I am a US high school senior who got accepted by UIUC Stats and CS major and will probably get offers from UC San Diego, U of Toronto, and U of British Columbia (Although I did receive its B.A. CS offer, I am waiting for the B.S.).
I thought all the 4 schools have the same reputation in the CS field. The factors that I am considering are
Tuition and fee – for UIUC it will be about 54k per year.
Financial aids available for foreign colleges.
The liberal art education quality – since I will be pursuing a minor in either Japanese studies or Linguistics – ALSO exchange/study abroad opportunities to Japan. I will also dip in video game making, if any of those offers a great game making curriculum to me, it will be a plus
Safety of the cities that the colleges resided – especially for UIUC, I have heard Urbana-Champaign legalizes marijuana, and I am concerned about the violence rate in these 2 cities.
If you’re worried about going to a place where marijuana has been legalized, you can pretty much forget U of Toronto and U of British Columbia, since both recreational and medical marijuana are legal in Canada. Medical marijuana is legal in both Illinois and California, but not recreational marijuana, which covers both UCSD and UIUC. Laws regarding marijuana in Urbana and Champaign are the same as in the rest of Illinois.
So, I would recommend that you stop worrying about whether marijuana is legal.
Tuition (CS) + fees + book/supplies/other + room and board:
UIUC (International) = $56,807
UCSD (non CA resident) = $60,027
U Toronto (international): about $45,000-$50,000 (American Dollars)
UBC (International): about $44,000-$47,000 (American Dollars)
I’m not entirely sure about things like medical insurance in Canada, so it may be $1,000 or so more a year.
Every one of those universities has a world class Liberal Arts education.
UIUC is probably the safest of them all. Among the three urban campuses, the city of Toronto has the highest rate of violent crime, followed by Vancouver, followed by San Diego. I cannot find data on crime rates on the campuses themselves, though.
Recreational marijuana was legalized in California a couple of years ago. I can’t comment on UCSD, but it’s not uncommon to catch whiffs of pot smoke around UCLA’s campus or in Westwood.
Personally, I’d find it hard to turn down UBC. Great academics with a solid CS program and the best Asian studies program of the bunch, a beautiful wooded campus, and an awesome city.
Well, this year was tough as I did not get into the UCSD CS major. I will probably choose UIUC vs U of T vs UBC, will be looking at U Washington at Seattle and UCSD.
