USC vs. UCLA for EE

College Search & Selection
1

I have been lucky enough to get accepted into both USC and UCLA for Electrical Engineering. Now I am faced with the difficult decision of choosing! At first I was completely leaning towards UCLA, and then I found out yesterday I got into USC and was so thrilled, and now I am completely conflicted. These are the considerations I am making, and my current thoughts on them.

  1. Cost Fortunately, as I am a NMF, I would not have to pay 70k a year to attend USC. Thus, the cost of attending each school is roughly the same (USC would still cost a bit more, but not significantly so that I could use this reason to choose one over the other.)
  2. Research Opportunities and Internships I don't know how easy it is to get these opportunities at USC, I would love to hear other people's experiences. But at UCLA, I have been offered a program called Fast Track, in which kids start doing research and internships from their freshman year summers.
  3. Getting Classes I can't imagine that there would be a problem with this at USC, but I know that it can be a struggle to get classes at UCLA.
  4. Reputation I'm not obsessed with prestige, but I do recognize that it can be indicative of the quality of a school, and can be helpful later on when getting a job. Is there any difference between UCLA and USC regarding their reputation in EE?

I have already visited the UCLA campus and will be visiting again, but I love it there. I haven’t visited USC yet, but I do plan to do so in a couple weeks. If you were in my position, what would you choose and why?

2

USC engineering, in general, has advanced significantly during the recent years to a level which is now well competitive with UCLA. However, the EE was always one of the strongholds of USC engineering (atleast since 35 years ago when I was in USC), same as with UCLA. So both are very strong in that field.

3

I’m a Ucla EE. Attend Ucla Discover Engineering. It could be invaluable in choosing schools. However, finances aside, I would pick usc for EE. It’s got similar if not better prestige in the SoCal area and the fact that it’s easier to get classes and more personal attention makes it worth it. In reality it’s a toss up and you will be successful in both schools. Let me know if you have any other questions!