My son has been accepted to UC Berkeley, Georgia Tech, Univ. of Ill. (Urbana-Champaign), and Univ. of Florida. We are Florida residents, so tuition for UF is very low. He wants to go into engineering. The big question: Is it worth it to pay the astronomical tuition of Berkeley, or the slightly less astronomical tuitions of GaTech and UI, rather than go to UF? We do not have much money, but my son did not receive any grant from Berkeley. He received a grant from UI to cover room and board, and we are still waiting to hear from GaTech regarding a grant. My son is very intelligent, top of his class, great scores.
To which of the 4 would you send your son? Any advice/opinions/etc. would be appreciated. Thank you!
You are comparing three top-10 programs vs a top-25 program. Yes, they are better from a recruiting perspective but probably not much from a salary one. If you have to incur any debt for the OOS schools I would go UF, and travel costs will be minimized too. UIUC has budget problems which might affect him in future years. Is the UIUC grant guaranteed for all 4 years?
If you don’t have much money, ditch Berkeley.
If your son wants a career in engineering, UF will serve the purpose and will likely be the best value.
Berkeley would maybe be worth it if you could easily afford it and your son was interested in EECS. No value will be gained from taking on huge debt to pay for an undergraduate engineering degree.
If your son wishes to stay in the Southeast for a career, UF is even better because most employers recruit on-campus regionally.
UF is the best value, hands down.
Did he get Honors College at UF or anywhere?
Unless GTech gives him a scholarship/grant that makes it affordable, I’d go with UF. It’s a terrific university, among the best public universities in the country (Top 15 public universities).
What does your son think? Is he excited about UF?
Has he done an overnight there - attending a freshman English class and an Engineering class, meeting students, eating in the cafeteria (not jsut for the food but also to see if students are social, friendly…) etc.
If parent loans or parent-cosigned student loans are needed (i.e. loans more than the federal direct loan limit of $5,500 in the first year, increasing slightly in later years), then it is generally a bad idea to choose a school that costs that much.
Hello, Willing to do ROTC? If so, then problem solved. If not ,then go with what is affordable and graduate with honors.
Go to Florida unless those other schools give enough aid.
How much can you comfortably pay each year?
Employers are NOT going to pay your son more money if he goes to UCB, GT or the others. You’ll be annoyed if after paying a lot more for one of those other schools once your son is employed and earning the same as another UF new-hire.
Did you pre-pay for FL college? If so, there is some reciprocity at GaTech. Son’s friend paid the slightly higher fee for Ga Tech.
Unless your family can afford the three excellent OOS options (and doesn’t mind forking over twice as much money, not to mention extra cash for travel)… or if you just love one of those three and don’t feel you fit at UF… there’s no sense in doing anything other than enrolling at Florida.
CS is the one area that UCB, GT and UIUC would be worth the additional funds. If your son is doing a non-CS major, save the money and stay in-state.
Your son should not have applied to Cal it was never going to be affordable as an OOS kid who needed big scholarships. Nothing you can do about that now.
UF and Georgia Tech are both excellent. Without knowing the out of pocket cost of each (and debt) it is hard to make a recommendation. As money is important the low cost option probably makes the most sense.
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CS is the one area that UCB, GT and UIUC would be worth the additional funds
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No…just no.
Not only did the OP say that they don’t have much money, but even if they could somewhat afford GT or UIUC, it’s not worth if for CS. UF is fine for CS…Don’t act like it’s some podunk school.