UW Seattle or Santa Clara or Cal Poly SLO or Northeastern or UIUC (Engineering) Help me decide

<p>I am from Seattle. Have admissions to the above stated schools in Engg. and planning to do Computer Science/Engg.<br>
Fine with doing Civil or Bio Engg.</p>

<p>UW
(+) cheap and good.
(-) don't think I will get into CS and going to the local school is not going to give me the college experience. May end up hanging around with the HS friends. Also, big school - getting the classes that I want may be an issue. </p>

<p>UIUC
(+) very good.
(-) don't think I will get into CS. Also, big school - getting the classes that I want may be an issue. Remote place and cold.</p>

<pre><code> questions:
How easy or difficult to get into CS major ?
</code></pre>

<p>Santa Clara
(+) Small school and getting some $$ (not a lot about 35% of the tuition)
(-) Not sure of the CS or CS&Engg program. (20K more per year which I could afford for the small college.)</p>

<pre><code> questions:
How is the CS program or CSEngg program
How easy to get internships and job after degree
How difficult or easy the course work for a person who done reasonably well in HS
How is the faculty ? Are they good in teaching/challenging ? What about research work ?
How easy to switch between majors ?
Is it worth the extra $20K for the college experience, small college atmosphere and internship opptunities
How strong or influential the alumni network in getting internships or jobs
Having the acceptance rate of 50% is a concern whether I'll be challenged in school
</code></pre>

<p>Cal Poly
There's a lot of good discussion on this forum on CP and I like it.
(+) Economical and college experience at a resonable price
(-) Big classes and getting the class that you want may be a problem. No brand name.</p>

<p>questions:
How is the brand...does anyone know outside the bay area about how good this school is !
How easy to get internships and job after degree
How difficult or easy the course work for a person who done reasonably well in HS
How is the faculty ? Are they good in teaching/challenging ? What about research work ?
How easy to switch between majors ?
My parents are willing to spend the extra $20K for the college experience, small college atmosphere and internship opptunities...so is it better spent here or SCU
How strong or influential the alumni network in getting internships or jobs</p>

<p>NorthEasternU
(+) co-op program
(-) very expensive and very less financial assistance</p>

<pre><code> I was initially very interested in the school and the $$$$ needed to go here discouraged me.
</code></pre>

<p>Please advise. Thank you very much in advance </p>

<p>Know about Cal Poly and UW – insanely difficult to get into UW Computer Science, if you are directly admitted to Cal Poly computer science and you know you want to work in the CS field, go to Cal Poly. </p>

<p>My son is going to UIUC this Fall for Computer Engineering which gives him more versatility than average CS grad because he’ll know both software and hardware. He was accepted at Georgia Tech, Purdue, U Washington Seattle, U Wisconsin Madison. Got into UCSD but not engineering/CS. I also work in the internet industry in Silicon Valley and we hire a lot of technical talent. UIUC and UW Seattle are considered the stronger CS and engineering schools among your options at least in Silicon Valley.</p>

<p>Cal Poly SLO has a good reputation regionally. Have you been admitted to your major of choice there? Changing major at Cal Poly SLO requires going through an admission process.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>I think your information is inaccurate. The acceptance rate at Cal Poly SLO CS is not 50% (unless you mean Cal Poly Pomona). In fact, CS at Cal Poly is academically very challenging and is consider one of the top undergraduate programs around. I am pretty sure almost all students will feel pretty challenged there.</p>

<p>Cal Poly engineering admission:</p>

<p>Avg GPA: 4.08
Avg ACT: 31
Avg SAT: 1388 (out of 1600) </p>

<p><a href=“http://admissions.calpoly.edu/prospective/profile.html”>http://admissions.calpoly.edu/prospective/profile.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Also, Cal Poly CS graduates’ post graduation salary ranked only behind Cal. </p>

<p><a href=“http://www.payscale.com/college-salary-report-2014/best-schools-by-major/computer-science”>http://www.payscale.com/college-salary-report-2014/best-schools-by-major/computer-science&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Washington is a great school and you’ve been admitted to one of the toughest programs. And you’ll only fall back with your HS friends if you choose. It is such a huge campus, there are a gazillion new people to meet. </p>

<p>Will you be able to live on campus? Or pledge a frat? If so, I’d say to choose UW. Save that money for grad school.</p>

<p>-Seattle mom </p>

<p>Accepted into Engineering only NOT in CS…so going to Cal Poly/UW/UIUC, I may not even get into CS. That leaves me with private colleges that are open to switching, e.g. NEU or Santa Clara or USC.</p>

<p>NEU gives more $$
Santa Clara - too small and not much diversity. Didn’t like it…(may be becaz it was spring break, the campus was dead)
USC - love to go here but more $$</p>

<p>So stuck between NEU and USC…where USC will cost $12K more than NEU. Question is: is it worth it!!</p>

<p>If you didn’t get into CS at UW, don’t bother, it’s super competitive and odds are 2 to 1 you won’t get in. It’s very hard to switch majors at Cal Poly so if you don’t like Engineering, that’s another no - did you get CSE or just engineering (as switching from CSE to CS may be easier - check).
Rather than how much money they gave you, look at how much you’d have to pay for each.</p>

<p>Got admitted into Civil Engg. and now changing to Comp. Science. The chances of getting into CS in NEU or USC pretty good. But other schools, I may not get into CS. The price difference between NEU and USC is about $12,000. My dad is willing to pay…but I wondering whether it is worth additional $12k for USC… I live in West Coast and would like to stay in West Coast.</p>

<p>Hate to say this, from a Silicon Valley employer (I’m head of HR for a internet/digital company), Cal Poly CS is not on our radar at all. I thought they’re better known for their ME program. Schools we like to hire from - Washington, UCSD, Stanford, UCLA, Berkeley, UIUC, MIT, Carnegie Mellon, Georgia Tech, Purdue. Santa Clara and Cal Poly are lower tier for us and we don’t tend to recruit there for CS.</p>

<p>^No Michigan?</p>