Hi guys, I am an international student who has been accepted to the above-mentioned universities for the data science major. I’m still waiting for the results of UC Berkeley, UC Davis NYU, and Umich but they are big reaches so for now these are my top choices. Looking for some advice on the pros and cons and which would be the best option for me as I have never been to the US and am not aware of the social and economic benefits and drawbacks of these unis. Here are my listed preferences:
Campus and student life (very high priority)- All three of them have huge campuses and a large student body, which is ideal for me. The campus should not be too large because I’ve heard that you need to take buses and long walks to reach your college. Dorms should be decent, and an active student body with many cultural events, sports, and clubs is preferred. An urban campus is also a priority but it is negotiable. Weather-wise, I would prefer a warm place but all these unis do get cold enough during winter so there’s nothing I can do. UC Davis and Berkeley have comparable weather to my home city but they haven’t released their decisions yet so no hopes on it right now.
Career opportunities(high- medium priority) I would prefer that the uni has good recruiting connections with companies as it is a big hassle for international students to get internships and job opportunities on their own. Also, I expect the curriculum to be demanding but I should have time to spare for my extracurriculars.
cost Cost for tuition will not be an issue but a cheaper cost of living wouldn’t do any harm.
I will let someone else chime in on some of the institutional / data science specific things, but UW Madison is the most urban of the three you have gotten in to. They will all have significant winter weather. Penn State is in a small college town where it is pretty much the only thing in town. UIUC is similar, but a little less (maybe?) dominated by the university. Madison is the state capitol, the university is embedded within the city, though it definitely feels like it’s a cohesive campus. The campus has some spectacular lake views, and (at least in the spring-fall) it is lovely.
First - congratulations on have a great set of choicces.
As for your wish-list:
Warmer - Davis, but UC Davis and Berkeley do not have the same weather. Berkeley is coastal Mediterranean, and has its climate moderated by the ocean. Davis is more inland and a lot more arid, and it is far hotter in the summer, and is colder in the winter. It also has less winter rain that Berkeley.
The closest to urban is, as @VAParent2528 wrote, Wisconsin.
By international reputation, UIUC and Madison. None of these universities are unknown, but these two are better known outside the USA. As an international student, getting jobs in the USA is difficult, even for data science. That means that international reputation is important.
UIUC is probably has the lowest cost of living.
However, the cost of living differences should also be considered along with the cist of attendance. How much will each of these cost?
First of all, thank you both for the advice.
and answering your question, it will probably cost around 55-65k per year just for the college tuition at all three unis and around 75k++ if I choose to attend any of the UC’s
As MWolf said, cost of living should be considered too, especially if you get in to Davis. California is crazy expensive. If you are coming from a relatively large metro area of a million or more, Champaign-Urbana and State College will be a shock in terms of size and the feeling that you’re no where near a big city. Madison metro area (which is an expansive definition) is 900K (I think Madison proper is around 250K), and Milwaukee is not that far away (about an hour drive and there is a train), whereas State College is 40K for the town itself, plus another 60K in surrounding counties and it is a 2+/ 3+ hour drive to either Pittsburgh or Philadelphia (and . Champaign-Urbana is a little bigger, but still small town feel. Chicago and Indianapolis are both about a 2 hour drive away. A variety of food options is better now in most college towns than in other places of similar size, but Madison will have a larger selection of things to do/places to eat than the other two, though I imagine that students at UIUC do get to Chicago on occasion, and it’s one of the great American cities and Indianapolis has some good big city vibes as well.
Yeah, I probably thought so too. I live in a city of around 8 million people. Madison is nowhere near it but still, I would prefer it instead of a college town.
But just a general question: Is studying in California worth the extra money? Does its proximity to silicon valley provide any extra opportunities or benefits? If yes then I would consider studying there even though its costly
No and No. In Tech, UIUC and Wisconsin have international reputations, and every tech company comes to these universities to recruit interns and workers. In today’s world, you don’t need to be close in order to recruit, and the sizes of UIUC and Wisconsin make it worthwhile for top companies to send representatives.
It might, regarding recruiting by small companies that only bother to recruit locally and may be unknown outside of the area. (But there may be different small companies around the other universities.)
