I'm a recent graduate from UCSD CS program. You'll hear a lot that the UCSD campus isn't very social, it's true. This has to do with the focus on "academics" so we don't offer any scholarships to athletes and we don't have frat houses on campus (no parties on campus). On weekends, the campus is pretty much dead.
If you do go to UCSD, I hope you picked Warren college. You'll live right next to the computer labs. It was pretty awesome, I lived @ Black Halls which was a 30 second walk to the CS building & labs.
The CS classes are pretty easy, I managed to graduate in 3 years by taking 16-20 units a quarter and I know a guy who did it in 2 years.
I never met anyone who was interested in YC or doing a startup. The mentality seemed to be get a good job in the corporate world. I regret not meeting more CS students, especially looking harder for people who want to do their own startups. Luckily, I live in Silicon Valley and there are a lot of us here =].
A lot of the CS professors are pretentious, I got the feeling that they didn't care about teaching students. There were some awesome teachers though, like Rick Ord who teaches assembly and compilers. Plus there's a great "Games Class", where you're given a quarter to make a 3D network game.
If you're interested in getting some real world experience there's AIP (Academic Internship Program). They will hook you up with an unpaid internship but it counts towards your credits.
Also, the sweetest jobs in the world are at ACS (Academic Computer Services). It really helps when you have a full course load to have a job where you can study most of the time.
If you do go to UCSD, I hope you picked Warren college. You'll live right next to the computer labs. It was pretty awesome, I lived @ Black Halls which was a 30 second walk to the CS building & labs.
The CS classes are pretty easy, I managed to graduate in 3 years by taking 16-20 units a quarter and I know a guy who did it in 2 years.
I never met anyone who was interested in YC or doing a startup. The mentality seemed to be get a good job in the corporate world. I regret not meeting more CS students, especially looking harder for people who want to do their own startups. Luckily, I live in Silicon Valley and there are a lot of us here =].
A lot of the CS professors are pretentious, I got the feeling that they didn't care about teaching students. There were some awesome teachers though, like Rick Ord who teaches assembly and compilers. Plus there's a great "Games Class", where you're given a quarter to make a 3D network game.
If you're interested in getting some real world experience there's AIP (Academic Internship Program). They will hook you up with an unpaid internship but it counts towards your credits.
Also, the sweetest jobs in the world are at ACS (Academic Computer Services). It really helps when you have a full course load to have a job where you can study most of the time.