Silicon valley is the global technology hub and many notable companies like Google, Facebook, Apple, Cisco, PayPal are headquartered there. It is also the home for thousands of startups. I wanted to be part of these tech giants in Silicon valley. After chatting with friends and relatives in united states, I got a strong feeling that studying in California might have a slight advantage in terms of job prospects and so was in search for admissions in the top universities in California. University of Southern California(from here on referred as USC) is well reputed and is one of the top private universities in California. USC has a good ranking in Computer Science. It also has great alumni network.
Course Curriculum :
There are only couple of mandatory courses that you have to finish and the rest all are electives. So there are a very wide range of courses to chose from for electives and students pick courses based on their interests. Some courses like Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence have a very high demand and hundreds of students take them and there are new courses that are introduced every semester based on new technologies in the industry. Overall I think there are lot of good courses.
Exams :
My scores: GRE 145 Verbal 170 Quant 4.0 Writing; TOEFL 99; I am not sure of the class minimum scores as I don't think they are published publicly anywhere. But I have many people with scores between 310-325.
Placement :
There is nothing like Campus placements like the ones that happen in India where hundreds of companies come to the college/universities and screen candidates, conduct interviews and offer job placements. Career fairs(where companies come to the university and chat with students and collect resumes) happen every semester. But the number of students that get hired through this process is low and most people find jobs themselves(by applying on company portals and also on websites like LinkedIn, Glassdoor etc.) At the end of the day(end of your master's program) most if not everyone find good jobs.
Internship :
Yes, I did an internship at Schlumberger. I submitted my resume in one of the career fair events that happen on-campus every semester. I was called for interview a few weeks later and had a couple of rounds of interviews in which they asked questions in Data Structures and Algorithms, Coding and Resume.
Events :
Campus has many libraries and all libraries have very good infrastructure and are very well maintained. Some libraries are open round the clock and some are not. Some libraries have access to the public during day time. All buildings have a very good WiFi. There are also lot of clubs that you can be part of. There are also some Indian clubs that organize and celebrate Indian events(Diwali etc.)
Fees :
Tuition fee is credit based and it changes every semester. When I studied, it was between 1950-200$ per credit and you had to finish 28 credits to get a degree in Computer Science and 32 credits if you are doing a specialization. 28*2000 = 56,000 USD You can find the current credit fee at - https://viterbigradadmission.usc.edu/programs/masters/tuition-funding/tuition-funding-masters/
Scholarship :
No
Faculty :
Student faculty ratio varies based on the course. Some popular courses(Artifical Intelligence, Machine Learning, Database Systems, Design and Analysis of Algorithms) have hundreds of students where the student to faculty ratio might be low(0.05-0.1) and some courses might just have as low as 10 students in which case the faculty to student ratio being as high(0.3-0.4). Most faculty and staff are very experienced and also reputed. Faculty and staff has office hours and are very approachable during those office hours.
Hostel :
I lived in University housing(Troy East Apartments) during my first year of my master’s. I lived in a 2 bed 1.5 bath apartment with a total of 4 people(2 each in a room) and I paid between 750–800$ a month. The rooms are furnished(bed, desk, chair, sofa etc). If you looking around this price point, this would be a great option. If you want to lower your cost of living, it’s better to rent and stay off-campus. If you can rent a 2 Bed 2 Bath apartment and if you can share it with 5 people(2 in each room and 1 in living room), the cost comes down to around 500$.
