<p>I am an international student and have been accpeted in the following colleges for undergraduate computer science:-</p>
<p>University of California - Berkeley
University of Southern California
University of Toronto
University of Illinois - Urbana Champaign
Johns Hopkins University ( 30,000$ aid/year)
Middlebury College(Waitlist)
Carnegie Mellon University (I have accepted the priority waitlist)</p>
<p>CMU is my first choice so I have signed the binding agreement to be in the priority waitlist. However, I have to enroll at another college and am getting confused. I have narrowed my options to UCB or JHU(beacuse of aid). I am very keen on doing Computer Science and also plan to attend grad school. Except JHU, I will have to take a loan for all colleges. So, considering these factors, what is my best option?</p>
<p>UCB, CMU, and JHU are all great options.</p>
<p>From your personal viewpoint, what are the pros and cons of each?</p>
<p>For me, my main comment is: UCB and CMU are considered to be very similar in terms of academic rigor in terms of CS. A waitlist is uncertain, but you already have a solid acceptance to UCB. Typically, UCB/Stanford/MIT rank immediately above CMU. So, unless there is a heavy cultural factor that’s influencing you to go with CMU, I suggest you choose UCB between the two.</p>
<p>As for JHU: do you think you’ll be happy there?</p>
<p>The reason why I am more keen on CMU is that it has an entire school devoted to computer science and the no of students is less as compared to Berkeley which is too big. Also, I have heard that for undergrad CMU is better than UCB…not too sure about that though. As for JHU, the only reason I am considering it is beacuse I got 50% aid and I want to know whether studying at JHU or UCB will make a big diffference in terms of the opportunities I get in computer science. If there is a big difference, then I will choose UCB and take a loan.</p>
<p>What are the net costs and needed loan amounts of all of the schools you are accepted to?</p>
<p>Berkeley does have advantages in recruiter attraction due to high profile, large size, and closeness to Silicon Valley.</p>
<p>The total cost for UCB, CMU and JHU is about 240,000$ including living and transportations and basically everything. I can pay about 120,000$.So, if I go to UCB or CMU, I will take a loan of about 120,000$ while if I go to JHU, I dont need a loan</p>