UW or USC for Comp Sci

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Washington
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<p>I'm having trouble deciding which college I should go to next year... so any suggestions/comments would really help!</p>

<p>I was Direct Admitted to the Comp Sci program at UW (instate tuition), but I was also given the Presidential Scholarship at USC. I would still have to take out approximately $10,000 in loans per year at USC. So here is my dilemma... I know UW's Comp Sci program is ranked much higher than USC's, and I would be closer to home, and it would be cheaper. However, I feel like USC's personality fits me much better as a person and student. USC has much smaller class sizes, it doesn't rain hardly as much (i hate the rain), and I really want to explore somewhere new (I literally drive past the UW everyday). Also, I can't really explain it, but I just feel like USC is where I should be, but at the same time I'm not sure I can justify spending an extra $40,000 on tuition and wasting an opportunity in the UW Comp Sci program. I'm also worried that I may not have access to the same Comp Sci opportunities (internships, jobs, etc) with a USC degree compared to a UW degree.</p>

<p>So that's my problem. If you have any opinions please post, I would really appreciate it!
P.S. I'm going to post this in both colleges' forums to get both sides.</p>

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<p>Hi! A friend of mine has a friend with almost the exact same problem as you. (I wonder if you’re the same person… small world, then…)</p>

<p>Congrats on being a direct admit student! Check us out during the direct admit open house later this month if you can… you can get some more perspectives from direct admit students then. I’ll be there as well. :)</p>

<p>It looks like at this point, you’re leaning more towards USC than UW in terms of weather, culture fit, etc. It seems like you have a good idea what each school can offer you. That’s great.</p>

<p>It looks like you’re unsure about taking out loans and what types of opportunities you can get at USC in regards to a CS career. I have a lot of friends who went to USC (some who were also accepted direct admit to UW CSE, some I met through internships) and none of them have ever had issues finding internships or full time positions. The opportunities are not limited at USC.</p>

<p>Also, loans can be scary, but remember that you’ll be studying computer science. You can pay off your loans (~40k?) in a few years easily, depending on what you decide to do. It might take longer with a start up, but if you work at a company with competitive offers - Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Addepar, Dropbox, Palantir, Facebook, etc… there’s no reason why you can’t pay it off in maybe two years, depending on what financial choices you make. Through summer internships, you could probably take care of those loans already. Depending on where you work, you’ll make between 12k-30k during a *12 week period<a href="+relocation%20and%20housing%20paid%20for">/i</a> before taxes.</p>

<p>Also remember that you’ll probably get a signing bonus with some companies, which I have personally seen range from 30k to 100k (more common) to 1mil (Have I mentioned on here that Google throws money at people?). All for signing a piece of paper and staying at the company for 2 years or whatever was in the offer letter. </p>

<p>Did I convince you to go to USC? I love it here at UW (and my high school was just down the road from UW!), but I also love the rain and didn’t really ‘click’ with the atmosphere at USC.</p>

<p>Wherever you go, if you stay focused and are proactively hitting up career fairs, getting to know your peers (recommendations/referrals are awesome in the tech industry), you’ll be successful. Good luck!</p>

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<p>Thank you so much for the help!!! ahh this is going to be a hard decision; I really like both schools.</p>

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<p>Again, please come to our direct admit open house this Thursday if you can! :D</p>