Which is better ?
@cocmos : I’m pretty sure UCSD (better than many schools for anything STEM related), but I don’t think it is so good that it should be viewed as a true pipeline school to be chosen over somewhere like Vanderbilt based on the strength of one department. Unless you’re considering true pipeline schools (Stanford, Berkeley, CMU for example), I would inspect other aspects of the schools or departments for that matter. Just because one dept. is perceive as better doesn’t mean you’ll actually like it more. It may not offer the types of courses you want, classes may be larger than you expected, or courses may have too much intensity or lack it at one vs. the other (yes, I am implying that many students, while they won’t admit it if applying to great schools, do prefer lower intensity for various reasons). Go on the department websites and see if there is a difference in course offerings and other opps. on your own.
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UCSD is clearly better for CS. As Bernie said it’s not one of the top schools for CS, but it is still has a very good program. I honestly don’t know of anyone who decided to go to Vandy because of its CS department.
That being said, if there are other reasons why you like Vandy I’d still consider it. There’s more to your college experience than the strength of one department.