<p>I am currently having a tough time deciding what school to go to. Of the schools that I was accepted to, the following are the ones that I am honestly considering:</p>
<p>USC - spring admission, got in for Mathematics, but if I go, I would switch to Engineering
Carnegie Mellon - Undecided Engineering
UCSD - NanoEngineering
UCSB (honors) - Chemical Engineering (applied in Computer Science, but asked to switch)
Cal Poly SLO - Computer Software Engineering (but trying to switch to General/Biomedical)
Georgia Institute of Technology - Undecided Engineering</p>
<p>An important note is that I did not receive any gift aid from USC or Carnegie Mellon (just loans), and I did not receivce any aide from Georgia Tech (out of state total cost is 40k per year) or from UCSD (its cost is 30k in-state per year). UCSB gave me 6000/year (making cost around 25k per year) and admission into the honors program there. Cal Poly's total cost is about 25k for me per year. Which of these schools would you recommend (overall)? I know that it seems as if my majors are not the same, but not all of the schools had the option of going Undecided Engineering. UCSD was an exception because of their NanoEngineering Program. Which of these schools do you think is best overall? I was thinking of Carngegie Mellon, but it would be a total of 55k every year. Would it be worth the money? USC also gave no gift aid (only loans like Carnegie Mellon), and its total cost is also above 50k per year). Cal Poly seemed like a great option (very applied engineering program), but they are very impacted, and because I am not 100% sure which engineering field I would like to pursue, that presents a problem to me). Georgia Tech has the highest ranked engineering program out of all of these schools though (#4 or 5 in the nation according to US News, only behind MIT, Stanford, and Caltech). Help me please! Tough decisions here!</p>
<p>in addition, I forgot to mention that I was waitlisted at Rice University (UCLA too, but I do not want to go there). Should I actively attempt to get off of the waitlist or are my current choices better for engineering?</p>
<p>I would pick SLO, for financial reasons. Most of those schools are neck and neck in terms of engineering. Since USC and Carnegie aren’t offering aid, it would be extremely expensive. SLO, like you said, is very applied and you shouldn’t have a problem getting a job or internship after college. I heard also that as long as your are switching majors within a department, it isn’t too hard. You would need to worry if you tried to switch from Biology major to an Engineering one. After SLO would be UCSD. But if money isn’t an issue at all then I would go with CM or GIT. I’d advise visiting before you make a final decison though, if you have the time.</p>
<p>These majors yield very different jobs. If you could make some progress on figuring out what you really want career wise, it would help your decision a lot. </p>
<p>Can your family afford all these schools or will loans be involved?</p>
<p>@Waverly. here is the problem in terms of financial stuff - my family (and I) can afford schools like USC and CMU, but we would have to live with big debt for a while (total cost of both CMU and USC is over 200k). i would like to go to CMU, but i do not think that it is worth the money.
@shootforthestarz. Cal Poly is definitely a consideration, but as I said before, the fact that I am unsure about my engineering major is important. if I decide to go into Bioengineering (or NanoEngineering for UCSD), UCSD far outclasses Cal Poly. Cal Poly is great for Computer/Computer Software, Electrical, and Mechanical Engineering, but i am not sure about those majors (a definite no for Electrical and Mechanical though).</p>
<p>In addition to financial considerations, find out how difficult (administratively) it would be to change majors within engineering, since you seem to be undecided. Note that you will likely have to decide by the end of your first year anyway, as the prerequisite courses for the major tend to diverge after then.</p>
<p>USC effectively gave you a one semester discount, since you could attend community college for one semester and then go to USC for 7 semesters instead of 8 semesters. But it is still expensive if you got no grants or scholarships.</p>
<p>So would total four year costs be:</p>
<p>$100,000 Cal Poly SLO or UCSB
$120,000 UCSD
$160,000 Georgia Tech
$206,000 USC (7 semesters + 1 semester of community college)
$236,000 CMU</p>
<p>?</p>
<p>How many of these would be affordable without loans?</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus. without loans, UCSB, UCSD, and Cal Poly SLO are the only affordable ones. Those are the three that my parents really like for me; although UCSB and UCSD are slightly more favorable because they are closer :). I was kind of hoping that Georgia Tech uses some kind of match financial aid system to give in-state instead of out-of-state price, but turns out that they do not (i would tell them that Clemson University gave me 15000/year for in-state). i am still unsure though. USC and CMU seem like the least likely schools to attend. pitty that they cost so much. what about the UCSB honors program? I got the Regents Scholars award there. i am visiting UCSD tomorrow for Triton Day and I am probably visiting both Cal Poly and UCSB in the coming week.</p>
