Around two years ago I was a high school senior who had just finished applying to college. I ended up getting into all of my matches and safeties, but none of my reaches. I committed to my local state school (UIUC) and tried to get excited about spending the next 4 years in Champaign.
Now my 4th semester is coming up and I feel unhappy here. I spent the past 3 semester trying to make the most of my experience here, and some of my experiences have been great, but I feel so out of place. Academically, I’m doing very well (4.0 in CS), and I am heavily involved in multiple clubs and corporate events.
Don’t get me wrong, CS here is a great program with lots of funding, but my long-term goal is not to be a software engineer. I see that a lot of candidates who break into product management, the field that I’m interested in, are graduates from Harvard, Brown, etc. As far as I know UIUC has sent 1 person to Google’s APM program within the past couple of years.
I guess my question is whether or not this is enough to warrant a huge change such as transferring schools. I don’t know exactly where I would want to go. I just know that I tried to like this school so much and it hasn’t really worked out for me.
Here are my stats:
35 ACT, 3.9+ HS GPA from top public high school
4.0 College GPA
Incoming Software Engineering Internship at Big 4 Tech (FB/Google/MSFT/Amazon), 1 previous internship at trading firm summer after freshman year
Corporate clubs, college consulting society, Hackathons, independent app development, trading challenge
TLDR: Kinda don’t like my college, and want to go to a place that has better placement in my preferred job field. Realistic reason to transfer? Any suggestions for targets?
Just one thought: You are at a very good university with a very strong CS program and are doing very well. Why not finish your BSc where you are, then get a Master’s at an even higher ranked school? If you maintain a high GPA, and with most other CS majors going straight to industry, you should have a good shot at a very strong Masters program. Another option would be to get your BSc, work for a year or two, then apply for an Masters.
Where would you go? What could you afford?
Transfers don’t qualify for a lot of funding. It is limited.
Where is it that you hope to work where your school wont get placed?
@“aunt bea” Money is not a problem; my parents pay for my education and taking my return offer to the FB/Google/MSFT/Amazon internship for full time gives me a 6 figure job post graduation, so if I incur student debt I could feasibly pay it off. As of right now I will graduate debt free.
My hope is that I can get placed at Google APM or Facebook RPM. They have small incoming associate classes and only take new grads, so I have a very limited time frame in which I can apply to this program. A more realistic goal would be starting as a software engineer at a top rapidly growing company (Airbnb, Lyft) and use that as a springboard for future opportunities. UIUC very rarely sends candidates to PM programs, and is not a target school for Airbnb/Lyft/Snapchat.
In terms of target schools, I’m not sure where I should apply. I would probably only consider transferring to a more target school (so transferring to a peer school like Michigan or Georgia Tech is probably out of the option). I liked Columbia and Penn in high school, but not realistic to expect much from lottery schools. Maybe Northwestern?
@DadTwoGirls Not sure that a master’s degree is worth losing two years in industry. I talked to many engineers working in SV, and they said a bachelor’s degree with relevant work experience can set you up for a career in CS. One of my interviewers does Computer Vision ML research, but doesn’t have a masters or a phd degree.
“a bachelor’s degree with relevant work experience can set you up for a career in CS.”
Definitely true. However, this is true with a bachelors from UIUC, which has a very well regarded CS program. Frankly with a 4.0 in CS from UIUC, you are already on track to do very well.
I don’t get why every CS major thinks that he/she should be at Google /Facebook.
My dd is a CS SUNY grad and she didn’t know where she wanted to be until her peers started interning at Google and SV. Long hours, weekends, etc. They worked for that $100k+. She wanted a life.
She makes that kind of money now, without having to sacrifice anything (with no debt).
She didn’t go to a Top 10 and still was recruited by big firms in SV, but chose NOT to do that. She has a strong work ethic and knows her stuff.
She is constantly sought by headhunters and continues to go up the management chain.
Our son is at a top 10 and is a CS candidate. Google and Facebook go to his school to recruit interns. But, those schools rarely accept transfers, because someone has to drop out to make a space for you. If you didn’t get in as a freshman, it will be really tough to get into those schools now.
@DadTwoGirls is absolutely correct. UIUC is a good school. It will get you where you need to be if you can do the work.
SV is very expensive real estate. Most people, with a $100k salary, in that area of California, can’t afford to buy a home there, so don’t plan on having a lot of extra money if you have to pay off loans.
@DadTwoGirls I think you have a good point. Thanks for offering that outside perspective.
@“aunt bea” I wasn’t meaning to come off as narrow minded. Just that Google/FB are excellent starting points for a career, both of which are within reach.
Again, thank you both for your input.