Choice between UW Seattle, CalTech, UC San Diego, and possibly Stanford?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hi,</p>

<p>My daughter applied to 6 schools this year and so far has been accepted to 4 of them. While this is a very happy problem, it is proving to be a very confusing decision. She is planning to major in Bioengineering at this point and here are her favorites out of the list of the schools she applied to and their status:</p>

<p>• University of Washington – accepted as freshman direct admit to college of Bioengineering (we live in WA – tuition & housing is covered by GET investment and college savings). UW will also accept her AP credits and community college credits towards her degree there, so she will enter with almost all of her Freshman credits already done.</p>

<p>• University of California San Diego – accepted as Regents Scholar ($2k scholarship, but still have added $23k in out of state tuition)</p>

<p>• CalTech – accepted, no financial aid offered yet. (we are $30k/year short in our college fund without financial aid)</p>

<p>• Harvey Mudd - accepted, no financial aid offered yet. (we are $35k/year short in our college fund without financial aid)</p>

<p>• Stanford – have not heard from them yet; expected to hear this Friday. (we are $30k/year short in our college fund without financial aid)</p>

<p>Her top 3 favorites were UW, CalTech and Stanford equally ranked. She likes different things about each of the 3. We applied to UCSD at the last minute so that she had another safety besides UW, but the more we learn about it, the more attractive it is.</p>

<p>Here are the questions I am hoping you can help with:</p>

<p>• Between UW and UCSD, which do you think has the stronger BioE program and why? </p>

<p>• The UW BioE program ranks at #5 or #6 in several different program rankings in the last 2 years, but UCSD always ranked above UW on those charts. Why?</p>

<p>• What about between UW, CalTech and Stanford – which BioE program is better? Why do the Stanford and CalTech BioE programs consistently rank lower than UW and UCSD?</p>

<p>• Does a UW Freshman Direct Admit to BioE trump all the other schools? How hard is it to get accepted to the BioE colleges at Stanford and CalTech?</p>

<p>• My daughter loves the atmosphere and housing structure at CalTech, but she is concerned that the narrow focus of classes available will limit options to take drawing, painting and dance classes, which are her stress release. Is the BioE program and culture there worth that limitation? When we visited, the students there looked very stressed (speaking as a mom).</p>

<p>• If you or your kid had this same list of choices, how would you rank the schools?</p>

<p>• Should finances win out in this situation? UW is paid for and any scholarships she gets will add to funds that she can use for Grad school if she chooses UW. Each of the other schools will require big scholarships or that we make major sacrifices to afford the tuition (e.g. wiping out investments, refinancing the house, etc.) and we have a son who will be going to college in 4 years. We are freelancers and our income is just below the 200k limit, so I am not expecting much in financial aid. But even with that income, the expense of health insurance, current tuition and the seattle cost of living, we don’t have disposable income outside of what we currently are saving for retirement (we are in our 50s).</p>

<p>• Will she miss out on the full college experience if she attends and lives on campus at UW instead of going further away from home?</p>

<p>Sorry this post is so long and I know that my daughter and we are very blessed with this long list of choices and the finances we do have, but I am hoping that your insights can help us make this decision.</p>

<p>Thanks for your help,</p>

<p>Stephany</p>

2

<p>Ok I think UW, UCSD, and Caltech all have great programs and you shouldn’t look at their specific rankings, because I don’t think being a couple spots lower on the rankings will not have a significant impact on her future career. I’m not sure why exactly some programs are ranked higher – it probably has to do with funding, research success, professor quality, etc. But like I said, you shouldn’t worry about rankings too much – they are all very good.</p>

<p>If you daughter is looking for fun classes such as arts and history then I suggest avoiding CalTech. There are less classes there and also less people interested in those classes, since it is primarily an engineering school. Personally I would rank these schools like this: Stanford, UCSD, UW, CalTech.</p>

<p>You shouldn’t worry about finances too much unless you’re sure you’ll go broke paying for college. Bioengineering is a great field to go into and your daughter will undoubtedly find a great job in the future, so she should be fine paying off her loans if she ever gets any.</p>

<p>All of this came from a student’s perspective (not a parent’s), so I’m not sure if it fits everything you want. But I hope it helped you.</p>

3

<p>Thanks for the post Painter7. I appreciate your response.</p>

<p>RE: “Personally I would rank these schools like this: Stanford, UCSD, UW, Caltech”</p>

<p>What is it about Stanford and UCSD and their Bioengineering programs that makes you rank them ahead of UW? Not asking this defensively - I am truly interested since we want to consider everything as my daughter makes this decision. And it is great to hear from another student!</p>

<p>Thanks,</p>

<p>Stephany</p>

4

<p>I am Bioengineering:Biotechnology student @ UCSD. Program is hard but great. You can easily graduate in 4 years.
UCSD will counts your AP credits and community college credits towards your degree too.
As a Regents Scholar you will have priority registration starting Winter semester. Fall is lottery for Freshy.
Also as a Regents Scholar you will get a mentor and internship starting first year, guaranty housing for 4 years.</p>

5

<p>Thanks Seniorsf. Unfortunately, UCSD does not seem to be willing to waive the out of state tuition hike, so my daughter has decided to attend UW as a direct admit BioE. We are excited, but still a little numb from this year-long process!</p>