<p>Being undecided, the most important non-financial questions will be:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Does each school have the majors you are most likely to decide on?</p></li>
<li><p>(At the engineering division) What is the procedure for changing major, and how difficult is it to do so? (answer may differ for each possible target major)</p></li>
</ul>
<p>[Choosing/Changing</a> Majors - Career Services - Cal Poly](<a href=“http://www.careerservices.calpoly.edu/content/student/choose_change_major]Choosing/Changing”>http://www.careerservices.calpoly.edu/content/student/choose_change_major)
[Changing</a> Your Major | UCSB College of Engineering](<a href=“http://engineering.ucsb.edu/prospective_undergraduates/changing_your_major]Changing”>http://engineering.ucsb.edu/prospective_undergraduates/changing_your_major)
[How</a> to Declare or Change a Major (Undergraduates)](<a href=“http://students.ucsd.edu/academics/advising/majors-minors/declare-or-change-a-major.html]How”>How to Declare or Change a Major (Undergraduates))</p>
<ul>
<li>(At the career center) What companies come recruiting for each of the engineering majors you are interested in?</li>
</ul>
<p>[Graduate</a> Status Report - Career Services - Cal Poly](<a href=“http://www.careerservices.calpoly.edu/content/student/gsr_report]Graduate”>http://www.careerservices.calpoly.edu/content/student/gsr_report)
[Welcome</a> to Career Services](<a href=“http://career.sa.ucsb.edu/students/job_search/faqs.htm]Welcome”>http://career.sa.ucsb.edu/students/job_search/faqs.htm)
[Survey</a> of Recent UCSD Graduates](<a href=“http://career.ucsd.edu/alumni/alumni-survey/]Survey”>Alumni)</p>
<p>A UCSD-specific question is which residential college you got into. They have different breadth requirements, some much greater than others.</p>
<p>[The</a> Undergraduate College System](<a href=“http://www.ucsd.edu/prospective-students/colleges/]The”>http://www.ucsd.edu/prospective-students/colleges/)</p>
<p>If you got into Clemson, would its net cost make it affordable without loans?</p>
<p>I never really considered Clemson as an option considering my other schools. While money is important, a difference of 5000/year is not enough to convince me to go to Clemson over say Cal Poly or UCSD or UCSB. For UCSD, i got into Sixth College; from what I heard, it has an average course load among all of the colleges (17 quarters of GE). I already contacted admissions for UCSD and UCSB; it looks like it would be much easier to change among engineering majors there (i want to be an engineer for sure, just not sure which kind yet). for this reason, Cal Poly remains a bit shaky, despite the fact that i love SLO (i like SB and SD just as much though) and the fact that it has a great engineering school</p>
<p>a UC Honors opportunity would be HARD to pass on…think about the grad schools and professional reaction to that degree…pretty impressive…plus UCSD has several (5 I think) Nobel prize winners - you would likely Never meet them in the std opportunity but in the Honors college, you are rolling with that campus’ best…</p>
<p>Our son applied to several of the same schools and is leaning on Cal Poly but he has a Honors college opportunity at U of Utah (only 3 nobel prize winners from there) - For you, UCSD is likely to grow in reputation as well - your degree from there will have even more clout in the years to come…</p>
<p>definitely save the bucks and grad at USC or CMU perhaps…UNLESS, being happy at Cal Poly SLO will get the best out of you…as far as our son, he performs SO much better when happy and involved - thus CP SLO or UU Honors are his final 2 choices…</p>
<p>Good Luck!</p>
<p>Engineering majors offered:</p>
<p>UCSB: chemical, computer, electrical, mechanical
UCSD: aerospace, bio(medical), chemical, electrical, mechanical, structural, nano*
Cal Poly SLO: aerospace, architectural, biomedical**, bioresource/agricultural, civil, computer, electrical, environmental, industrial, manufacturing, materials, mechanical, software</p>
<p><em>Not ABET accredited due to newness, but plans to seek ABET accreditation.
*</em>Not ABET accredited, but seeks to satisfy ABET accreditation criteria.</p>
<p>So the choice would appear to depend on which majors you are most likely interested in doing, and the relative ease of changing majors.</p>
<p>Now I am having some tough decisions to make. I visited UCSD yesterday for Triton Day and I loved UCSD! Great area, great campus, really good engineering program. I am still going to visit UCSB this coming weekend to see if I like it as well. Cal Poly would be a tough decision because of the lack of freedom there to switch classes, in addition to the fact that, based on what I have heard, the honors program at Cal Poly is relatively weak. It looks like I am going to be deciding between UCSB Honors for Chemical Engineering or Computer Science and UCSD for NanoEngineering, BioEngineering, or Computer Science.</p>
<p>ucsd is more prestigious and will likely become more so over time…</p>
<p>good luck!</p>
<p>If for some reason you decide to consider Clemson again, let me know if you have any questions!</p>
<p>UCSB or Cal Poly would really be my choices here. UCSB would be kind of tempting for me because of the honors program but Cal Poly probably has a better engineering program. I’m sure engineering is really good at UCSB too because it’s a UC school.</p>