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Anthony
Student
Garden Grove, California
1
Question
Updated
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How do I decide between USC (University of Southern California) and UC San Diego for aerospace engineering #Spring26?
I am a 17 year old senior in high school about to start college. I was admitted to the University of Southern California and the University of California-San Diego. At USC, I feel connected at this school, especially in terms of student life and academics, but the only thing holding me back is the cost of attendance. UCSD is also great, but I do not feel as connected here and was admitted Undeclared with a chance to switch to Aerospace in my sophomore year, although not guaranteed. I need help. #Spring26
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Frederick Burke
Mechanical Design Engineer
4
Answers
San Diego, California
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Frederick’s Answer
Ok. First off, you're being way too hard on yourself. In my experience, schools are not the most important thing. You make a lot of connections with your classmates. That's definitely important for jobs down the line. Also costs are only oppressive until you start applying for educational grants which you can do today. There's something else you should know. What does it mean to you to be an aerospace engineer? In my mind, aerospace engineering is a subset of mechanical engineering that focuses on aerodynamics. When I've built aircraft in the past, we needed 1 aerospace engineer, 40 mechanical engineers, 50 electrical engineers and 60 software engineers. Many of those mechanical engineers had aerospace engineering degrees too. The demand for aerodynamics can often be fulfilled by a single engineer. Also if I were to target the single most important factor in getting a job, it was never the school, it was whether or not they got an internship during their last two years of college. By the way, that's when your workload at school is the heaviest. Understanding that's the most critical piece of the puzzle puts you head and shoulders above the rest. Also you were worried about having to declare your major. That's never a problem. You should know that engineering has a different general education than the other majors because of the increased number of classes needed to graduate. All of the engineering majors have the same general education requirements. That would be your only resistance to declaring your major.