Finally, the entire college application season is over. Son was admitted to UW Seattle (DA to CS + Honors), USC (CS + Business), Georgia Tech (CS), UCSD (CS), Cal Poly (CS), Santa Clara (CSE), SMU (CS). There are also some LAC acceptance with merit aid, but they are not in the same league for CS major.
We are in-state Washington, so UW is the cheapest option. Others in order of affordability is Cal Poly, SMU, Georgia Tech, Santa Clara, UCSD, USC. Our current thinking is that UW trumps all other public schools, maybe except Georgia Tech. USC trumps all other private schools. So we’d like to hear some pros and cons of UW, USC, and Georgia Tech for Computer Science students. However, if we overlooked the strength of any other schools, please also point out.
USC is strong in CS, but UW trumps USC in CS. USC’s pro’s would be a stronger alumni network (though I’d expect UW CS to be pretty good too in terms of the friends he makes there), SoCal & weather (if he likes that) and the CS+business program.
Direct admit to UW for CS is a big deal, however, and at in-state rates, that’s hard to beat. I don’t know why he’d consider GTech at all.
He got admitted to Georgia Tech in early action in January, so for a long time (it’s only two months, but it seems like two years, lol) he thought he’s going to GTech for sure. May just need a few days for that to fade away.
USC – weather, famed alumni network, smaller classes (it looks like intro classes are 70-80 students, not as small as I thought, but definitely better than UW’s 350-450), CS + Business program, and the #1 CS + Games program.
UW – direct to CS, affordable tuition, great new facilities (Allen + Gates), nice new dorms (west campus), lots of high tech companies nearby, and lots of friends to choose roommate from (this may be a downside though, since it won’t force him to make new friends and explore new cultures.)
Full pay at USC? That means double the cost. You pretty much can’t justify that from an ROI perspective.
He could go to UW for CS and, if he really wants the business classes and elite business network, go to a 1Y Business Masters (Duke MiM, Northwestern MSMS, Stanford/Dartmouth/Cornell/Duke/Northwestern/USC/JHU MEM, Stanford MSMS) and you’d still save money.
UW for direct admit CS and honors is the best value. Top academics and perks.
If he values smaller classes and the + business aspect of USC it’s still not enough of a difference in atmosphere to justify the cost difference.
(It’s not like UWash v’ Harvey Mudd for instance, where there’s a clear difference in vibe and fit.)
USC CS is rated #9 in the world by ARWU, with arguably the best CS Games program anywhere. But rankings don’t mean that much in CS, so if you have direct admit to CS at UW, go there. UW CS is still one of the best programs around.
UW sounds like the best deal here. USC does have a great CS games program (some people from my team go down to guest-lecture there a couple times a year; one of my former teammates teaches classes in that program. I’m a researcher at Xbox) but it’s definitely not worth the extra cost, especially since there are tons of UW CS grads who currently work in the gaming industry due to proximity to the thriving games scene here in Seattle.