I'm very fortunate to be a member of a community where the majority of members are college students/recent graduates! As it's March 27th, I'm only waiting to hear from one last high high high high high reach school and writing an appeal (basically 0% shot as well) to another so my list is pretty much finalized.
I've pretty much narrowed it down to these schools, so if anyone has had experiences at any one of these campuses, please give me some feedback!
UCLA University of Michigan* Georgia Institute of Technology* USC University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign*
The schools marked with an asterisk (*) are out of state schools that I don't have financial aid/award money for, so going to those would need some pretty strong convincing.
My planned major(s) are Electrical/Computer Engineering or Computer Science.
From the South so i would only be able to give you adivce in SEC schools I know that Georgia Tech has one of the best Comptuer Science/Enginerring programs in the nation and also has great sports. and best part is its in the South so some great football always
Howerver being a college student I would stay in state (money) and a college that is quite a ways from home (2-3 hours) but not to far where you can't go home to get some good food every now and then.
Choose one of the schools that you can afford easily. For undergraduate studies, it really doesn't matter what school you go to as long as it's somewhat reputable. UCLA and USC are both great schools, and you should have little trouble getting into graduate studies or finding a good job afterwards.
On March 28 2011 15:08 rabidch wrote: well i go to ucla... and im in comp sci... dunno what to say about it as compared to USC but i believe UCLA is the stronger program =)...
you should probably put down what you're looking for since well, anybody could say anything and it might not matter too much to you
I'm probably most concerned about the community/atmosphere of the people at the school and the number of Teamliquidians there
I'd also like people's views on the academics of each of the schools, but that would only work if that person was in the department I am planning to study in.
I would say UCLA or USC because it's really not worth getting into UMich, GIT or UI unless it's for a specific school/major such as the nursing school in Ann Arbor. USC is a great choice if you're not sure about your major since it is a private school and doesn't have the limitations for major changing like the UCs do. I would say UCLA is the better school but it's all preference between those two.
They're all very solid schools for the field you're looking to enter.
As one who went to a school in the NorthEast, I urge you to consider avoiding the harsh weather schools of UI and UM, all things being equal.
Have you considered where you want to work after graudating? The geographic location of your school is directly correlated to the type of companies that recruit there. For instance, my school had a slew of finance related recruiting, but comparatively very little west coast tech recruiting other than the behemoths of the industry. If you are keen on working in EE/CS in say, Silicon Valley, then UCLA/USC will give you a much more direct path to that route. Plus the weather's nice there
If you have the monetary means, perhaps plan visits to USC/UCLA/GT?
On March 28 2011 15:30 thedeadhaji wrote: They're all very solid schools for the field you're looking to enter.
As one who went to a school in the NorthEast, I urge you to consider avoiding the harsh weather schools of UI and UM, all things being equal.
Have you considered where you want to work after graudating? The geographic location of your school is directly correlated to the type of companies that recruit there. For instance, my school had a slew of finance related recruiting, but comparatively very little west coast tech recruiting other than the behemoths of the industry. If you are keen on working in EE/CS in say, Silicon Valley, then UCLA/USC will give you a much more direct path to that route. Plus the weather's nice there
If you have the monetary means, perhaps plan visits to USC/UCLA/GT?
What you said about geographic location is exactly what my mom said LOL
The only thing I find unfavorable about USC/UCLA is that they are literally like an hour's drive from my house. I'm definitely planning visits to the schools that are close by.
I've personally been around Georgia Tech (brother did undergrad computer science there and the campus is only a few hours away) and UIUC (scouted it for grad school in EE). I liked UIUC as a place a little better, in terms of campus layout, atmosphere, and facilities. UIUC is kind of in the middle of nowhere, but it's not too far from Chicago if you're willing to take the trip down. GT is in the middle of Atlanta of course. From what I've heard, there seems to be somewhat of a student vs. professors mentality at least in some facets of the CS program at GT, so beware. Then again, other people like it there a lot, and that's always going to be the case that different people have very different experiences.
For undergraduate studies, it's sufficient to go to a good school in your field. What you do with your time there determines how prepared you will be afterwards, what opportunities you will have, and what people you will know. For undergrad, most of that is irrelevant of the prestige of the school; in any case, USC ranks plenty high enough anyway. Actually, I may be somewhat biased because USC is good in my area of specialty as well (wireless communications)--the engineering school is named after Viterbi, a big name in the field, and my advisor had his Ph.D. from there a long time ago.
Then again, UIUC is even bigger in my field, and I ended up not going there. And when I visited, it was in March and somehow ran into 65 degree weather, so I wasn't even scared off by the cold.
Starting out with a lot of debt is not fun, so stick with places you have funding.
On March 28 2011 15:36 Froadac wrote: Are you getting any scholarships from USC? If Not, UCLA > USC.
