Comparing UCSB and USC

Logos for USC and UCSB

Nearly a year ago, I graduated from UCSB with a B.S. in Statistics and Data Science and a Minor in Music. Less than 2 months after graduating, I moved into my apartment that's owned by USC (called Founders Apartment). Two weeks after moving into my apartment, I started graduate school at USC, where I am pursuing my Master of Science in Applied Data Science. Both UCSB and USC have their unique perks, including multiple beaches at and around UCSB and many networking/career opportunities and events USC. At both UCSB and USC, I've experienced different kinds of challenges as well. In my UCSB graduation Instagram post shown below, I mentioned facing several issues and challenges, including some during my last quarter, that made me realize that I have a lot to improve on as a person (such as making better decisions and becoming better boundaries/when to say no to something). At USC, I did encounter someone from one of my classes who made me uncomfortable and so I had to set boundaries with him by saying no to his advances (although he didn't really respect these boundaries). Although for the most part, he currently isn't making me uncomfortable, if he did do anything that made me uncomfortable again, I plan to set more boundaries/firmer boundaries with him.

UCSB Graduation Post on my Instagram account (@jackieofcal)

UCSB vs USC

Academically, most of my classes taken for my Statistics and Data Science major at UCSB that involved coding were in Python or R, although I used R more often at UCSB. Meanwhile, for the classes that I have taken so far or my Master of Science in Applied Data Science program at USC, the ones involving coding have all been in Python. I noticed that many internships and jobs in data science list Python as a required programming language, and although some may list R, more of these career opportunities list Python. Thus, the work done for the courses in my master's program at USC generally seems to have more overlap with the work that would be done in industry compared to the work done for my major courses at UCSB.

For the academic schedule, UCSB is on the quarter system, while USC is on a semester system. Although the amount of classes I'm able to take each semester is less than the amount of classes I've taken at UCSB during each semester, my USC classes can get quite busy, and there were times at UCSB were I felt busy academically as well. For both USC and UCSB, I typically felt the busiest when it was close to midterms and finals for classes that had midterms and/or final exams or projects. Additionally, in USC especially, I felt busy during times where there were only several days or a week separating the deadlines between multiple major assignments (such as homework assignments that take multiple days to complete) across classes. At UCSB. Moreover, the USC classes that I have taken so far tend to be later in the day compared to the UCSB classes that I took, with my USC classes taking place either early afternoon or later in the afternoon. For UCSB, while I did take a few classes that took place late afternoon or during the evening, most of my classes took place earlier in the day and ended before 5pm. The lecture length was longer for my USC classes compared to my UCSB classes, with one lecture being 1 hour and 50 minutes for a class that met twice a week at USC compared to 1 hour and 15 minutes for a class that met twice a week at UCSB. Last semester, one of my USC classes met only once a week, but each lecture was 3 hours and 20 minutes (although we did have a 10 minute break). Last year during winter quarter at UCSB, I took a class that met once a week, and although the lecture length was supposed to be 2 hours and 30 minutes (we did have a break as well), we sometimes did end earlier. Due to my USC classes being later in the day, I tend to wake up later in the day as a result during the afternoon and so I do want to work on my sleep schedule in the future so that I can sleep late and wake up late less often.

When it comes to food, USC seems to have more options for Asian food compared to UCSB. USC Village, a shopping mall near USC, has several Asian restaurants like Chinese Street Food and Kobunga, and near USC village, I often see some food trucks selling Asian food such as fried rice and chow mein. Moreover, when ordering food online, I have ordered food from restaurants like Northern Cafe, Little Pan USC, and China Bowl Express. For UCSB, while nearby IV (Isla Vista) does have various Asian restaurants like Su's Bowl and Sushiya Express, USC seems to have more Asian restaurants close by compared to UCSB.

