Lindsey Desalvo

Major: Computer Science
Class of 2005
Career: Software Engineer, Amazon

Why did you choose UCSD?
When I was looking at schools, I found the big schools seemed overwhelming, I felt like a small fish in a really big pond. The smaller schools had just a few computer science professors and I wanted something more. UCSD was the perfect match. It is a big school with renowned faculty and a great reputation. But it is a place where I could make a name for myself and stand out as an outstanding student who is really recognized. (I was also excited to learn that I could do an astrophysics minor with my computer science major).

Tell us about the education?
You can tailor your education to whatever you want to do. If you want to go to graduate school, you can take a lot of theory courses. Or if you want to go out into industry you can take more applied courses like software engineering or software design. If you want to take graduate-level courses for your electives, you can do that too.

What makes UCSD so special?
The professors are all about the undergraduates. The interaction with the faculty is the number one thing that stands out to me about UCSD. All of the faculty in my computer science department are willing to help you succeed. If they are hanging out in their offices, you can just pop in and talk with them about whatever, even if you are not in their class. We’ve started student-faculty mixers, and I feel I have a friendly relationship with all of my professors. They are definitely my mentors, and I love that about UCSD.

More about Lindsey
Lindsey Desalvo hit the ground running at UCSD, and took the opportunity to get a broad range of experiences. As the Academic Coordinator for the engineering honor society, Tau Beta Pi, she helped organize tutoring resources for students. She also served as president of the CALPIRG (California Public Interest Research Group) UCSD student chapter, where she volunteered for the San Diego Rescue Mission, and petitioned local wildlife clubs to support efforts to lower the levels of mercury pollution.

Lindsey participated in both research and internships. As a research assistant, she helped develop the Tablet PC Grader application, which allows faculty to efficiently and quickly provide electronically-linked feedback to student homework papers. During her four years at UCSD, she participated in internships at six different companies, which helped build her resume and land her a dream job as a software designer at Amazon.