Should I choose UCSB over UCB and UCLA for computer engineering?

ericbadmon
Thu, 22 Mar 2018 04:04:25 +0000

It’s not a stupid question. It’s a legitimate concern if you’re trying to pursue a graduate level education. Because the UCs follow the bell curve model, you have to be in the top of your class to get an A. At UCB and UCLA, in the computer engineering program, you’d be competing with the best students in the world for that major. So it might be worthwhile for a student to consider going to a slightly less competitive school, that still has prestige to it, in order to get a higher GPA. I’ve actually known a few students who chose to go to UCI and UCSB when they could’ve went to Cal for the same reason as yourself. But still, it’s not like UCSB is any walk in the park, comp engineering is extremely competitive there as well, and you’d still be going up against very strong students. Because of that, it might be in your best interest to go into Cal/UCLA. Keep in mind that if you get into these schools, they picked you for a reason. Seriously, comp engineering is so competitive that you have to be an amazing student to be able to transfer under that major.