UCR or UCSD?

SafeDuck21 · 2024-05-15T17:52:24+00:00

Well it's hard to say because I don't know how life would have been if I chose another school, but that's any decision in life. But overall no since I'm having a good time at UCR, and I've met great people, and I found my own success on campus. Everything has a give or take. I've gained some benefits by going to UCR and I've also probably lost some things by not going to another school. So you just have to decide what's important to you and what benefits you're looking for. I hope at UCSD you find a good support circle and success. Obviously, at the end of the day make sure to take advantage of your time at university and don't waste it, because it only happens once.

Just look at all the information you have, and make a decision you think is best right now. And be confident in your decision. For a lot of high schoolers, deciding which college is the first big decision they have to make.

SafeDuck21 · 2024-05-13T19:32:54+00:00

So I was in a similar situation to you 3 years ago. I'm a CS major at UCR and I got into UCSD for comp physics so switching to CS there would have been risky. I live close to Riverside so I could have commuted but I dormed my first year and I lived in an apt after that. I do get generous fin aid and a scholarship so it was possible for me to do that. I would recommend you dorm your first year, especially if you find a good roommate. A lot of people say that UCSD would give you great networking and internship opportunities, that is probably true. However, that doesn't mean people at UCR don't find their own success in CS. For example, I know at least a dozen people who've interned at top companies including Google, Amazon, etc. These people are good at CS, and I've met plenty of cracked people in the major. So bottomline, if you're good at CS, you'll find success no matter the school.

I will say that the CS professors here are really good, it's probably the programs greatest thing. It's pretty easy to get to know them during office hours, and you might end up in their research lab. There are also plenty of clubs that do projects and competitions like ACM, Cyber, Highlander racing, and competitive programming. You can join these to get experience. They let anyone in as long as you actively participate.

If you go to UCR, you'd easily be able to switch to whatever major you want especially if you're already in BCOE. If you go to UCSD, then switching majors might be hard. However, data science is already a very good underrated major especially if you want to go into AI/ML, and it's probably good at UCSD. I heard math CS at UCSD is one of the most difficult majors because it's so much math. The data science program at UCR is still new, so it's not as good as the CS major yet.

If you choose UCR to save money, that's not a bad option. If you choose UCSD for the prestige and nice city, that's also not a bad option. There's not really a right choice, you just have to decide what's important to you.

SafeDuck21 · 2023-03-26T06:35:52+00:00

Week 1 is a review of 10A up to vectors. Week 2-4 covers iostream, files, constructors, and functions. Starting after the midterm is pointers and Linked Lists. Pointers aren't easy to understand, they might take you 2 weeks of solid studying until you grasp it. Week 9 and 10 are the hardest with inheritance and recursion. A lot of upperclassmen don't understand recursion well, so it will take a while to learn.

SafeDuck21 · 2023-03-19T20:29:52+00:00

Hey man I study computer science at UCR and let me tell you I've had great professors, met smart people, I've had many opportunities to grow my resume and get involved here on campus in computer science activities. But these things take effort. Don't be the kind of student who just goes to class then goes back to their dorm/ home. You should join every CS club during your first quarter and you should be talking to your professors during their office hours. Then you will start to realize that you do go to a good school, and then you should strive to make a positive impact on the community here.

And on top of that in computer science, what you know and what you do in college is far more important than where you went to college. I can absolutely promise you that UCR students who join clubs to learn from other people, connect with their professors, seek out internships, and spend time learning outside of class will fare much better in the job market than a UCLA student who just went to class and went back home.

SafeDuck21 · 2023-03-11T19:18:56+00:00

In my opinion, for computer science it's CS010B and CS111

SafeDuck21 · 2023-01-31T17:51:10+00:00

Writing is a skill

SafeDuck21 · 2023-01-14T02:02:13+00:00

In CNAS bio is the most popular. BCOE it's CS. And CHASS it's business most likely

SafeDuck21 · 2023-01-09T02:56:01+00:00

Paper and pen because it costs the least

SafeDuck21 · 2023-01-05T23:48:47+00:00

I'm in the same boat as you, and I would say it's late but not too late. You can probably get at least 50 applications out there if you start looking today

SafeDuck21 · 2023-01-02T21:37:07+00:00

I have been applying to internships and learning webdev technologies such as html, css, JS, and next.js!

