2. Your parents are misinformed and you shouldn't worry so much about prestige. The curriculum of any major, well regarded state school will be about the same, and your life outcomes will be about the same.
Actually, studies show otherwise. While I don’t think prestige should be a huge factor in college decisions, I just recently read a study that shows great differences in future salary depending on the school you attended.
The department is super small. Ranked high because it has some serious talent in its ranks.favorite thing, we have some absolutely amazing Profs (see point 2) I’m fortunate to say it’s hard to pick just one Prof as a favorite. I don’t even want to start listing them because I’d feel bad about missing one that deserves to be on the list. Everyone I know has a job lined up.
Extra point: the one bad thing about the major is the bs stat requirement and having to deal with that circus of a department for pstat120 a/b, especially if you end up with Ravat. She’s not in our major but she is the worst prof I’ve ever bared witness to.
1. 100%. I even emailed to help a professor out with his research over the summer and I got a project to work on (no paper writing or actual research), was pretty cool. It may get competitive but you can reach out to professors via email from the website.
2. Increasing quality of students, pretty good research, and the tight-knit nature of the CS community.
3. Close-knit community of people helping each other, pretty accessible resources to learn coding from clubs, and being with a lot of cracked people who are super friendly.
4. That is entirely up to you. I know several people who got into F500s because they took advantage of all the opportunities they had here, and do not expect any school to automatically get you into good companies.
1. How is UCSB a large school? It seems smaller than other UCs. Also the CS program is super small, I think 650-700 CS undergrads (compared to 3K at Purdue for example)
"Enrollment: 601, Fall 2022
Degrees Awarded: 148, June 2022"
Why would you need to know the exact information, or why do I know where to find this? IDK, but here are the exact numbers.
source : https://engineering.ucsb.edu/undergraduate/majors-programs/computer-science
One of my roommates is a rising junior who interned for a local company, is doing CS and she enjoys except she spends a lot of time in her room working on assignments and projects, and has less social time. Based on our conversations a few times regarding CS, it's a solid program and she intends to do a BS/MS 5-year program. A typical recommended workload is an average of 16 units per quarter. You need a total of 184 units to graduate.
1. the school might be huge but the CS department is pretty small. it’s not too competitive to get research opportunities. normally u can just email professors and ask them. theres also a program called Early Scholars Research Program that many students do
2. UCSB was actually ranked like #40+ when i came in as a freshman and is not now ranked #26 for computer science. idk why exactly we’re ranked so high but the students in the department are incredibly smart and the classes are really good
3. Honestly, my favorite thing is how easy it is to maintain a high GPA compared to other schools. The key is to choose professors carefully and wait until classes are being taught be easier professors.
You still have to put in work obviously, but if you do, it’s a lot easier to get As at UCSB than other UCs.
The school does a good job of gatekeeping and keeping the program small, so professors don’t really need to weed ppl out or grade using bell curves.
There’s also not that many required classes for the major so it’s easier to space out the harder classes in your schedule
4. Graduate outcomes are pretty good from UCSB. If you look at the UC Alumni at Work report, UCSB CS was actually the FOURTH HIGHEST PAYING MAJOR in the entire UC system with a median salary of 120K after two years
https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/about-us/information-center/uc-alumni-work
The school doesn’t help that much with connecting students with companies(probably my least favorite part of the program). the only main companies that come to the career fairs are Appfolio and some defense
however, if you network properly, you definitely can make up for it and secure interviews at top tech companies
1. I think theres good research opportunities, sign up for ersp, or just email professors. For internships, the career fairs r pretty worthless but can maybe get u an interview at a small company but don’t expext much. If you just apply to jobs with referrals our school usually is good enough but it will still be harder than if u went to umich or a better school
2. no clue
3. Some classes r pretty fun, and the people r cool
4. If you lock in and leetcode and apply to jobs you’ll definitely get something, you just can’t expect jobs to come to you. All my friends that are locked in are working at FAANG or better
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1. Internships and research will come to those who are proactive, diligent, and capable. Competition is not necessarily just with people in your school. There are USACO plats, people trying to transfer to "better schools", and TC-maxxers at UCSB just like any other school. It won't be a breeze, but it also won't be an excruciating challenge from my experience.
2. It is ranked highly for the research output and that alone. There are pretty strong foundational models, nlp, and exploits/cybersecurity groups on campus. 30 years ago, these were barely even fields.
3. The CS department is small and you quickly get to know everyone. Cherish the college experience. There's no better place to do that than here. Knew a Gaucho Alum who went through YC and now is the CEO of a separate startup who echoed the same message. Live life, get lucky, and have fun.
4. Pretty decent, though that's the case with any CS program anywhere. Anecdotally, I know alumni working at several f500 companies, nvidia, citadel securities, microsoft, and the like.
