I’ve been chosen as a Presidential Scholar for USC’s Viterbi Engineering school and also directly admitted into University of Washington’s CSE program. At this point, cost of attendance for either school does not matter. I am a Seattle native so part of me is excited to have a change of environment if I do end up going to USC, but it’s not a big deal if I end up staying in Seattle. I’ll be going to the visit day at UW on 4/17 to learn more about the program.
Below are pros and cons of each school.
USC
Pros:
Staying in a dorm exclusively for scholars
Scholarship recipients get access to some events/internships (not sure specifically what though)
Offered a spot in their undergraduate engineering honors program (access to a few networking events and some seminars)
I’d be part of the Quest Scholars network for QuestBridge (get access to some other networking opps and pretty much mentor incoming QB applicants)
I can easily switch between different engineering majors (though I’m likely going to stay with CS)
Strong alumni network (“Trojan Family”)
Flexibility of curriculum
Smaller classes
School spirit
Decent career fairs. I doubt recruitment here is as rigorous than at Stanford/UW but at least a dozen engineering students have been offered summer internships their freshman year
It supposedly has a good entrepreneurial vibe
Really beautiful campus
It’s in Los Angeles!
The weather!
Cons:
Their computer science program isn’t better than UW’s
Farther from family
UW
Pros:
Much better CS program
Access to career fairs and connections
Great location in terms of tech companies
I live pretty close to the school campus
Close to family
The link extension at UW will open in 2016 (convenient transportation!)
Cons:
Weather sucks
A lot bigger classes
Probably more competitive
If I had not gotten DA at UW, I would have gone to USC (UW was risky without DA). However right now, I feel like UW will give me more career opportunities while USC will give me a better college experience. It also feels a little silly to pass up the direct admit offer at UW when it’s so hard to get.
Where did you get the impression UW’s CS department is better than USC’s?
If you care about rankings, US News has USC’s CS department rated at #12 while UW’s is rated #44 in its Global University ranking. ARWU has USC CS rated at #11 and UW CS at #46 in its rankings of world programs.
Of course, you can also find rankings that have UW ahead of USC.
In reality, there isn’t much to distinguish vanilla CS programs, so you’ll get the same education at either school. You’ll probably have smaller classes at USC, and if you want to do something with computers related to games, broadcasting or movies, USC excels at that.
First of all, congratulations! UW is a great school. Obviously we’re biased but IMO, USC is very prestigious up here and our alumni group is modest in size but very friendly, larger than Stanford’s but much smaller than UW or Cal or Oregon, especially at football get togethers. You might enjoy being in the sunshine for a few years before returning but don’t miss a great opportunity. If you attend USC and get homesick or don’t like it, you can always transfer to UW. P.S., USC is well represented at AMZN and MSFT and Boeing. As an engineer, you’ll have many options so it won’t matter where you end up.
Definitely check out both programs and visit both campuses if you haven’t already.
I’m biased for USC. Obviously I would choose USC. Why? Either school you go to, you will get a ton of career opportunities. Silicon Beach down here in Socal is still growing. College is one of the best times to ‘get out’ so you may want to experience living away from your family knowing that you’re still relatively close.
Basically, several of your pros for UW have to do with location and tech companies and careers, but USC has that in spades too.
“However right now, I feel like UW will give me more career opportunities while USC will give me a better college experience.”
You only do college once, and then you’ll have decades and decades for career opportunities. Both USC and UW will set you up to have internships and jobs after graduation, so go to the one where you think you’ll have the best experience.