Hello,
I was recently accepted to Cal, Vanderbilt, UCLA, Notre Dame, and GW honors, and I’m having a lot of trouble deciding where to attend.
I plan on double majoring in Computer Science and Public Policy/Political Science, and eventually pursuing a career in programming/entrepreneurship, government, or consulting, and I know a lot of these schools have strong departments in both. However, I’m not sure what schools a double major across fields/schools like that would be possible.
Other factors that may come in to play are: I am an Asian Male and not catholic (but I participated in Notre Dame’s leadership seminar and didn’t feel uncomfortable at all), I do not plan on rushing (but I am a fan of partying casually), I would like to live in an urban city, I love being around people, and I plan on pursuing Model UN, Student Government, and most likely founding a start-up. I’m not certain about grad school yet, but if I do choose to attend, my dream would be Oxford for PPE (ideally as a Rhodes Scholar) or Cal/Stanford for computer science.
As far as money is concerned, Vandy/ND would cost the least, GW would cost about $10k more (I was awarded a Presidential scholarship), and UCLA/Cal would cost almost 40k more. I know Cal has extremely strong Poli-sci/Comp-sci departments, but I’m not sure that can justify such a large hike in price.
Any help on as to where I should attend would be appreciated, and I plan on posting this in the Vandy and Notre Dameforums for more perspectives.
Thank You
Notre Dame. No other schools that you listed can match the charm and the spirit of tradition of the campus.
If Notre Dame costs 40k more than Berkeley than I would say it’s a hard decision to make, but when Berkeley is the one that costs 40k more, I think the game ends there…
I think the real ranking of the school should be measured by average amount of endowment per person, and if a relatively small school like Notre Dame is good enough to be in top 10 in the nation, you know that means the alumni feel like they got a lot of out from their college and want to give back… a lot.
Although cost is a big deal, Berkeleys comp sci is paralleled only by stanford and MIT. The location of Cal makes it very easy to find work with start ups and cream of the crop software companies. Your starting salary would likely be greater than 100k, if you’re good. Cal will be likely the hardest, but it’s truly comparable to only the top schools in the nation when it comes to comp sci and engineering. 40k seems like a lot, but being next to the tech hub and having the amazing research/faculty/resources of Berkeley will be worth it 10 years from now looking back. It’s definitely the school on your list with serious name recognition, and people in the industry respect berkeley the same as they do MIT or Stanford or Caltech. It’s really that good.
But on another note, berkeley doesn’t always like to choose grad students who did their undergrad there. From what I know, a lot of berkeley undergrads end up at places like MIT and Stanford for graduate school, and lots of MIT and Stanford undergrads end up at Berkeley.