I really need help choosing colleges for electrical engineering. I live in California so preferably somewhere here. I don’t have much preference for all factors, but I just want the best education at a fair price.
Thank you so much.
It may help if you consider the questions in http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1621234-before-you-ask-which-colleges-to-apply-to-please-consider-p1.html and give the answers so that others can help you better with realistic recommendations.
For the California public universities, calculate your high school GPA from https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/ . The “weighted capped” version is the one most commonly used when California public universities use high school GPA. Your SAT and ACT scores are also relevant, though California public universities tend to emphasize GPA more than test scores.
Your California colleges/Us will be your best education at a fair price. Do what @ucbalumnus says.
If you haven’t already, you may want to post your query in the CC engineering forum: http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/engineering-majors/
any ABET acredited program in CA can give you a good start to becoming an EE. Your prospects will depend on your grades and to a significant extent whether you had internships/coop along the way.
The least expensive way is often to attend your local CSU and live at home. Even cheaper is to attend a CC for 2 years, then transfer. Costs can go up from there. A lot depends on your particular family situation. Run the Net Price Calculator at some schools to get a feel of cost.
The biggest bang for the bucks, by far, if you can get in, is Cal Poly. It’s well respected at any price. The fact that you’d pay instate makes it a slam dunk.
Defining “best” is a matter of perspective. Cal Poly is known for preparing engineers to be productive day one. They do this by having labs with almost every single theory course, having a very robust senior project, and good student driven clubs. They also have small classes and don’t use TAs.
Where Cal Poly is lacking is where Berkeley shines, world class research.
Note, CP, unlike the rest of the CA publics, uses 9th grade in your GPA. It significantly impacts the power of AP/IB/honors weighting.
Good luck.