The University of California San Diego

Date: Nov 03 2011
Major: Engineering Department (This Major's Salary over time)
UCSD is a small school that got ahead of itself and decided to become big. The small school roots are still there. I graduated UCSD back in the early 90's after earning both a bachelor's and master's there. I entered in the early 80's and back then, the school was not so big (about 11,000 students) and the campus was peaceful and pleasant. Unfortunately I decided to stick around for the master's degree and by that time the university was a concrete jungle with a ton of foreign students especially in graduate programs. I would tell any prospective student to avoid UCSD because though the academics are rigorous, there is no preparation for the real world. No doubt things have improved since I was there because tons of money has been pumped into facilities and such, but I have spent the last 20 years after graduation taking jobs beneath me and scraping by. People I know who went to UCSD had to be re-trained at another school to get hands on experience in order to find a good job. UCSD undergrad is good if you are shooting for a research position or teaching after you get your degree. There's probably a decent argument to consider the grad program but I still think you can do a lot better. I have pleasant memories from this school back when it was a pleasant place to be, but that alone is not enough to validate having gone there. Lots of smart people at this university but that's about the only selling point. Find a smaller school and enjoy your experience; I would not let my kids attend UCSD these days. If you do decide to attend UCSD, make it a priority to get hands on experience with the subject you are studying, through internships or anything you can do to get the hands on.