I need to choose between UMDCP (University of Maryland College-Park) and UCSC (UC Santa Cruz). I was directly admitted into computer science for both. I am in state in CA. I would like some insight from people who attend both schools or know a lot about them as I make the decision between both. I already know a few benefits to each.
ucsc (in state school): close to home, bay area opportunities, weather, invited to College scholars program. total cost: 36k
umdcp (out of state school): prestige in cs industry, ranked highly for cs (#18), DC opportunities, received total 50k presidential scholarship, more rigorous program I think. total cost: 44-48k
Also, how hard is it to maintain a 3.2+ gpa in CS at UMDCP? If I do not maintain this cumulative, I will lose my scholarship. Appreciate the help.
The ranking doesn’t matter. Unless the name is something like Stanford or MIT your app is not going to get an extra look solely because of where you went. Any good school like this pair is perfectly capable of teaching undergrad CS and employers know it. Trust me, if you go to UCSC you will not have any complaints about it being too easy.
As for the difficulty of a 3.2 hopefully you hear from current students. You could and call the undergrad advisor and ask them the percentage of students with that gpa. One catch is you probably need that gpa each semester and colleges usually just calculate cumulative gpa.