USC will give connections, but the cost that is so many multitudes higher probably neutralizes any benefit.
Another case of not reading the post carefully, I see. I think I have a good shot at getting $20,000/yr at USC.
Wouldn't they have told you by now? When I was applying to colleges, they told me in February that I had a 1/2 tuition scholarship... maybe a different subset.
Even after a 20K/yr deduction, I think UCLA will have lower tuition than USC fwiw.
Don't underestimate the geographic location and recruiting factor that both your mother and I have related to you. 1hr away from home is really no big deal if you have a decent relationship with your family. In fact, I'd even say that it's a luxury to have family as a buffer in case your adjustment period to college life doesn't go as smoothly as planned (which I certainly suffered through during my first semester at college - one of the two most brutal periods in my life thus far)
You might want to add the $20k thing for USC into the OP.
The schools marked with an asterisk (*) are out of state schools that I don't have financial aid/award money for, so going to those would need some pretty strong convincing.
^ That is rather ambiguous; you can't expect everyone to assume it means that you have (most likely) a $20k grant from USC.
The schools marked with an asterisk (*) are out of state schools that I don't have financial aid/award money for, so going to those would need some pretty strong convincing.
^ That is rather ambiguous; you can't expect everyone to assume it means that you have (most likely) a $20k grant from USC.
Day[9]'s going to be leaving this year so that is slightly less attractive given how many CSL teams there are...
Even if USC is $50k without aid for me it's going to cost the same as UCLA ($30k) including room/board, etc... And with the budget cuts hitting UC schools I'm not sure I want to enter a system that is facing more and more cuts every year.
My gf is paying about 28k @ UCB and I'm paying about 27k @ UCSC
I have my own health insurance though. I think the prices include just about everything you have to pay for. That said the 30% increase in tuition a couple years ago and the latest 8% were bullshit. Add the 500 billion cut to the UC system and you got yourself a big mess.
That said: Including financial aid, scholarships and a 5.5k loan I had to pay nothing out of pocket and I already made enough money working on weekends to pay off my loan for this year.
But yeah. I don't want to think about next year...
Go to Umich, I'll be there the year after next....maybe... In all seriousness, they're are comparable schools, if none of them jump out at you more than the other go to the cheapest one (although personally I like UCLA better than USC)
On March 28 2011 15:36 Froadac wrote: Are you getting any scholarships from USC? If Not, UCLA > USC.
USC will give connections, but the cost that is so many multitudes higher probably neutralizes any benefit.
Another case of not reading the post carefully, I see. I think I have a good shot at getting $20,000/yr at USC.
Got it. I know they give good aid, but because you didn't explicitly state you got any scholarships (and it's kind of a big deal when you do) I figured you weren't getting much in terms of financial.
In any case, those two are pretty close in regards to those programs, and you would probably get more connections/easier internships of of SC, but then again undergrad degrees aren't the most important thing in the world so...
UCs cost like 18k for tuition now, + whatever additional costs. 30 sounds about ballpark, maybe a bit high.
UCLA > USC for sure. UCLA doesn't have the stigma of being an overpriced mediocre private institution. (Not saying that's actually true of USC, but there's definitely many who feel that way)
On March 29 2011 04:44 Last Romantic wrote: UCs cost like 18k for tuition now, + whatever additional costs. 30 sounds about ballpark, maybe a bit high.
UCLA > USC for sure. UCLA doesn't have the stigma of being an overpriced mediocre private institution. (Not saying that's actually true of USC, but there's definitely many who feel that way)
I don't care about the stigma if it means I'm going to be stuck as an undergraduate in the UC system for more than four years. Cost is not an issue right now given the scholarship money I have for USC and the lack of scholarship money that I have for UCLA.
Do you have Regents at UCLA? If you do, I would strongly recommend that over USC, given the benefits that Regents provides.
I was talking to a math professor of mine here at Duke who recently went to UCLA for a conference and he was telling me about how he was talking to a lot of the upper level math students. They were having a hard as fuck time getting the required amount of coursework in just because there wasn't enough space/too many students. I don't know how true that is (seeing as I know a few people at UCLA and haven't heard anything of the sort), but maybe that's something to think about. Of course, I hear having regency basically puts you on a tier higher on the picking listings so you won't have as hard of a time, but again this is going on hearsay. One of the UCLA TL members should be able to clarify that for you.
If you want to go for engineering in michigan don't think about michigan state go for michigan tech. Its really one of the best programs in the country for it. you can go for 5 years and get an easy double major in engineering and business and thats what they specialize in. Its FAR away from any big city and has 2 other colleges near it so theres a large comunity for you there.
