UCSD CS vs UCB Data Science vs Cal Poly SLO CS

Need help in choosing between UCSD CS vs UCB Data science vs Calpoly SLO CS. Comparing in terms of how the academic curriculum, social environment be and in terms of opportunity ,jobs, internship. Please share the inputs.

Does the student want to study CS, or DS?

If the student was thinking about switching to CS at Berkeley, there is no guaranteed path to do this. Both majors are in the new college, CDSS. Switching from DS to CS would probably involve a comprehensive review process, and probably not have a high chance of success, although no one can tell you the chances. Not all details of this process have been announced yet. For more info, here is the CDSS undergrad FAQ: FAQs: Moving Computer Science, Data Science, and Statistics majors from L&S to CDSS | CDSS at UC Berkeley

If the student wants to study DS, on the other hand, they have been admitted to the right major for that at UCB! :tada:

Would you mind sharing your stats? These programs are all so competitive. Congratulations on being admitted to them!

My son is a Cal Poly ME alum (BS/MS). One of his best friends is a CS grad. He interned at Amazon, Salesforce and Apple, and now works for Apple.

Cal Poly’s advantage over UCSD and Cal is class size and who teaches the labs and discussions. They don’t offer doctorates, so there aren’t graduate assistants to teach.

Earnings wise, according to College Scorecard, Cal Poly grads out earn both CS grads from Cal and UCSD. There’s no information on Data Science.

At the end of the day, three good choices that should boil down more to fit that “which is better.” That will be in the eyes of the beholder.

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That is because you were not looking at Cal EECS majors :wink: :grin:
However, that comparison is not relevant anyway to the OP, because they were admitted to DS at Cal. If they want to do CS (or EECS), Cal simply isn’t a practical option.

Cal Poly and UCSD are both good for CS, and if that is the major they want, it would depend on which school they like best.

If it is not clear which is preferred by the student, I would suggest making arrangements to visit both UCSD and Cal Poly.

It is possible to attend Cal Poly’s admitted students discovery day on Friday April 12, and then hustle down to UCSD on Saturday April 13 for Triton Days open house.

Visiting both admitted student days was really helpful for my son last year!

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