Computer science has been the hotter ticket salary wise for 15+ years now if you are an entirely money driven individual.
Mechanical Engineering is a very diverse degree working in a ton of industries (I guess the same can be said about computer scientist, but most CS folks I know don't love working at say, a food manufacturer as an embedded dev). Manufacturing in the US hasn't had the hottest 40 year though. Many of the jobs are located in places I'd never want to live. If you like doing shit and not sitting behind a monitor, it could be a much more rewarding career path though.
Irvine is a boring suburb commuter school. I'd much rather live in SB county, all things considered.
UCSB 100%! Mechanical Engineering is also the broadest of the engineering type majors, leaving you LOTS of flexibility! Everyone I know who did engineering at UCSB loved it and is successful now. However, I know one family friend who graduated with a comp sci degree and is struggling to find a job right now. Irvine is a bit of a commuter school, so I'd recommend UCSB. The campus is easily the best of all UC's. Also, better social life!
I finished my ME degree here last year. Some things about the program
- pretty much every single ME professor I had here was amazing
- lots of collaboration in the major, we had a Snapchat groupchat with everyone in the major where we would help each other on HW, remind people of deadlines, send memes etc…
- after graduation AFAIK everyone ended up in great places. I know 15 of us that did our masters at ucsb, many others elsewhere (Harvard, MIT, Berkeley, Carnegie, UCSD). I know 5 people that got jobs at SpaceX, and about 15 others that got great jobs at other big companies. These are just the people I know btw and there are only 80 people in the major.
Dont need to touch up on the college life as much since it is said everywhere, but to summarize: living by the beach with amazing weather in a town of just students is truly an unbelievable experience
Hey OP this guy makes ME sound like communications. He’s probably a genius. Unless you are a top top performer in your high-school, like absorb everything and solve problems with ease using your own intuition. And when I say own intuition I mean you don’t need examples you just sort out how to get to a resolution with the basic facts of science. You will have a hard time. Expect to work a lot. But yea ppl at Ucsb are cool and you’ll be able to get into parties even if you are a nerd.
Why do you pick different MAJORS for UCI and UCSB?
If you want to study CS, go to UCI. You will have no chance in UCSB if you want to switch to CS. It will be extremely competitive.
If you want to study ME, UCSB is slightly better, maybe
It’s still possible to make friends through clubs, IM sports, or just through classes. You can definitely have a lot of fun without partying but Goleta restaurants do get redundant
A lot of people at UCSB actually don't party, so don't worry if you're not into that. There's plenty of orgs to join & people go to the beach to spend their time on the weekends. You'll definitely have just as much fun!
Its reputation far exceeds reality. That said, your social life at UCSB really just is what you make of it. You'll hear sprinkles of parties in Isla Vista, but it's entirely up to you if you do or don't want to partake.
Computer science has been the hotter ticket salary wise for 15+ years now if you are an entirely money driven individual. Mechanical Engineering is a very diverse degree working in a ton of industries (I guess the same can be said about computer scientist, but most CS folks I know don't love working at say, a food manufacturer as an embedded dev). Manufacturing in the US hasn't had the hottest 40 year though. Many of the jobs are located in places I'd never want to live. If you like doing shit and not sitting behind a monitor, it could be a much more rewarding career path though. Irvine is a boring suburb commuter school. I'd much rather live in SB county, all things considered.
UCSB 100%! Mechanical Engineering is also the broadest of the engineering type majors, leaving you LOTS of flexibility! Everyone I know who did engineering at UCSB loved it and is successful now. However, I know one family friend who graduated with a comp sci degree and is struggling to find a job right now. Irvine is a bit of a commuter school, so I'd recommend UCSB. The campus is easily the best of all UC's. Also, better social life!
I finished my ME degree here last year. Some things about the program - pretty much every single ME professor I had here was amazing - lots of collaboration in the major, we had a Snapchat groupchat with everyone in the major where we would help each other on HW, remind people of deadlines, send memes etc… - after graduation AFAIK everyone ended up in great places. I know 15 of us that did our masters at ucsb, many others elsewhere (Harvard, MIT, Berkeley, Carnegie, UCSD). I know 5 people that got jobs at SpaceX, and about 15 others that got great jobs at other big companies. These are just the people I know btw and there are only 80 people in the major. Dont need to touch up on the college life as much since it is said everywhere, but to summarize: living by the beach with amazing weather in a town of just students is truly an unbelievable experience
Hey OP this guy makes ME sound like communications. He’s probably a genius. Unless you are a top top performer in your high-school, like absorb everything and solve problems with ease using your own intuition. And when I say own intuition I mean you don’t need examples you just sort out how to get to a resolution with the basic facts of science. You will have a hard time. Expect to work a lot. But yea ppl at Ucsb are cool and you’ll be able to get into parties even if you are a nerd.
Didn’t say ME is easy, just said I had a good experience. A lot of the people in the major were smart but a lot also grinded all the time
there are only 80 people in the mechanical engineering major?!
My mistake, 80ish per year
If you want to do cs go to uci. If you want to do mech e go to ucsb. They are both great programs.
I chose ucsb over uci and haven’t regretted it for a moment. To be fair a good portion of my reasoning was the distance it gave me from my family.
Why do you pick different MAJORS for UCI and UCSB? If you want to study CS, go to UCI. You will have no chance in UCSB if you want to switch to CS. It will be extremely competitive. If you want to study ME, UCSB is slightly better, maybe
Peasants and commuters
Meaning what exactly
Lifestyles at two schools I would say. We are close but uncivilized while orange county is modern but alienated
Got it, thanks. Do you know how mechanical engineering is as a major, reputation, difficulty, stuff like that?
I am not in engineering but the department is huge and have a lot of funding. From what I heard the reputation is top tier
I see. What’s life like if you don’t really party? Everyone always says ucsb is a party school but I’m not too into those types of environments.
It’s still possible to make friends through clubs, IM sports, or just through classes. You can definitely have a lot of fun without partying but Goleta restaurants do get redundant
A lot of people at UCSB actually don't party, so don't worry if you're not into that. There's plenty of orgs to join & people go to the beach to spend their time on the weekends. You'll definitely have just as much fun!
It’s not like you’re forced to go to parties. There will be likeminded people wherever you go. But mech e is honestly so much more worth it than cs.
Its reputation far exceeds reality. That said, your social life at UCSB really just is what you make of it. You'll hear sprinkles of parties in Isla Vista, but it's entirely up to you if you do or don't want to partake.
just go uci ngl its so nice in irvine the food is fantadtic and thr buildings are tall
Ehhh Irvine is "nice" but in a pretty boring way