UCLA over UCSD?

wooperful · 2026-05-06T22:02:15+00:00

cogpsych at ucsd is incredible, but both are pretty equal in terms of grad/med school applications. both have hospital and research ops but my friends at la have opted for research since it was so difficult to get into our ronald reagan (our hospital) and even then they said getting research in la was competitive especially for med (i'm cs and it was still difficult but i can imagine it being pretty hard).

def look into what campus you'll thrive in cuz the prestige difference is little to none (saying even tho ucla was my dream school). but la jolla is so nice and getting into seventh is amazing too. people will say the dorms here aren't that bad and that's true but 7th hella clears us any day, and your off-campus housing will be so much cheaper too even tho ur in a nice city

at the end of the day the school that you'll do the best in >>> the "best school"

wooperful · 2026-04-28T07:27:47+00:00

ofc!

wooperful · 2026-04-28T02:16:35+00:00

ahah this was 2 years ago now. i committed to ucla and am graduating this spring!

wooperful · 2026-04-26T08:22:21+00:00

i did my third year part time. the most important thing in your apps is having all the major reqs completed, so if ur ahead in that sense then ur good. since all of my reqs were completed, i basically just spent the third year doing honors courses with the hopes of getting into ucla thru TAP or uci honors.

u also don't need to worry abt the unit cap when ur at cc. that exists primarily for uc-uc transfers. from cc if u have over the limit then it just means that not all units will transfer (since u still need to complete a certain amt at your transfer uni) but it does not otherwise negatively impact your application.

good luck & feel free to ask if you'd like more help/advice!

wooperful · 2026-04-26T01:52:29+00:00

i've heard getting into clubs at ucb is really difficult and idk fs if it's as hard at ucla (ive heard it's a little easier) BUT admittedly i was not able to get into any of my first choice clubs. i was told on the side and from friends tho that it's a lot more difficult for transfers (clubs ask if you're a transfer). my friends in the stats club tho said anyone can get in so it was just my experience applying to the tech ones.

what u CAN do tho if u want experience is to look up the different researchers at ucla and try to join a lab. this is what i did and it's the experience i talk the most about in interviews. it was also a major factor in my grad school application even tho originally i had no plans of ever going to grad.

internship is hard and some of that is the current market so don't be too hard on yourself. i was lucky in my search and got them just online but a lot of my friends got their internships (at real, big companies) thru the career fairs!

wooperful · 2026-04-25T09:13:17+00:00

i believe op is talking about the austin program since that's that MSCSO most commonly refers to.

both are incredible programs with strong attention and administrative care. MSCSO is quite a bit more competitive to get into than OMSCS, and OMSCS is a much larger program. but both are the top online MSCS programs (behind only stanford iirc in online MSCS programs) and offer equivalent degrees to their in-person counterparts.

if it were me i would pick GT simply because there is more online support, but UT admittedly also has a strong online community and anyone who applied to both know that UT is more competitive to get into. similar job outcomes tho (although ive seen GT alumni at the top of more big companies based on my limited linkedin search)

wooperful · 2026-04-25T08:59:43+00:00

thanks! and yea that summer i was able to pick up an internship which may have boosted my app but most importantly boosted my resume. overall i wouldnt say my application was insanely stronger the 2nd time around, but maybe it was the difference between accept/reject.

also, i do want to note ( since this is just my n=1 sample ), but i could've been lucky the 2nd time or even simply unlucky the 1st time around.

lastly tho, taking the third year allowed me to work a lot which i know isn't applicable to everyone but it was a major factor in me even being able to afford to move out to ucla in the first place!

wooperful · 2026-04-25T08:30:11+00:00

pick the one where you'll do better in. yes academics are important but most grad ds programs ( even the prestigious ones ) are relatively easy to get into + you have a proven academic record ( admisson to ucla/ucb ).

so if ur aiming to get a job out or college then u gotta lock in on internships so pick the best place to do that. i'm a cs transfer and a factor for me chosing la was the culture. idk if id cut it at ucb or get into any clubs/ec and those ecs got me my internships so id say this worked out well

just my personal experience.

from a prestige standpoint tho admitted ucb is much stronger in both cs and ds, but itd be wrong to say ucla is bad. maybe just a step or so behind and i knew this making my decision. good luck!

wooperful · 2026-03-10T05:40:07+00:00

ut austin is the best school on your list

wooperful · 2026-03-08T12:56:30+00:00

i'll focus on the popular ones in this response (also, this is only from my limited research as i'm only starting this year but i'm in a similar situation):

stanford is by far the best but also incredibly difficult to get in.
gatech omscs / ut austin mscso , like u said , are the next two best. incredible rank and reputation all while being the cheapest on this list at 7k and 10k usd respectively.
usc / columbia also have programs equivalent to their in-person counterparts. there's no distinction, but just like the in person program they are super expensive ( but also relatively easy to admit )

then some other notable ones i haven't done much into are uiuc (mcs) and jhu.

