Help me choose a school!

<p>I want to pursue Chemical Engineering in college but I applied for different majors to the schools that I've been admitted to because I didn't know what I wanted to do when I applied. Here's the list with total costs per year:</p>

<p>University of Florida - BioE ($15,000 after aid)
University of Texas - Undeclared ($40,000)
UIUC - ChemE ($45,000)
UC Berkeley - Pre-business/Undeclared (~$45,000 after aid, may be lower)</p>

<p>My top choice is UC Berkeley, but I would want to switch to ChemE if I went. Should I take the risk of going there and not getting ChemE but getting an amazing education and tons of opportunities in a great place, or should I play it safe and go with UIUC or UF?</p>

<p>Also, does anyone know how hard it would generally be to transfer from undeclared to ChemE at UC Berkeley?</p>

<p>It’s pretty easy to transfer from undeclared to chemE at Berkeley, because it is in the College of Chemistry. All you have to do is take classes your first semester or two as if you are already a chemE major and get B’s or better in those classes (Chemistry, Physics, Math). Then you fill out a form and they will take you.</p>

<p>singh2010, do you know anyone who has successfully done so? Do you know what the successful transfer rate is?</p>

<p>Anyone else have any advice or info to share?</p>

<p>Florida or Berkeley. The other two are much more expensive than Florida and will not provide you with any additional benefit (or atleast not much more). Berkeley is a great school, but if you are 100% on going into engineering and arent planning IB or anything than Id say Florida. If you do want to pursue something like IB, I’d go to Berkeley.</p>

<p>I’ve heard differing opinions about UIUC…some say it won’t give me a huge edge over going to UF, but UIUC is one of the top engineering schools so I’d have more of an advantage. </p>

<p>I’m considering IB but I’d rather go into the biotech or energy industries. Any idea on how well UF and UIUC are able to place students in those industries?</p>