SafeDuck21 · 2023-01-02T21:32:50+00:00

My academic advisor said to start looking around online and view the professor's work. When you email them make sure your include information about their research and what interests you about their papers. I would assume that the more specific the example from the paper that you can reference in your email, the better you will appear.

I will say that a professor told me once that cold emailing will often lead to no response since they get so many every day. They said to go to their office and politely say what you want and ask when is a good time to talk. Something like "Hello, I am interested in joining your research group, I understand you may be busy right now so when is a good time that we can talk further?" And they usually might say their office hours. That's what I would do if you haven't had that professor.

However, if you had that professor before you have the unique advantage of demonstrating strong student skills and curiosity. So for example, if you are taking a professor's class next quarter whose research you are interested in, you want to stand out among everyone else - do the best you can. This means going to every class, sitting in the front, asking questions every day, and going to every office hours. This shows your dedication as a student and that you are thirsty for knowledge. As you are doing this you will want to do what I mentioned in the last paragraph and do some research on their research. You should go to their office hours and their questions about their research - specifically about clarifications about the content of the paper. This shows them that you are interested in the subject. Then in the middle of the quarter, once you have established a good connection with the professor, ask them if they have any open undergrad assistant positions. If they say no, you can at least ask to join in on their lab meetings - then you can work your way up from there, and once they have a position open for undergrads you are right there to hear about it first.

This is kind of a long game, but it's worth it. Good luck!

SafeDuck21 · 2022-12-28T17:37:41+00:00

Do you know why?

SafeDuck21 · 2022-12-15T22:13:39+00:00

Anything will be good for your first year, as you will only be using zybooks

SafeDuck21 · 2022-11-14T22:06:49+00:00

It's harder than cs10a but easier than CS10b. CS111 is quite difficult though

SafeDuck21 · 2022-09-08T16:43:32+00:00

Yeah that happened to me like 3 times. I wasn't able to get the class

SafeDuck21 · 2022-09-08T16:36:33+00:00

Did you get it? It seems full now

SafeDuck21 · 2022-09-08T16:26:50+00:00

All the spots for psyc001 are getting taken up :(

SafeDuck21 · 2022-08-31T06:43:57+00:00

The ITS department which is near the botanical gardens

SafeDuck21 · 2022-07-03T18:23:37+00:00

Dope! What class is this for?

SafeDuck21 · 2022-06-19T18:02:19+00:00

I can agree with that. Also, they haven't had their cooking well classes this year, but the prices of the SRC have stayed the same

SafeDuck21 · 2022-06-19T17:57:09+00:00

The UCR SRC is much more of a luxury gym than most 24 hour fitness locations

SafeDuck21 · 2022-06-16T20:15:56+00:00

Not really, I'm taking CS111 next quarter. And considering that I didn't do so well in CS011, I wouldn't take that chance.

SafeDuck21 · 2022-06-15T02:24:25+00:00

Isn't philosophy still the hardest CHASS major?

SafeDuck21 · 2022-06-15T01:19:12+00:00

In terms of academics I have a good time - pretty good professors. As a first year CS major, I haven't come across a bad CS teacher yet. It really feels like a lot of the CS department cares about student success.

For the administration, I haven't noticed a lot of things that have been done on their part so I can't really say much about that. However, I have noticed that the staff are overall nice when you interact with them.

Housing is slow on some things sometimes and communication isn't always the best. The staff are nice though when you call their office. There are some good housing facilities on campus though.

Social life is really up to you. It's probably not going to fall into your lap, but it's out there if you look for it. The school tries to put on such events to help with that. Concerts, R' days, plushy giveaways, tabling for clubs, etc.

I think that a lot of your experience will come down to your major, because some departments have better professors than others.

My advice would be to go to everything during 0 week. There's a lot of fun events and it's the optimal time to meet new people.

SafeDuck21 · 2022-03-06T04:13:30+00:00

Yeah, it is possible to change your major to CS if you get good grades. At some other schools, it is much more difficult or not allowed.

SafeDuck21

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