<p>I would be interested in knowing how many Berkeley engineers finish in 4 years. You may have to factor in the costs of a fifth year, which at $50K is nothing to sneeze at.</p>
<p>She’ll do just fine at UMN. Maybe you can compromise with letting her take a summer off and travel.</p>
<p>at begining Berkeley is not on my D’s wantss to go list, and she like Minnesota more than California. Hers favorit schools is princeton and MIT. After been rejected by princeton, MIT and Stanford, she begin turn to Berkrley. I understand her feeling…</p>
<p>Did she consider UW? It has a more UCB like atmosphere for far less money. (Instate tuition)</p>
<p>Minnesota. Cal is not worth the extra $45,000.</p>
<p>It depends. If she ends up not going to a grad School, then, she has to carry Minnesota name for rest of her life and she might always complain that she could have gone to Berkeley.</p>
<p>Oh my god. This one is easy. Minnesota! Both are fine schools. Both are probably somewhat zoo-like in a way with fierce bureaucracies, brilliant teachers, a certain number of large classes, etc. They probably have great opportunities. They are probably both full of “local” kids from whatever area they’re from. The thing is, college isn’t your last chance to experience something completely new. The opportunity to live and travel in new places is available your entire life. Heck, it’s available every summer! If your kid really wanted to experience California, she could hop on a bus in May, rent some student housing and get a temp job. Or work in a camp. Plenty of kids do that. Then come home to Minnesota for her $6 k education. I can understand why parents would swallow their fears and spend $50,000 to send their kids to Harvard. But no state school is worth it.</p>
<p>MNDYD,
I’ll be very interested to hear what you decide!</p>
<p>Son is facing a slightly similar situation (maybe the reverse of nojunkviolins?). UT Austin out of state ($40k a year, still waiting on a thread of a hope of scholarship) vs U of AL that provides scholarships to translate to about $3-5k cost per year. U of AL is sufficiently exotic & beautiful (we’re from NJ) so it’s not the same as an in-state affordability issue, as MNDYD has, but there are similarities.</p>
<p>I’ll be interested to hear how things progress for those comparing the big-ticket vs smaller-ticket rides…</p>
<p>Wow! I’d go for U of Alabama, especially if there’s an honors program. Good luck with that!</p>
<p>Thanks, Endicott. Son will decide, ultimately. But, what worries me: when I asked about ‘computer game developent’ internships/jobs/etc. – a prof in the engineering dept. literally laughed (& said, ‘ya’ll need to go to CA or WA for that’).</p>
<p>Good luck to those weighing all the factors!!</p>
<p>U of Minnesota - definitely. $45K is a lot of money. Apart from that, only 61% of Berkeley undergraduates complete their bachelors in 4 years, so it could mean even more of a financial hit. On-campus housing is guaranteed only for the first year. Only 35% of students live in college housing.</p>
<p>My husband went to Berkeley and he basically lived in a boardinghouse with a big shared refrigerator and shared bathrooms. All kinds of weird people lived there. Not the best environment for a young student.</p>
<p>Berkeley housing is a bit unusual. There is really no housing on campus. There are a few high rise dorms in areas near the campus proper which are considered university housing but most students live in private apartments near campus. You need to consider the hassle and benefits of private housing with 12 month leases.</p>
<p>We just went through this agonizing decision with our D. She was set to go OOS until their tuition increased and a another potential tuition increase was in the works. After calculating a definite tuition increase that the school has put in place for the next several years and a potential increase to cover a very large budget defecit, we finally told our D, she could make the decision but we would not be able to help her with grad school because all the $$ would be spent OOS so it was her decision. After loving her OOS school for 2 years, she decided (with tears I might add) to go to instate school. I know she will be happy and you will think she is crazy for initially wanting to turn this down but she will now be going to UCLA (with a scholarship I might add).</p>
<p>You will be paying more for Berkeley than practically anyone else if your child goes there. Unless there is some truly outstanding reason for here to go, I would not do it.</p>
<p>A friend of my son was a top high school student. He was admitted to CalTech (among other elite schools), and that was really where he wanted to go, but finances found him enrolling at U of MN instead. He is studying physics and math, and is enjoying the school and the perks that come from being recognized by faculty as a top catch. </p>
<p>In your case, I think MN sounds like a good decision. Half of your income is too much for undergraduate work.</p>
<p>MNDYD-</p>
<p>My son was at this point two years ago. His first choice was Berkeley. $50K per year for OOS vs many other schools. </p>
<p>We told him he could go anywhere, loan free. </p>
<p>Ultimately, I did my research and found through the Berekely CC thread, many reason not to send him there. A good friend also has a young cousin that is a professor at Cal and was kind enough to email with me. The prof highly recommend my son not attend Cal for many of the reasons I had come up with. He stated that for grad school it would be fine, undergrad, no way.</p>
<p>My son, after hearing all this decided himself that the cost was ridiculous anyway and he decided to take full tuition scholarship at a well known private school. (We will be paying for grad school.)</p>
<p>Subsequently, my best friend went out to California last spring to visit a friend. They drove to Berkely as a side trip. My friend called me from there to say my son made the best decision not to go there. She was not happy with what she saw.</p>
<p>I hope this helps you out. It’s hard to turn down a school with such an amazing reputation (though there are many schools that you can get a great education from anyway). I’m sure there are many happy students there but there is obviously more to it than just the reputation.</p>
<p>Given the financial situation of cost at each school along with the current economic situation, I would opt out of Cal.</p>
<p>By the way, when my son got accepted to Cal, I went on line and purchased a Berkley t-shirt. He proudly wears it (at his current school)!</p>
<p>I would say, go to UMN. And, I say this while I am planning to pay through the nose to send my son to U Chicago when we he have an option of a full ride to a great public school as an OOS scholar (UMCP: U MD College Park) which is also very highly rated in his chosen field (economics). But the situation is different here. </p>
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<li><p>My son want to go straight to Wall Street after college, and U Chicago has unparalleled reputation in Economics. Also, the world of finance is very elitist and they DO care about which school he comes out of - AND based on my research so far, UMCP does not cut it even as a full ride scholar. Engineering is very different, and your daughter wants to go to a graduate school after college. Then, solid grades from a good state school does not disadvantage your daughter at all. (I am in high tech, and when I was hiring, I care way more about what the applicant did and worked on: diploma stamp was not much a factor unless the difference was between Stanford/MIT vs. 3rd rate unknown school with questionable value to begin with. Any flagship state U was well above the cut off point.</p></li>
<li><p>I wanted for my son an environment that is completely charged with super intellectual rigor. a small undergraduate program at U Chicago full of his intellectual peers with small class size and heavy duty interaction with faculty is a very important factor. Also, 2 to 1 ration of the grad students vs. undergrad students that made U Chicago a mature environment (as opposed to animal house extension of the prep school) was an important factor. These factors are worth a lot of money in my mind. Even at a great and prestigious state U like Berkeley, these two conditions are hard to meet because it’s too big and the distribution of the student body is much more scattered along the scale of peer student caliber. The difference between Berkeley vs. UMN on this scale is probably much smaller than that between Berkeley and U Chicago.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>By the way, S was also accepted by Berkeley. Berkeley is rated #3 in economics. Even so, If the choice was between Berkeley and UMCP with a full ride, it would be hands down UMCP.</p>
<p>I agree 100% with Endicott:</p>
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<p>For us the decision would not be academic. We could never afford to just pay 50k per year anyway.</p>