I was accepted into UIUC for stats major, and UCSD for Mathematics-stats and probability. However, these two are not my first choices. I intend to transfer to stats+cs if I choose to go to UIUC, and data science if I go to UCSD. I live in NY so I would have to pay out-of-state tuition for both. UIUC is 38k/yr, and UIUC is 56k/year. I am leaning towards UCSD because of the nice weather and the location, but I and worried about my family’s financial status. Is UCSD worth the extra 18k/yr?
Changing into Statistics & CS at UIUC is difficult:
https://cs.illinois.edu/admissions/undergraduate/transfer-students#math-stats-cs
So is changing into data science at UCSD:
https://datascience.ucsd.edu/academics/undergraduate/continuing-students/
Do you have any other options, like a SUNY, that cost less and where you are in your desired major or can get into your desired major relatively easily?
For some reason, I am not staying in NY for college, so I did not apply to SUNYs. If changing major is more or less the same hard at UCSD & UIUC, should I choose UIUC?
Did you get to visit? I can’t speak to UCSD, but we did visit UIUC twice. We really loved it. Very impressive students, big beautiful quad. We went to a sold out basketball game which was tons of fun, lots of spirit. We stayed overnight in the Illini union, and really loved Urbana Champaign.
UIUC costs less? Seems like a good deal. It’s probably a more fun place to be.
Thank you for the answers, everyone! I committed to UIUC last night.