At UCSB, I was involved in many organizations that weren't completely related to data science or finding career opportunities, particularly Circle K International, Taiwanese American Student Association (TASA), and Autism Advocacy & Awareness (AA&A). At USC, I have been to various career events, including information sessions for companies like TikTok, MyReaa (which got rebranded to Appraise AI last month and is where I am currently doing intern work for (although I've also been doing a piano tutor project outside of Appraise AI)), Viasat, and Tencent, recruiting sessions for companies like Sentry.io and Sandia National Laboratories, and mock interview events. While I have been to various social events at USC (including attending a few yoga sessions hosted by Viterbi Well, watching the movie Wicked, and going to a carnival event), I have primarily been going to career-related events. I also have attended several events hosted by USC Viterbi Women in Engineering (WIE), which offers professional, academic, and social services to students in the Viterbi School of Engineering, address unique challenges faced by women engineers through resources and support, and promote personal and professional success. I feel that USC has more career-related events compared to UCSB, although I have been more focused on finding internship opportunities and improving my job interview skills at USC compared to UCSB.

Both UCSB and USC have plenty of attractions. UCSB has various beaches (including Campus Point Beach and Devereux Beach) and has good places to view sunsets in addition to having an Art, Design & Architecture Museum on campus. Last year, I was able to capture several sunset pictures near my apartment in IV, and these pictures can be seen on a post that I made on my TikTok account. Other attractions near UCSB include the Santa Barbara Zoo and Stearns Wharf, although they're not within walking distance. Meanwhile, USC has various museums, with some being within walking distance and others being further than walking distance. Expo Park near the USC campus has various museums that include the Natural History Museum and California Science Center in addition to having other attractions like Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and Rose Garden. Museums further than walking distance but are still in the LA area include The Broad (which I visited last year after my on-campus orientation for USC near mid-August) and GRAMMY Museum LA Live.

At UCSB, a lot of people (including myself) biked or walked to campus if they lived off-campus. Meanwhile, I walked to my classes at USC's main campus (although some other people either drove or rode an electric scooter to USC's campus). With USC having a more urban setting, the roads are not as bike-friendly compared to UCSB. Although USC has a smaller area than UCSB (229 acres for USC's main campus (although Wikipedia says 226 acres) compared to 1055 acres for UCSB (although Wikipedia says 1127 acres and the UCSB Graduate Division website says 1000 acres)), my classes tend to be in the engineering buildings at USC and so I don't often explore other areas of USC's campus as much. It takes around 20 minutes to walk to my classes at USC from my USC-owned apartment. Like USC, UCSB has university-owned apartments and apartments that are not owned by the university, although the university-owned apartments at UCSB tend to be quite far from campus, such as San Joaquin Villages, the apartment that I lived in during my third year at UCSB. For instance, the time to walk between San Joaquin Villages to other buildings on campus can range from more than 30 minutes to nearly 40 minutes for certain buildings on campus. Thus, it is more feasible to either bus or bike to campus if living in a university-owned apartment at UCSB, although the bus can be unreliable at times, such as showing up later than the expected time.

While USC has less undergraduates than UCSB (21023 for USC compared to 23232 for UCSB as of fall 2023), USC has more graduate students (more than 27000 graduate and professional students) than UCSB (nearly 3000 graduate students). Thus, the total student population (undergraduates and graduates) is higher for USC than for UCSB. When I was an undergraduate at UCSB, most of the people that I knew were from California (particularly Bay Area and Southern California). Meanwhile, at USC, many people that I have met so far are from outside of the US (such as China and India) and out of state, although I did get to meet some people from SoCal and the Bay Area as well. During the 2023-2024 academic year, USC's international student population ranked first in California and fifth in the U.S. On the other hand, UCSB doesn't make the top 5 in California.

There's plenty of other comparisons that can be drawn between UCSB and USC, including UCSB being a public university and USC being a private university in addition to both universities being highly rated. The comparisons that I primarily focused on in this articles are the ones that I have observed when at UCSB and at USC.