Hi, everyone. The deadline to submit my SIR is coming up soon, and I still can’t make a choice as to which school I’d like to attend. I’ve been doing lots of research trying to figure out which school is the best for me, but I keep changing my mind. If anyone could give me information or advice about which school I should choose, it would be greatly appreciated. I currently plan to major in computer science and get a job after undergrad. No plans for grad school at the moment. Here are my choices:
UC Berkeley – Honestly, I wasn’t even expecting to get into Berkeley, so getting in has since made the decision harder for me.Being a major in comp sci, this would be the most obvious choice. However, I was admitted into the L&S CS department rather than the EECS department, so I’d have to get a gpa of 3.3 before even being allowed to be admitted into the major. To be honest, I’m a little scared to attend this school because I’m not sure if I’d be able to get that gpa at such a tough school, especially since I don’t have a ton of experience in computer science. If I didn’t get my major, I’d pretty much be screwed; However, if I do succeed, then I’d probably have a lot of opportunities when it came to getting a job after undergrad, which is important to me. The campus didn’t completely wow me when I visited, but I liked the surrounding city and all the shops/restaurants. The students seemed the kind to be very devoted to their studies, and I’ve heard that the environment is very competitive/cutthroat, which I’m not sure if I’d like. There’s also the problem with housing near Berkeley being very expensive.
UC Davis— When I visited their campus, I loved it. It seemed like the perfect little college town. The people there seemed very friendly, and the atmosphere felt more relaxed/laid-back. It’s also pretty close to home, which is a plus. However, I’m not sure how good the computer science department is at this school; It’s been kind of difficult finding information about it, and I don’t know anyone that’s in the program that I can ask. I’m a bit concerned that it might be more difficult to find a job after undergrad since CS at Davis doesn’t seem to be well-known.
UCI/UCSB/UCSD— I was accepted to these schools as well, but since they’re down south, I haven’t had the time or resources to visit any of their campuses, and I don’t think I’ll be able to anytime soon. From what I’ve heard, UCSD’s engineering seems to have the most “prestige” of these three, but a lot of people have said that campus life is dead and gloomy etc. I know UCI has a dedicated school of computer science, but I don’t know that much about it. When it comes to financial aid, UCSD and UCSB would be the cheapest for me to attend out of all the UCs, so that’s something for me to consider as well.
Anyway, sorry for this giant wall of text, if you actually read it all then thank you.
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