Actually on second thought if you live in cali you won't live in michigan or the east coast. I'm being frank if the fact that I still have snow on the ground and I'm 100 miles south of it. Michigan tech Has snow 9 months out of the year. In between trying to get into finals and liveing in the freezeing cold of Winter you won't make it.
I know it sounds werid but think about idaho state last year it had the same ammount of patent startup companies as MIT and that means a great rich future for you.
Edit: I think I come off as too harsh if you do want to come out to the midwest or north east I'll do anything I can to help you out with the snow. Its an amazing community when your all together trying to get though the winter and I would totaly recommend that for someone whos changing a lot though college anyway.
On March 29 2011 04:44 Last Romantic wrote: UCs cost like 18k for tuition now, + whatever additional costs. 30 sounds about ballpark, maybe a bit high.
UCLA > USC for sure. UCLA doesn't have the stigma of being an overpriced mediocre private institution. (Not saying that's actually true of USC, but there's definitely many who feel that way)
I don't care about the stigma if it means I'm going to be stuck as an undergraduate in the UC system for more than four years. Cost is not an issue right now given the scholarship money I have for USC and the lack of scholarship money that I have for UCLA.
thast what i believe my costs are if you're walking in with no units at all and no credit for any class it will probably be very annoying to graduate in 4 years. if you're mostly done with math and have some other things out of the way (CS AP) and you're a year ahead in standing then its no problem assuming you dont have to retake any classes.
All of those are pretty much equal academically, so I'd recommend visiting as many as you can. I go to UCLA, I only filled out the UC app and I liked LA the best, so I can't help you decide about the non-UCs.
I don't have regents for UCLA, so I'm walking in with no benefits for them. Then again, I'm not sure if USC gives much credit for the APs I took, so I'll have to look at the graduation requirements for both schools more carefully I guess.
I go to georgia tech but if you're concerned about finances it probably isn't worth it out-of-state since you have UCLA and USC as good solid options. Georgia tech definitely has good programs to help (the co-op program is pretty big here and from what I can tell those who qualify can get a decent job to co-op for) and I personally really like the school, but UCLA and USC are both good and probably better for your circumstances.
All those schools are great, congrats. I want to give my 2 cents on UCLA though.
I go to UCLA(also got into USC with half tuition), and I love it here. Nice weather, awesome campus, and there's plenty of stuff to do outside of campus too(frat row is right outside of the Hill where the dorms are, Westwood Village is 5 minutes away, Santa Monica is just a bus ride away)
I'm also an EE major at UCLA. UCLA is huge in terms of the amount of research that professors do, and there's always plenty of professors doing research every quarter, and a lot of them look for people to help out in their labs so if you want to go into research early on in college(highly recommended), then you can just email a professor and ask. Also, if you want to just get to know a professor(great for getting recommendation letters later), they're usually pretty eager to talk to students, especially about their research.
As for AP credits, if you get a 4 or above on your APs, the engineering school takes your credits and usually lets you skip some courses. However, if you got a 4 on an AP exam i.e. AP Chem, and they want a 5 to skip out of the class, you can still petition and still get credit AND skip that class. UCLA, at least in the engineering department, is pretty lenient and nice about AP credit.
There's plenty of clubs on UCLA also(both engineering and non-engineering), so you won't have to worry about building your resume through a club or finding a group of friends.
On a side note, I'm still a little confused about your financial aid situation with USC. Sorry if I missed something, but you said you "think" you're getting around 20k a year in financial aid. I remember when I got into USC, they told me what financial aid I was getting right when I got in, so I don't understand why you're unsure about how much you're getting in scholarships at this time.
I'm going to UIUC right now and I love it here.... the ECE program is pretty rigorous but very highly ranked.
The amount of research done here is immense.... like top 3 in the country immense IIRC.
The campus may be in the middle of nowhere but there's enough stuff to do on campus (especially if you get involved in clubs/RSOs) that that won't be a big deal.
I understand though that money is a large issue... since you're out-of-state your tuition is significantly larger than mine, and I don't know your financial situation but that could potentially be an issue
Did you get into the James/Chancellor's honors program?
alright let's just be honest here, your choices should be USC or UCLA, especially for undergrad. the other three schools are great, but chances are if you're from california, you're going to get SAD if you end up in michigan or illinois. GT is a great option but i don't really know if you can justify moving across the country and paying more for it for USC/UCLA.
based on the college acceptance thread i can see that you're leaning toward USC.
i'll talk about the good things about USC:
-USC students are extremely well-rounded (academics/social/athletics). work hard and play hard would aptly describe the average student.
-viterbi is a great community. they have all sorts of special events and lots of ways to get involved around campus. USC specialized schools all have the feel of a small community within the context of a large university.
