Bioengineering @ UCB - Duke - USC(half tuition) - UCSD

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Berkeley
1

We need to help our son decide between the four colleges. Each have their unique advantages/disadvantages. The dilemma is that he wants to go to med school but he is not sure so he wants to keep his options open. He doesn’t mind working hard but then is also little worried about the GPA factor and good EC’s. We are in the bay area so Cal is the closest. Not sure if you can graduate in four years at Cal in engineering and also given all the competition if kids get research opportunities.

Duke is paying no $ at all. Good med school acceptance rate but far from home. With Duke he will pay $65K a year so if he goes to med school then we also need to be smart about the $ as well. We can afford it but is it worth to pay that much $ compared to his other choices.

USC is giving half tuition plus Engineering Honors invitation. Good private school resources with close to same cost as UC. He visited for couple days but not sure if that helped him to make a decision.

UCSD great bioengineering program but his thinking is why I would choose UCSD over Cal. Would there be any advantage on GPA front?

Any insights from parents or students is appreciated.

2

USC would be the best option, in my opinion. They treat their merit scholarship kids very well, and their staff is deeply concerned about the success of their students (again, esp merit scholarship kids). I think he’d benefit from less intense competition, smaller classes, closer access to faculty, etc. at USC if the cost will be comparable to Berkeley. USC merit scholarship grads who go to medical school go to fantastic med schools just because they leave USC well prepared, at the top of their class, and not in crippling debt.