<p>The job prospects are roughly equivalent for CS and CSE. CSE majors might be able to target openings in things that require design using Verilog/VHDL (CS 152B stuff), or openings in digital circuit design/verification (the starting point is EE 115C - you may need a graduate degree to go further with it).</p>
<p>CSE basically removes CS electives and replaces them with EE analog and digital circuit classes. Only do CSE if you like circuits. Personally, I had no intention of using anything from my EE classes, as I wanted to work higher in the software stack, so I switched from CSE to CS before taking any of the CSE-only EE classes.</p>
<p>I am enrolled in UCLA under “undeclared - Applied Sciences” and UCLA as “aerospace engineering”. I want to do aerospace engineering and I’m wondering whether I should go to UCLA and try to transfer into HSSEAS, or if I should go to UCSD and just take Aerospace there.</p>
<p>Is the difference between the two schools significant? Which one is better?</p>
<p>How difficult is it to switch engineering majors within UCLA? I’m a recently admitted student and am undecided between mechanical, electrical, or computer science.</p>
<p>I’m really hoping someone can answer my question here!</p>
<p>So, I got into UCLA Engineering under Computer Science (yay!). I’m pretty stoked about that, but I also got into Davis under the same major, but Letter and Science. </p>
<p>Now, I’m a pretty well rounded individual. I love working with computers more than anything, but I also enjoy a balance of humanities and other sciences as well. I recently found out that I qualify for the Regents Scholarship for UCD, meaning, among other things, I get HUGE preferential treatment, I am housed with all the other scholarship winners, I get first access to faculty (and classes, maybe, I am not sure), and I automatically get to take special honors programs offered at UCD. Oh ya, also they are awarding me 7,500 bucks per year minumum towards my tuition. </p>
<p>I’m no prodigy, and after hearing about the rigor of UCLA’s Engineering, I gotta say that I am a bit intimidated. I don’t know which school would be better for me: a school where I am left to fend for myself and get a higher leveled education, or if I should take the UCD offer and go to their L&C and get preferential treatment.</p>
<p>I am really not a competitive person, and I just want to have fun in my college years, but I also want a strong foundation to stand upon after four more years in school. I really need some words of wisdom!</p>
<p>UCLA CS is a top-15 department that has some great professors, well-designed foundational courses, and plenty of labs if you want to get into research. Most well-known companies recruit heavily here, and graduate schools know that UCLA has a great program, and take that into account for admissions. Yes, it may be more rigorous, but that also makes it a very solid program.</p>
<p>UCLA is also a very well-rounded campus, with excellent programs in many non-engineering disciplines.</p>
<p>Having said that, Regents at Davis is a nice deal. I recommend visiting both campuses and talking to faculty to see which is a better fit. I know CS professors at UCLA are very friendly and responsive to prospective and current students.</p>
<p>As for specific economics/management department courses, people in those majors get the first chance to enroll. If there is space, there is no reason that you can’t enroll in these as well.</p>
<p>Clubs and events are generally open to all students.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Both have strong engineering schools, with rankings depending on the field. Pick the campus you like better.</p></li>
<li><p>Depends on the conecentration within those fields. I’ve heard that UCLA is great for integrated circuits, for instance. You shouldn’t be picking a major based on ranking though. You won’t enjoy it and aren’t likely to do as well as those who do.</p></li>
<li><p>It’s easy to switch majors within engineering.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Compared to UC Berkeley, does UCLA have as much grade deflation in engineering majors? As a bioengineering student, how accessible are research opportunities at UCLA?</p>
<p>Research opportunities for Bioengineering is PLENTIFUL. You have to take the initiative to meet the professor and ask if he/she can accommodate you in their lab, but I don’t know any BE major who wanted to do research in Bioengineering that couldn’t get in to a lab.</p>
<p>heinz: I made the same choice between UCLA CS and Davis (with full-ride Regents). I feel like there is a huge difference in department quality between UCLA CS and Davis CS. All the top recruiters are at UCLA, there is plenty of great research opportunities, the students are top notch. These are things that made me decide to go for UCLA over Davis’s Regents.</p>
Department rankings are generally only widely available for graduate schools, and usually take things like quality of research into account, which you may or may not care about depending on your career goals.</p>
<p>Also, keep in mind that +/- 5-10 ranking places is not that big of a deal. The only schools that (in my opinion) really distinguish themselves are the top 4 or so. For CS, that’s Stanford, Berkeley, CMU, and MIT. Beyond those schools, your academic experience isn’t that different for the rest of the top 20 (which UCLA is a part of). And because of that, I strongly suggest that you pick the campus and major that you enjoy the most, and not necessarily the highest ranked ones. Rankings aren’t really that big of a deal.</p>
<p>A final caveat is that rankings look at a specific department as a whole, but within the department, certain specializations may be stronger than others.</p>
<p>With that said, here are graduate rankings that I was able to find (some may be as much as a couple years old, but rankings do not change significantly from year to year):</p>
<p>CSE is a hybrid of these (maybe 70% computer science, 15% computer engineering, 15% electrical engineering), so specific rankings don’t really exist for it.</p>
<p>@alicantekid: How challenging is finding a research project as a freshman? I heard that upperclassmen have an easier time obtaining research opportunities compared to freshmen.</p>
<p>I’m asking this because I plan on starting research as soon as freshman year.</p>
<p>It’s tougher because you generally don’t know enough to contribute in a meaningful way, or even to learn the basics beyond washing dishware. What’s your lab experience so far? I didn’t have any when I jumped into a research lab (sophomore year), but I had taken a few lab classes so I wasn’t completely ■■■■■■■■.</p>
<p>However, if you’ve already published or something similar… I’m sure you’ll be fine.</p>
<p>Is any of the Senior member on this board going to graduate school? S2 Junior-EE, if he keeps his GPA should be good enough to apply. What is the best way to prepare GRE? Do most student go for MS then decides if PHD is worth it. I know doctorate is tough long 5-6 years and many students quit half way.</p>