Hi guys, any and all advice is greatly appreciated, so I thank you in advance.
I am a high-school senior who was admitted into Cal Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon, University of Maryland, and University of Michigan, all for engineering. I am planning to major in Computer Engineering, or its Electrical Engineering/Computer Science counterparts (different schools have different names for it). I would like some advice concerning my college choices.
For University of Maryland, I am an in-state student, and received a full-ride scholarship to their school. Unfortunately, I didn’t receive any other kind of money grants from other schools (including financial aid).
As of now, my current top-choice out of these four schools is Cal Berkeley, but I am still skeptical over it’s class-size and overall school size, as I have gone to small-ish private schools all my life. I also have currently knocked out UMich from my college choices due to its (very) similar tuition to Cal Berkeley, and they’re both public schools, yet Berkeley is ranked higher (and has a much more forgiving climate). Another note is that I am most likely planning to perform the 4 + 1 program no matter what school I go to (4 years undergrad, then get your masters the next year), except I will probably be doing it as a 3 + 1 due to my AP credits (at Berkeley, yes, at Carnegie, it’s a maybe due to the lack of classes you can jump out of)
So basically, I’m having trouble deciding between Cal Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon, and UMD (full ride). Right now, here is what I have been thinking, pros/cons-wise.
Cal Berkeley
Pros:
-
Right next to Silicon Valley (a dream workplace for any engineer) -
Large school - more variety of people I will meet -
Weather - a warm 70 degrees all throughout the year -
Strong academics - Literally identical to Carnegie Mellon, and above UMD -
I personally really loved the school when visiting, and enjoyed the campus and community a lot -
Amazing class flexibility - basically take the classes you want, don't take the ones you don't want to -
TONS of internship opportunities - I mean, Berkeley has a renown engineering program and very close by to Silicon Valley -
Alumni network - (good) public school's alumni networks trump all private school ones, except for Ivy Leagues
Cons:
-
Crime - I mean, Berkeley is right outside San Francisco, so that's a given -
Pretty expensive ($65 grand a year out-of-state) - may not be a problem if I can become a resident of California and get in-state tuition: if so, then this becomes a pretty tasty pro -
Large school - less teacher attention (Berkeley has 3x more students in the engineering department, yet still has less faculty than Carnegie Mellon) -
Large school - bigger classes = more reliance on help from TA's and other outside sources of help other than the professor (I've heard it's nigh-impossible to catch a professor in his office hours) -
Large school - more engineering students + less professors = less research opportunities (maybe, not sure though) -
Large school - since it's a public school, of course the rooms are much smaller and more crowded. However, I don't see this as much of a problem, especially since if I go to Berkeley I will most likely room with one of my best friends who will go there next year (we can get through it together). -
Large school - it's harder to get classes (may not be a problem because of persons in restricted majors get priority over classes pertaining to their major, which includes me in all my EECS classes, and I don't really care if I don't happen to get my Western Asian Medieval Studies class or whatever other non-engineering class I try to get)
*So basically, my only cons of Berkeley is it's size and all the results that come with it*
Carnegie Mellon
Pros:
-
Small school - more professor attention, less TA's and more learning from professors -
More research (and less competitive) research opportunities -
Very collaborative environment - group settings with labs, hands-on experiences galore -
More invested in students - faculty are willing to go out of their way to help students -
Nicer dorms and living facilities
Cons:
-
It's pretty expensive ($72 grand a year) -
Small school - less variety of people, more elitist (many, many more absurdly rich people, especially internationally) -
<em>This is a con because I've already experienced this type of community in high school, and I dislike it</em> -
Carnegie is more CS-based than EE based, which may be tedious since many students in my major will just be in it for the CS classes (because they didn't get into the ridiculously hard CS program). -
Less class flexibility - pretty strict requirements concerning your class schedule -
I do not get to use as many AP credits as I would like (especially in the language arts/history sections)
UMD
Pros:
-
It's free -
It's free -
It's free -
It's also a very good engineering school
Cons:
-
Although it's a great engineering school, it's not near the likes of Carnegie Mellon and Berkeley -
Money may not matter as much (see below)
As for financial status, with the amount of money my parents have set aside for the rest of my education, I should be able to go through Carnegie Mellon (the most expensive school), and then go to the most expensive Law School (Georgetown), for three years, and I’ll come out with a debt that is not super small, but it’s not large, and it’s manageable.
Because money isn’t necessarily an issue, I would like to ask the question…
Can you please give me help in my decision? Colleges are huge, and I only know so much about each individual one. All of my choices are amazing choices and I’m grateful for the choices I have, but I’m attempting to find the best one to me. Any insight into any of these colleges and their engineering programs will be highly appreciated.
Thanks for your time.