<p>I'm so very torn between these two schools and it's really coming down to the wire. With regards to who I am, I am from the Boston area so I am OOS at both schools, and academically above average (3.86 GPA, 11 APs (all 5s so far with 4 more tests to take this May, 2210 SAT, 790 Math II, 770 Chem). My grades aren't the best but increased motivation should help me maintain or do better in college.</p>
<p>Both have excellent reputations for CS in their areas of LA and Seattle as well as out of the region recruiters. I'm still not sure which one actually ranks better.</p>
<p>Both have great campus culture as far as I'm aware.</p>
<p>Cost wise I will be paying full tuition + expenses at UCLA ($55,000) while UW has given me a $7,500 scholarship per year making total costs around $35,000.</p>
<p>I have been accepted to UW Honors while UCLA I have not yet applied for Honors.</p>
<p>The kicker: I am not pre-admit to CS at UW while UCLA will garuntee me CS (they accepted 13% of CS students this year).</p>
<p>The uncertainty of not being able to get in at UW is a serious problem, but on the other hand cost at UCLA is another. What do you guys think is the better school in CS strength, reputation, student life, and campus culture? Which do you recommend overall? Thanks for all your help guys!</p>
<p>If you can afford to go to UCLA, then choose that. The CS department at UW is great, but the major reason that it’s so selective is because of how small the department actually is, and the lack of funding that is has. UW’s computer science department is slightly ranked higher if that’s you major concern. Your location in California would be such a prime opportunity when talking about software development/IT jobs anyway. I was dealt a similar situation as yourself, except I was accepted directly into the Biochemistry major at UCLA, while only being a pre-major at the UW. I ended up choosing UW because I’m instate, and decided to stick around for a few more years, but if given another chance, I’d choose UCLA in a heartbeat. With that said, which university do YOU want to attend? Do you have a preference of climate?</p>
<p>I think atm I have a slight preference for UW because I like Seattle as a city and the UW student body a bit more than UCLA, however I have no extreme preference for prestige. It’s very hard and I’m so uncertain right now, but if I did choose UW, I would definitely commit to getting the grades/experience/help needed to maximize my admit chances. If I had gotten Direct Admit I would have chosen UW in a heartbeat, but unfortunately that is not the case. </p>
<p>There is alot to consider if I do choose UW such as classes and living environment (being OOS). Is it worth it to take accelerated and honors courses knowing that I potentially risk getting a lower GPA? I’m not worried about the CS and Calc classes so much as english and physics/chem…</p>
<p>@susanle - “blow one quiz, and you won’t get in”</p>
<p>Believe me, I definitely understand the difficulty and competitiveness of the program. They said 3.4-4.0 is the competitive range with 3.6-3.7 being the accepted average. Are you a current UW student? If so could you provide me with some context regarding the workload/difficulty of the general cores for math/comp sci? I’m not afraid of working hard if the goal is within reason. If the classes are unreasonably hard/curved or admissions becomes more than a selection process, but a crapshoot, then I will consider the safer options of taking my other alternatives.</p>
<p>Also if anyone else from UW happens to stumble on this thread with experience in the comp sci/math departments, is ACMS a good alternative to Comp Sci? I was thinking of entering the Discrete Math and Algorithms pathway as a backup if I get rejected from CS 2+ times.</p>
<p>The CS intro workload/difficulty isn’t unreasonable, especially if you have prior programming experience. The main issue is that you have to be really careful not to lose points. There are so many good people that staying competitive can be a chore. I’m not too sure about math at UW since I personally transferred most of those courses in via Running Start.</p>
<p>The admissions process can be tough, but I don’t think it’s a crapshoot, especially if you are willing to apply two to three times. To maximize chances of success (besides doing well in math/CS intro classes), you can petition to take a 300-level CS class and do well. I recommend CSE 341: “Programming Languages” for this. I’ve also heard that doing well in physics can help a fair amount.</p>
<p>You should probably meet with/call an adviser to discuss this and get more detail…they probably have insights to offer that I know nothing about.</p>
<p>ACMS can be an okay alternative, especially if you take as many non-majors CS courses as possible and sneak into CS career fairs/recruiting events/tech talks. It’s definitely going to be different, though. You probably won’t get as much in-depth knowledge regarding some aspects of CS, although you will go more into numerical analysis stuff.</p>