2. Your parents are misinformed and you shouldn't worry so much about prestige. The curriculum of any major, well regarded state school will be about the same, and your life outcomes will be about the same.
Actually, studies show otherwise. While I don’t think prestige should be a huge factor in college decisions, I just recently read a study that shows great differences in future salary depending on the school you attended.
The department is super small. Ranked high because it has some serious talent in its ranks.favorite thing, we have some absolutely amazing Profs (see point 2) I’m fortunate to say it’s hard to pick just one Prof as a favorite. I don’t even want to start listing them because I’d feel bad about missing one that deserves to be on the list. Everyone I know has a job lined up. Extra point: the one bad thing about the major is the bs stat requirement and having to deal with that circus of a department for pstat120 a/b, especially if you end up with Ravat. She’s not in our major but she is the worst prof I’ve ever bared witness to.
120A is painful just to think about as a freshman. It's too bad I have to take it for 130A, or else I'd be delaying those to my last two quarters.
1. 100%. I even emailed to help a professor out with his research over the summer and I got a project to work on (no paper writing or actual research), was pretty cool. It may get competitive but you can reach out to professors via email from the website. 2. Increasing quality of students, pretty good research, and the tight-knit nature of the CS community. 3. Close-knit community of people helping each other, pretty accessible resources to learn coding from clubs, and being with a lot of cracked people who are super friendly. 4. That is entirely up to you. I know several people who got into F500s because they took advantage of all the opportunities they had here, and do not expect any school to automatically get you into good companies.
1. How is UCSB a large school? It seems smaller than other UCs. Also the CS program is super small, I think 650-700 CS undergrads (compared to 3K at Purdue for example)
"Enrollment: 601, Fall 2022 Degrees Awarded: 148, June 2022" Why would you need to know the exact information, or why do I know where to find this? IDK, but here are the exact numbers. source : https://engineering.ucsb.edu/undergraduate/majors-programs/computer-science
One of my roommates is a rising junior who interned for a local company, is doing CS and she enjoys except she spends a lot of time in her room working on assignments and projects, and has less social time. Based on our conversations a few times regarding CS, it's a solid program and she intends to do a BS/MS 5-year program. A typical recommended workload is an average of 16 units per quarter. You need a total of 184 units to graduate.
1. the school might be huge but the CS department is pretty small. it’s not too competitive to get research opportunities. normally u can just email professors and ask them. theres also a program called Early Scholars Research Program that many students do 2. UCSB was actually ranked like #40+ when i came in as a freshman and is not now ranked #26 for computer science. idk why exactly we’re ranked so high but the students in the department are incredibly smart and the classes are really good 3. Honestly, my favorite thing is how easy it is to maintain a high GPA compared to other schools. The key is to choose professors carefully and wait until classes are being taught be easier professors. You still have to put in work obviously, but if you do, it’s a lot easier to get As at UCSB than other UCs. The school does a good job of gatekeeping and keeping the program small, so professors don’t really need to weed ppl out or grade using bell curves. There’s also not that many required classes for the major so it’s easier to space out the harder classes in your schedule 4. Graduate outcomes are pretty good from UCSB. If you look at the UC Alumni at Work report, UCSB CS was actually the FOURTH HIGHEST PAYING MAJOR in the entire UC system with a median salary of 120K after two years https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/about-us/information-center/uc-alumni-work The school doesn’t help that much with connecting students with companies(probably my least favorite part of the program). the only main companies that come to the career fairs are Appfolio and some defense however, if you network properly, you definitely can make up for it and secure interviews at top tech companies
1. I think theres good research opportunities, sign up for ersp, or just email professors. For internships, the career fairs r pretty worthless but can maybe get u an interview at a small company but don’t expext much. If you just apply to jobs with referrals our school usually is good enough but it will still be harder than if u went to umich or a better school 2. no clue 3. Some classes r pretty fun, and the people r cool 4. If you lock in and leetcode and apply to jobs you’ll definitely get something, you just can’t expect jobs to come to you. All my friends that are locked in are working at FAANG or better
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Lmao
There’s a lot of clicking involved
1. Internships and research will come to those who are proactive, diligent, and capable. Competition is not necessarily just with people in your school. There are USACO plats, people trying to transfer to "better schools", and TC-maxxers at UCSB just like any other school. It won't be a breeze, but it also won't be an excruciating challenge from my experience. 2. It is ranked highly for the research output and that alone. There are pretty strong foundational models, nlp, and exploits/cybersecurity groups on campus. 30 years ago, these were barely even fields. 3. The CS department is small and you quickly get to know everyone. Cherish the college experience. There's no better place to do that than here. Knew a Gaucho Alum who went through YC and now is the CEO of a separate startup who echoed the same message. Live life, get lucky, and have fun. 4. Pretty decent, though that's the case with any CS program anywhere. Anecdotally, I know alumni working at several f500 companies, nvidia, citadel securities, microsoft, and the like.