Santa Clara vs UCSC for Computer Science

Corbett
Fri, 30 Mar 2018 17:38:03 +0000

I know neither of them are well known, but which one would you say has a better edge in terms of prestige?

It’s obviously subjective, but my vote would be for SCU.

SCU historically struggled to compete with UCs and CSUs; California residents typically preferred the state schools, because of the much lower tuition costs. However, some California privates (led by USC) have turned the tables, by marketing to out-of-staters, instead of to Californians. The state schools charge high out-of-state tuition to non-residents, and cannot offer them financial aid. The privates (like SCU) have equally high tuition – but they are free to offer financial aid to non-residents. Furthermore, the state schools have caps on out-of-state enrollment; they routinely reject well qualified out-of-staters in favor of less qualified state residents. The privates are free to enroll the most qualified students, regardless of state residency.

So for out-of-staters, the privates are actually the less expensive and more accessible options in California. Turns out that there are a lot of non-Californians who like the idea of studying engineering or computer science in the Bay Area, and in that case SCU becomes a very attractive option. The SCU Class of 2021 was 49% non-Californian, and they will probably tip majority non-Californian within the next few years.

In terms of test scores, SCU engineering is now pulling some impressive numbers:

SAT Math: 690 - 770
SAT Reading: 650 - 720
ACT Composite: 30 - 33

Those numbers are probably higher than any UC, except Berkeley and UCLA. For comparison, here are the numbers for UCSC engineering:

SAT Math: 630 - 740
SAT Reading: 560 - 670
ACT Composite: 25 - 31