-check out the viterbi student ambassadors for more information specifically about engineering. lots of good material here. http://viterbi.usc.edu/vsa/
-location location location. yeah ok we're not in westwood. so what? we have LA LIVE (staples center, etc) a free tram ride away from campus (< 2 miles away). we also have little tokyo, koreatown, chinatown, etc all within a 10-15 minute car ride. the neighborhood is continually improving. you always hear about USC being in the ghetto, but i never experienced any crime during my 4 years.
-$$$$$. you should check out the USC master plan for what they envision the area directly north of the campus to look like. it's going to be sick. furthermore, USC is not in a budget crisis... not even counting the monumental $200 MILLION donation to the COLLEGE OF LETTERS ARTS AND SCIENCES (wtf who donates to the humanities?!?), USC was ranked 3rd or 4th in the nation in 2010 for total fundraising. we have all sorts of construction and stuff going on campus. which means lots of shiny (well ok, red brick) buildings all over campus. apparently amongst academics, USC is often referred to as the University of Stolen Colleagues because we poach great professors from schools all around the nation.
-$$$$$ part 2. USC has a lot of money to spend on undergrads. if you can take advantage of this you can do all sorts of amazing things. as an RA i took out my floor to all-you-can-eat korean bbq twice... average cost per person: $3.00 (the cost of the round-trip bus ride). my friends have gotten snowboarding trips to big bear funded, etc.
-CSL. USC eSports is an actual student organization with a faculty sponsor (thanks prof sloper!). awesome little community that meets weekly and does fun things too! we actually have a computer lab reserved just for our meetings. pretty cool!
-the awesome PAC-12 sports scene. school spirit is amazing here. you will be brainwashed by the end of orientation. believe it or not, when i applied to USC i didn't even know they had a good football team (when i was in high school USC went through the palmer, bush, and leinart heisman years LOL)
-honestly you need to attend one of the admitted student events like Explore and get a feel for the school.
-"fit" is probably the most important thing. if you visit both USC and UCLA and you like the vibe on UCLA's campus you should go there instead. go where you think you can succeed for the next 4 years of your life.
ps: UCLA is a great institution as well, but it's a university for children of lesser ability
I applied and got admitted for to UCLA and USC as well. I'm probably going to do EECS just like you, OP (admitted for EECS at Cal as well). I have no clue which one to pick, but here I am in a similar boat. Some of the responses in this thread are prolly gonna help me shape my decision. I'd really like to see WarBacchus and LosingID8 compare USC and UCLA directly though. Tbh, if you're from California, and you got into these great programs, you'll want to STAY IN CALI.
On March 30 2011 14:12 gamecrazy wrote: I applied and got admitted for to UCLA and USC as well. I'm probably going to do EECS just like you, OP (admitted for EECS at Cal as well). I have no clue which one to pick, but here I am in a similar boat. Some of the responses in this thread are prolly gonna help me shape my decision. I'd really like to see WarBacchus and LosingID8 compare USC and UCLA directly though. Tbh, if you're from California, and you got into these great programs, you'll want to STAY IN CALI.
my honest opinion is that if you were admitted to Kal EECS go with that, unless you really hate the norcal or berkeley environment/campus.
On March 29 2011 16:28 Zlasher wrote: Trust me, go to UCLA or USC.
You don't want to leave California...I made that mistake.
Haha yeah. I have a BS in CS from Georgia Tech; I live in California now. I think you'd be kinda crazy to leave California to go to GT, Michigan, wherever.
On March 29 2011 16:28 Zlasher wrote: Trust me, go to UCLA or USC.
You don't want to leave California...I made that mistake.
Haha yeah. I have a BS in CS from Georgia Tech; I live in California now. I think you'd be kinda crazy to leave California to go to GT, Michigan, wherever.
I'm just a little hesitant because I've lived in SoCal from 2000-2001 and 2003-now. Spending another 4 years within 50 miles of where my home is makes me somewhat uneasy.
You should come to USC We have a great E-Sports community that has awesome events every week We've also held some pretty awesome So-Cal tournaments such as this one http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=203830 Also, if when I meet you and if I like you I'll also teach you how to win at poker
U of M is an overrated choice. I myself am from Michigan and have the option of going there without paying out of state. I also have friends who are attending/were attending and I have heard that the experience is definately overrated and does not live up to what people say. Considering your from Cal, dont pay the extra to go there and go to one of your Cally schools.
On March 30 2011 14:12 gamecrazy wrote: I applied and got admitted for to UCLA and USC as well. I'm probably going to do EECS just like you, OP (admitted for EECS at Cal as well). I have no clue which one to pick, but here I am in a similar boat. Some of the responses in this thread are prolly gonna help me shape my decision. I'd really like to see WarBacchus and LosingID8 compare USC and UCLA directly though. Tbh, if you're from California, and you got into these great programs, you'll want to STAY IN CALI.
EPT
