Reviewed on Feb 7, 2025(Enrolled 2024)
What Students Say
Likes
- This college is located in the Silicon Valley which is the best place to be right now given the current job market. There are a lot of companies, startups which located within a few miles of the college.
- The Bay Area weather , is something that feels just like home.
- Can take pretty much any course without much pre requisites which in contrast to other colleges required me to go through a strict pre req courses list.
Dislikes
- The campus size is not that big as compared to other universities (like UC’s ) in California.
- Limited number of on campus jobs.
- No financial support for international students since this is a private university.
Course Curriculum
8
- The courses for an International student should not be that much of burden as it is rigorous but nothing one cant handle. The courses are more application based than theory based so proper conceptual understanding is required to get good grades in the exams. The positives mainly have to do with the hands on approach which guarantees that you get a strong foundation in the subject negatives include tons of HW and projects. Typically is a 4 day week (M-Thu) with one class each day of 2 hr length. They done assist in any job search. Just started here so not sure about the professors I admire yet.
Admission Experience
- I had applied to 10 colleges; I had received admits from Santa Clara University, Arizona State University, Northeastern, Rochester Institute of Technology, and the University of Florida. Was rejected from the University of Southern California, UT Austin, Texas A&M, NYU Courant, and UT Dallas. The reason I was rejected from these colleges was due to my mediocre GRE score and not hailing from a Tier 1 university from my undergrad.
- I chose Santa Clara University over the other admits since I had gotten admit here for MS CS, where in better colleges from my list like the University of Florida, Northeastern, & ASU I had received admits for MS AI, MS CS (Miami), and MS SE, respectively.
- Admission Process:
- Complete the application form on their website ( They require GRE (300+), TOEFL (90+), and WES Evaluation of your undergraduate transcript)
- After admission, you pay a fee of $300 to confirm enrolment.
- Process your I-20
- The overall admission process went smoothly, with every step being pretty straight forward.
- I had applied in the beginning of December 2023 for the fall quarter of 2024 at Santa Clara University. I had done quite a bit of research and had selected this college based on the location in the Silicon Valley. As the present job market is not that stable, I wanted to be as close to the tech hub as possible. The admission process took a couple of months (i.e., from the time I applied to the time I got my I-20).
Faculty
8
- The average number of students in a classroom is around 25 and sometimes can go up to 35 as well, given the popularity of the given course. The diversity is mostly Chinese (45%), Indian (30), and a few Americans & hers (25). The faculty-to-student ratio is great since the classrooms are small, which helps with doubt clearing with professors. It is pretty much the same a PPT presentation and explanation of topics
Campus Life
10
- The college has only one campus, the main one in Santa Clara. There is a really big gym with a basketball court, table tennis, badminton courts, a big library, and multiple cafes. There are many clubs that one can join; the Greek life is very prominent here; there really aren't any campus festivals as such but each club hosts their own events, which you are welcome to join.
Part Time Jobs
- The campus size is not that big as compared to other universities (like UC's) in California.
- As such, there are not really that many on-campus job opportunities. You will have to find jobs in the cafes as a student worker. For TA's and RA's, after the first quarter, you can talk with professors and if they have an open position, you can get appointed for it. It is hard to get TA's as not all faculties require TA's and those who do have a lot of additional requirements regarding the course they are teaching. The pay range is 22-24$ per hour and you can work a maximum of 19 hours per week while on F1.
- Typically students are paid the minimum wage for any on-campus job, which comes at a rate of 17.75$ per hour and these are easy to get at the service lounge or the cafe. This is where most of the Indian students work part time; some also work as graders for courses, which also pays the same, but the work hours are much less. It is pretty difficult to secure an on-campus job as the campus is small and there are not many openings. There is an online portal to apply for on-campus jobs or you can mail the recruiter directly and ask if they have an opening in their team.
Placement
6
- Well this is a hard question for me to answer right now, as the data maybe skewed from the university website, which boasts a placement rate of 80%, while I know many seniors who still do not have any jobs.
- The job market is slowly getting better but I feel like 6 months after graduation most of them have secured jobs with an avg salary of 80k-100k. You have to apply online or through referrals no other way. Major companies that do hire from here are AMD, NVIDIA, Google, Cadence, Apple, Amazon.
Accommodation
Off Campus
10
- I opted for off-campus housing as the housing (dorm) offered by the university was a bit more expensive, which came around $2300 per month for a dorm room. I found my roommates through a WhatsApp group and we leased an apartment near the university. Monthly rent comes around 1000$ and utilities around 100$ (just the apartment is included, nothing else)
- Since the cohort size is small for Santa Clara Uni, it was hard to find like-minded roommates. Advise future students for accommodation: start early as there are very few options you can choose from and keep reposting in different groups to find roommates. It is around 0.7 miles from our college
Exams
- The exams required for admission at Santa Clara University are the GRE, TOEFL, and IELTS, with a minimum score of 300+ on the GRE, 90+ on the TOEFL, and 7.5 on the IELTS. During the admission procedure, I was asked to upload one normal transcript scanned copy from your undergraduate university and one international evaluation to match your grade to the US grade-based system. I had chosen WES evaluation for this. There was no interview involved in this.
Fees
- Per credit: 1206$; Total fees for 46 credits: 56k$; Accommodation: 15-16k$ total: 80k$ for 2 years.
- Quarter-Based: International students are required to enrol in a minimum of 8 units each quarter—9839 $ per quarter for academics.
- Monthly Expenses(rent + food) = around 1000$ per month for rent as housing is expensive in the bay area and for food if cooking at home can be done with 200-300$ per month
Scholarship
- During the time of first enrolment of courses for the fall 2024 quarter, based on my undergrad grades, I was awarded a merit scholarship of $2,000, which was processed during the fee payment of the first quarter.
- Some of my batchmates have received the same merit-based scholarships, but there is no other financial aid given to international students. Around 20%–30% of students receive one-time merit-based scholarships.