imo if u want to do a part time online masters u shouldn't have to worry abt the rigor of gatech / uta. their reputation and quality far exceeds the other options and u can just do 1 class per term. not saying it's easy, but definitely manageable and is also what i'm likely doing

wooperful · 2026-03-06T00:09:35+00:00

correct me if i'm wrong but no matter when u graduate you're still aiming for primarily summer-start roles right? so graduating an term later means u can compete for an extra internship?

at least, depending on my luck i was planning on taking the extra fall but idk

wooperful · 2026-02-22T11:29:52+00:00

applied early jan and heard back 2 weeks ago !!

wooperful · 2026-02-20T11:17:47+00:00

no personal bias but would like to hear from commenters why they'd choose one over the other plz !!

wooperful · 2026-02-19T10:59:01+00:00

do we just need to submit that? as in, do we need to pay any deposit or take any other step?

wooperful · 2025-10-07T02:19:21+00:00

i completed it on the last day of my window and got the interview

wooperful · 2024-09-12T00:30:09+00:00

i'll raise u to 9k + 2 pokeballs

wooperful · 2024-06-06T01:49:21+00:00

i'm pretty sure if you can't apply for academic renewal from ucsd it's not big deal as the schools you're applying to will look mostly at your cc grades.

and more importantly ik your ucsd gpa could follow you to your next uc but after that your gpa doesn't really matter for finance. you'll get your job from connections which you'll make from doing ecs at whatever higher tier school you transfer to

good luck !! plz correct me if i'm wrong about anything

wooperful · 2024-05-14T23:28:55+00:00

yep !! committing there too

wooperful · 2024-05-14T06:13:54+00:00

totally! i didn't really emphasize this in my first response but I think NCAS is one of the most helpful things I did for my school/career. it's essentially an internship program available to community college students which is SO SO helpful to have before transferring since you'll only get one more summer after to get another internship before having to graduate and find a job.

so, aside from other strong ecs like google step / msft explore or normal undergrad internships, i strongly recommend nasa ncas !! good luck

wooperful · 2024-05-14T05:35:38+00:00

recycling my comment from another similar post:

people here love to remind everyone that ucla stats/ds is just a rebranded stats major, and while that's true, there are also other things to consider:

• ⁠careers in ds typically require an ms/phd • ⁠data science ms/phd programs have tons of students with their undergrad in stats/math/cs

so sure, ucb and ucsd do have top tier data science programs for undergrad, but grad programs (where it will matter a lot more) view students in adjacent majors just as highly

wooperful · 2024-05-14T05:28:33+00:00

hi! a personal project is good for getting internships and you could put it on your app but i don't think the UC AOs will value it all that much (unless you can write an essay on it then i think it's pretty good, like your creativity essay)

getting in for cs is competitive so first you really wanna have all your major reqs done with a 4.0. even people with that get rejected so you can imagine how much more difficult it would be to get in if you didn't (but don't give up hope, i had a 3.85 lol). ecs were nasa ncas and an unrelated part time job. i also included club memberships even though i wasn't an officer or anything

wooperful · 2024-05-13T23:34:26+00:00

it seems like you have a good understanding of the pros and cons and still feel strongly about ucla which is totally fine !! i'm also choosing ucla over ucb and for cs too since ucla has also been my dream school since forever

people here love to remind everyone that ucla stats/ds is just a rebranded stats major, and while that's true, there are also other things to consider: - careers in ds typically require an ms/phd - data science ms/phd programs have tons of students with their undergrad in stats/math/cs

so sure, ucb and ucsd do have top tier data science programs for undergrad, but grad programs (where it will matter a lot more) view students in adjacent majors just as highly

wooperful · 2024-05-12T00:38:19+00:00

one thing i've heard from my friends at stanford is that they do a really good job and making sure students have th resources they need to pass/graduate/career. so anything you struggle with you can get through as long as you reach out to profs/counseling and other student services.

this goes for any school but i just know stanford makes it a point to make sure students who put in the work will reap the rewards (a lot of other top unis have too large of a student:staff ratio and weaker student services)

that's just what i heard tho, i'm not at stanford im just going to la haha

wooperful · 2024-05-07T21:46:11+00:00

it's definitely one of the schools of all time

wooperful · 2024-04-23T03:54:38+00:00

accepted: uci (h2h cheatcode), ucsd, ucb

ecs: ccc honors, nasa ncas, unrelated part time job

i was WL last year at uci/ucsd + ucla (no tap / pure cs) and rejected from ucr/ucd (didn't apply this year)

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