Accepted to both as an international (cost not a factor)
UCSD Engineering School for Bioengineering: Bioinformatics vs USC Iovine and Young Academy (interdisciplinary major on Arts, Business and Technology)
UCSD always had my dream niche major (Bioinformatics), a beautiful campus & great food. Ranks #3 for Bioengineering, #9 for Engineering in the U.S. Solid engineering program. Close to biotech companies. Worried about grade deflation. Love the college system, got into my first-choice college, and love all the GEs and culture.
USC has a very flexible program where I can explore my other interests outside of engineering/tech/bio/STEM in the film + music school that’s top 5. I won’t be limited in taking classes by my major. USC ranks way lower in engineering. Even though I’m not going to major in the engineering school, I’m considering double majoring/take classes there. and … I hate LA! Not a walkable city, prolly won’t have a car, area surrounding USC is unsafe.
Out of all the schools I applied to, UCSD and USC were in my top 3 list - in no order (got waitlisted from the other one).
Congratulations on two great acceptances. Hands down I would recommend UCSD for bioengineering. Fabulous research and faculty in your field of interest.
I went to USC for graduate school. It was worth every penny. But at the risk of offending any Trojans out there, it seems overpriced for undergrad studies. And not all that easy to take classes in the music or film schools.
Who cares about grade deflation. Go to the school you want. You think no one from UCSD gets into great grad schools?
UCSD is a large public university and, as an international, you will be paying a premium to attend. It will be more difficult to get classes at UCSD and class sizes will be larger than at USC. Iovine & Young Academy is a really cool program but only if that is your thing. It is very different than bioinfomatics.
USNWR ranks JSOE at #10 and Viterbi at #15. That’s negligible since you aren’t majoring in engineering at USC. Likewise, I’m not sure why Thornton’s ranking matters if you aren’t majoring in music.
Bottom line is that, if you hate LA, why would you consider going to school there?
1 Like
“ I hate LA! Not a walkable city, prolly won’t have a car”.
Welcome to Southern California!
Why did you apply to USC if you don’t like LA?
The area around La Jolla Village Drive is not walkable either. Public transportation in Southern California is not good.
You will need a car in San Diego if you want to get anywhere in a decent amount of time. UCSD cannot guarantee housing in Junior and Senior years. Sometimes there are issues for freshman and sophomores finding housing. It’s a big, large, public university in a very expensive neighborhood. If that’s not an issue for you, great!
Also, please be aware that when you are finished with your degree, at either school, you will be expected to return to your home country, so you need to make sure that your major will accommodate the work that you expect to do in your home country.
Bioengineering, in the US, is just opening up so there aren’t a lot of firms that can fund a lot of research in this area because the funds in the companies just aren’t there.
If they have this in your home country then you should be set.