interest, I am in the exact same position for computer engineering. Have to choose between UIUC and UCSD (got into purdue and Gtech, but probably won’t go to those).
In the grand scheme of things, ranking is less important than how a student applies himself/herself in a given program. UCSD is a world class program, and students who apply themselves, both inside but especially outside the classroom, will have no shortage of opportunities.
If money is truly no object, I would pick Illinois, but I am biased (and I have always lived in a similar climate). If I were a Cali resident, my CS kid might not have even applied to Illinois; there are so many world class programs in Cali. But Illinois has a phenom program. Over 1/3 of full time CS faculty at Illinois have their PhD. from MIT, Stanford, CMU, or Berkeley… it’s ridiculously top notch.
…but for an undergrad, it is all about the projects, internships, etc. Apply yourself outside the classroom at UCSD and you will see no different outcomes than those from higher ranked programs.
Thanks a lot YZamyatin for your inputs, she is worried about cold weather of Illinois. Money-wise it is a bit of stretch for me at 50-55K per year vs 35K per year at UCSD but she seems to not even think about UIUC. I did a quick look at the faculty and most of them are PhDs from prestigious colleges as well. I agree with your point that at this point it is about how much one applies himself.
Thanks a lot everyone, DD got accepted to CMU CIT for ECE and most likely headed that way.