My son got into UCB EECS and is Presidential scholarship finalist at Gtech.
Which program is better? We are in California and would like to know which
program is best apart from cost.
He is also a regents scholarship candidate at UCB.
@sksanchetl. Congrats! If price is NOT a factor. I would strongly recommend Berkeley. Berkeley belongs with the likes of Stanford and MIT for your son’s interests. No matter what people say connections/networking that comes with being close to Bay Area/Silicon Valley makes a lot of difference when it comes to the types of jobs your son will have access to. If he is a regent’s candidate…is he waiting on Stanford or MIT decisions as well?..because that could “change” your options.
ignoring costs, Cal is a no-brainer. It’s EECS program is one of the best in the world.
'Grats.
How did he find out early? Cal says this
@mikemac. Students who are Regents scholarship candidates find out early…like this past weekend they were notified. Way back in the day both our kids found out in early-mid February about their Regents candidacy…it’s Berkeley’s way to try and woo the top top students from choosing other great options…and most of these students will have other great options.
Thanks for your recommendations. That’s what I thought but was wondering if Presidential scholarship candidates get any preference academically or if this program is considered prestigious in industry as only 40-50 kids get it. Or is this just to attract best students to Gtech?
My son goes to GT and is majoring in EE. GT is a great school and is highly ranked. However my question is why would you send your kid so far away when there is school instate that is highly ranked? For IE, AE, BME or Environmental Eng I could see it. But not CS or EE.
What are the conditions of keeping the scholarships?
Another thing to keep in mind is UCB is strong across multiple fields outside engineering/CS whereas GTech is mainly strong in engineering/CS school with a respectable business program.
^ Cobrat is right a lot of kids think they want to be engineers until they start taking the classes…
There are also hardcore engineering majors who don’t want to attend a college where the main strengths is solely/mostly in their fields. Such as a few classmates who graduated with double majors in fields like MechE and English lit or EE and US History from schools like Princeton, Stanford, and UCB.
This is a very seriously large difference in costs. I don’t know how you could pass up the financial benefits of GT. After all, it is an undergraduate degree and a lot of the same concepts are going to be covered both enjoy very high rankings on any scale like 4 vs 6 for undergrad or 1 vs 5 for grad, so it isn’t like you are settling. Both will have excellent exposure to research and grad school prep and there is no way a GT grad is going to go jobless, although Berkeley is superbly positioned. Also the President’s at GT includes some opportunities for mentoring that will pull you out of the pool. UCB is hard to walk away from as a CA resident, though.
@MichiganGeorgia
“However my question is why would you send your kid so far away when there is school instate that is highly ranked?” Well, 70-100% free tuition and travel abroad stipends are rather compelling, if the President’s Scholarship happens. My kid decided to go to Brown instead of Berkeley because it was the ‘away’ experience she wanted, and and smaller college and, no loans were a bonus.
Also my dd interned at Google in the SF location while in grad school at Wisconsin and has had job offers from firms in West Coast and NYC locations there is nothing to stop you and it is even easier if you have a CA home base to apply out of.
^ The OP wanted our thoughts without regard to cost.
If you look at costs then that’s different.
@BrownParent, also the OP’s kid hasn’t won the Presidential scholarship at GTech yet and is in-state for Cal (and is a Regents scholarship candidate there), so it is far from certain that GTech is much cheaper than Cal. In fact, GTech could end up being far more expensive than Cal.
I was talking IF that happens, duh. And I never talk without cost as that is pointless.
@BrownParent, it’s not obvious why you would assume the kid will win the Presidential but not the Regent. And if you are factoring in cost, should you not know the cost? Right now, we do not know the cost to either school. Thus your assertion that there is a serious difference in cost (in favor of GTech) seems rather flimsy.
For 98% of posters that is probably correct. But for the top 1 per centers or if the OP has 8+ figure wealth, college tuition is not even ‘a rounding error’. But more importantly, the OP specifically asked us to ‘ignore’ COA. And IMO, its ‘pointless’ to opine on something when not following directions. 
Update: DS got the PS award at GT. He is waiting for the Regent decision later this month from UCB.
While Cal is fabulous, the GT presidential scholarship is a big deal and $$$$$- good luck! When do you hear?
Nice choice either way. Getting summer internships with Silicon Valley-based employers may be easier for Berkeley students just from a proximity standpoint. If someone wanted to work in California in the long run, staying on the west coast might be a good idea.
But two great schools, and I’m sure lots of opportunities at Georgia Tech as well.