<p>I was accepted to Berkeley, UIUC, and UF for ChemE (pre-business at Berkeley but I was told its easy to transfer to ChemE). Here are the costs:</p>
<p>Berkeley: 54k (had problem with my financial aid, but expecting 5k aid, 4k work-study, and 10k loans)</p>
<p>UIUC: 47K</p>
<p>UF: 5K (received 19K/year scholarship to give me IS tuition)</p>
<p>Berkeley has been my top choice for the past 2 years. I plan on living in California after I graduate, and my parents are even considering moving there so I can get IS tuition. I had anticipated going to UIUC before, and it is my second choice. I don't like the idea of going to UF because it isn't renowned for its engineering program, they didn't put me in the honors program (my stats qualified me so idk why I wasn't offered it), and most students are IS and there are few Indians, or so I've heard (I'd like to have some Indian friends who share a similar culture/religion as I do).</p>
<p>I want to get into the biofuel or biotech industries. I'm planning on pursuing either an MS in Biotech + MBA or MS+PhD in ChemE + MBA in the future. </p>
<p>Any input as to where I should go?</p>
<p>So net cost after non-loan financial aid for four years would be the following?</p>
<p>Berkeley: $180,000 *
UIUC: $188,000
Florida: $20,000</p>
<ul>
<li>assuming the you get the financial aid you listed; minus $22,000 per year if your parents move to California and you become in-state – but cost of living in California is higher than in Florida.</li>
</ul>
<p>$160,000 is a huge difference, especially if it needs to be taken in loans (especially unsubsidized loans).</p>
<p>UF. 180k is crippling before even adding the interest. UF is about ~25th in ChemE, which is good enough. Your graduate/professional degree will overshadow it anyway, if you’re that concerned.</p>
<p>Oh wait I forgot to factor in room/board and other costs for UF. It should be around 25k/year so 100k total.</p>
<p>Gshine, my parents will be paying for around 40-45k per year, so that’d be only around 10-15k mainly subsidized loans per year. so around 40-60k in debt for me. Is that too much still?</p>
<p>Berkeley and UIUC are obviously renowned worldwide for their engineering programs, but UF is not a 2nd tier school, either.</p>
<p>IMO, it’s not worth it spending almost twice as much to attend Berkeley or UIUC.
You are better off saving those money for either grad school, or future investment.</p>
<p>that $160,000 is an awful lot of money and UF is getting better and better as a total University and as an Engineering school, ranking at #32 in USNWR undergraduate engineering schools (#19 in ChE).</p>
<p>UC Berkeley is amount the top 2-3 ChE schools and a much better overall university. In addition the OP does want to eventually live in California and UCB would increase the probability of establishing roots and connections by the time he graduates.</p>
<p>“as japanoko walks away into the sunset scratching his head and wondering how long would a line of $1.00 bills be if he was to line up 160,000 of them right after each other”</p>
<p>a midway solution - how about undergraduate ChE at UF and graduate ChE or MBA at UC Berkeley later on?</p>
<p>japanoko, good point about the midway solution, but I’d be risking getting rejected. Will grad schools look down on the fact that I went to UF and not a top 10 school? Either way, I’m accepted to Berkeley in this case, and my goal is to either go to UPenn for their MBA+MS in Biotech or get my PhD in ChemE at Stanford. Anyone have thoughts on which is better (I want to become an executive in a biotech or biofuel company)?</p>
<p>Right now, here’s how things are looking:
Berkeley: 50K for first year, assuming I move out of dorms after first semester, and then 30K for next 3 years assuming my parents move to cali. Total: $140k - 20k aid = $120K - 20k work study = 100K</p>
<p>UIUC: 48K/year = 192K</p>
<p>UF: 20-25K/year = 80-100K</p>
<p>I might be off in my calculations for Berkeley but its looking like a good deal right now. I’m also an EMT and I’ve heard that most colleges give free room/board for members of their first aid squads. Can anyone validate that assertion?</p>
<p>Guru… UF has no trouble placing its top students into top grad schools. It will come down to your GPA, GRE/GMAT’s, course selection, and undergraduate research. In other words, it will depend on factors that are in you are in complete control of.</p>