S22 broke out the Cal merchandise this morning, and came out wearing his Berkeley hoodie. I knew the writing on the wall right then, but he made it official after he came back home from school this evening and immediately SIRed to Cal.
I feel relieved and happy at the end of a long process that began with fairly modest expectations [Chance me for the UCs and CSUs (terrible 9th grade but great 10-11)] and ended with a very difficult decision between his final 4 schools.
There were a few disappointments along the way (UCLA, Mudd), and some frustration (UMich WL after a long deferral) as well but we were also rewarded with a final stretch where S22 got into UCSB and Cal (his top 2 going into the process).
Prior to admitted student visits, he ranked the schools in the following order: UCSB, UIUC/Cal, and Purdue. Then came the visits. While UCSB put together a very engaging open house and the warmth of the students and the locale was obvious, the academics and opportunities at Cal and UIUC out-shined in his perspective after an excellent pair of admit days.
For the last 2 weeks, he has been going back and forth between UIUC and Berkeley. His interactions with Cal and UIUC students were uniformly excellent with Cal slightly tipping the scale because several students in his major volunteered to chat with him in detail on every aspect (e.g. a couple of them actually helped create a 4-year double major plan based on his interests)
Some things that decisively swung things towards Cal in the final analysis:
- Proximity to home (we are 45 mins away) and SF (his favorite city in the world)
- In-state tuition
- Flexibility to add a DS major or a 2nd engineering major
- Reserved seats that allow him to take upper division courses from other engineering majors without many issues
- Strength of the Cal brand in the bay area particularly given his interest in working for smaller companies and start-ups
- $76k cheaper tuition over 4 years (so happy as a parent that i’m including this twice on the list)
In the end, we just feel thankful that he has the opportunity to go to one of the best universities in the world without traveling far from home.
Personally, I couldn’t have navigated this process without the help of so many of you on this forum. I am probably going to miss a few folks but I am particularly grateful to the following folks:
- @sushiritto for his UMich takes and general advice
- @Gumbymom for being a superstar on all things UC
- @lkg4answers @eyemgh @ucbalumnus @10s4life and @Knowsstuff for helping think through the final college decision
- @thankyouGME and @scrambro for their support while waiting for the Cal decision
- @HumbleTeen @chrisntine @advitha and @s318830 and countless others for sharing their stories
For future reference, this was our final score.
Admitted - UCB, UCSC, Rose Hulman, SJSU, CU Boulder, Purdue, UIUC, UCD, UCSB, UCR, UCM, SDSU
Denied - UCLA, CalPoly, Mudd
Waitlisted - UCI, UMich, UCSD
With that, I am going to drink a tall glass of cold beer. Cheers, and to all a good night!