However, these smaller companies are probably less able or willing to deal with sponsoring a work visa, so that may lose some or most of the proximity advantage.
I would eliminate Penn State. It is a great school, but isolated such that reaching an airport for international travel will take longer than elsewhere.
So is UIUC, but UIUC has very strong international recognition. Penn State doesn’t offer anything that isn’t offered by Wisconsin, which is in a much nicer place and easier to get to.
I agree that based on your criteria, Wisconsin is the best choice. The only downside for you is that it’ll be cold and you’ll need to buy clothes there (DO NOT buy winter gear till you’re there - take a trip to Mall of America across the border with Minnesota to make shopping a cultural outing Note that, depending on where you live and the temperatures you’re used to, even in late August and September you need long sleeves in the evenings and a light jacket) I will say that very cold with blue sky, in my opinion, beats cold, damp, and gray, so even weather may not be that bad. A stusent who was used to very mild temperatures once told me “it’s not like heat where a few degrees matter a lot… once it’s cold, it’s cold - it doesn’t matter if you got the proper clothes”.
Ok, so regarding the priority order I decided to keep all of these in mind:
1)UWM
2)UIUC
3) Penn state
I will still wait for the rest of the reaches to come out and then will make a final decision.
Thank you to all of you who gave your insights
Mall of America is 5 hours from Madison, so not just down the street. And really, it is just a mall and not a very good one. Madison has plenty of places to buy clothing, or there is the internet. Or Dodgeville, to buy Lands End stuff.
The are OOS for Davis, so it would cost over $75,000 a year.
UIUC is a much better college for Data Science than UC Davis (one of the highest-ranked programs) and would cost $50,000-$80,000 less. Other than the fact that there are some mountains around 20 miles from Davis, there is nothing that makes UC Davis a better place for a data science degree than UIUC. It isn’t even close.
If it was Berkeley, it would be closer, but the extra cost for Berkeley would tip the scales.
It’s HUGE and one of the few malls still making profits (it’s amazing how midrange malls are just gone). Most importantly, it’s really interesting culturally to see when you come from another country even if you don’t buy anything. Imho it’s worth the trip once.
Obviously for convenience, walking distance shops are better (and part of the experience of living in a college town too, but less “culturally unique” as most world cities have areas with shops).
For OP: Land’s End is a solid brand, especially for winter gear, and you can ask whether the international students’office or student life organizes a trip to their “discount store” (not the official name ), abour 1 hour from campus. However visiting it is of zero cultural value or interest. You go to buy good clothes for good value (v. Mall of America, which is like a sociological/cultural capsule, both fun and interesting to observe.)
Anyway the key point is that you need to buy clothes appropriate for WI weather, which you’re better off buying on location as the apparel will work with the temps best compared to an attempt at figuring out in a country where nothing is similar weather-wise. With the appropriate winter gear it’s really not that bad even if it sounds unbelievanly cold at the moment. (Where I currently live people consider it’s super cold if it’s 40-45°F in winter. )
Hopefully you wouldn’t need a winter coat before late October.
If you included UC Berkeley and even Standford in the comparison. I would still pick UIUC.
UIUC is strong in CS and Engineering, competitive enough with the top world-ranked school like Standford, it has great reputation in the world, lots of companies recruit their students every year.
For international students, UIUC is also the top pick as the tuition is much cheaper. UC Davis is strong in Bio, ES, not STEM related.
If you want to stay in US, UIUC is top pick, you may have intership oppertunity during sophomore, and land at big tech easily.
While UIUC would be the choice, I would check which college(in UIUC) offers the data science major and whether there is flexibility in changing the major if you so desire.
A lot of colleges are adding data science as a major sometime in the engineering school but more often in the college of science.
Note that, depending on where you live and the temperatures you’re used to, even in late August and September you need long sleeves in the evenings and a light jacket) I will say that very cold with blue sky, in my opinion, beats cold, damp, and gray, so even weather may not be that bad. A stusent who was used to very mild temperatures once told me “it’s not like heat where a few degrees matter a lot… once it’s cold, it’s cold - it doesn’t matter if you got the proper clothes”.
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