<p>No. UCs is greatly biased towards in-staters, and you should take advantage of that; i think you have a better chance of getting into UCSD than UIUC anyway. lets say if u get to choose between UCSD and UIUC - i mean sure UIUC is probably slightly better in engineering, but i personally dont think it is worth paying the extra 20,000$ just to go to UIUC over UCSD. Also, i think UCSD is ranked higher for the overall university than UIUC, and I know many people who would gladly choose UCSD over UIUC, paying OOS tuition for both.</p>
<p>i think that any californians should only apply to reach or match universities outside california, since they have a wide ranged of UCs to fall back on for safety.</p>
<p>Wow, I never really thought about it that way. You're right, UCSD is better than UIUC, especially since the tuition is so much lower. Plus, it's easier to get into...</p>
<p>In fact I really want to go to UC Berkeley, but i dont think I will be applying there, because I am not a californian. you would have to be harvard/MIT material to get admission to Berkeley if you are an international applicant. lol</p>
<p>Cornell's more of a slight reach/reach. They aren't nearly as selective as your other reaches, but 1) There acceptance rate has gone down noticably and 2) they still reject some amazing people (top 1 percent, 2300+). </p>
<p>I think you're more likely to get into Cornell than Stanford, MIT, Princeton, and Columbia without a doubt, so I guess I'd call it a slight reach.</p>
<p>"Wow, I never really thought about it that way. You're right, UCSD is better than UIUC, especially since the tuition is so much lower. Plus, it's easier to get into..."</p>
<p>UCSD is deff a better school than UIUC, and usually UCSD is considered tougher to get into, as it has a lower acceptance rate, with a somewhat better student body. but since you are in state for UCSD, it is likely no more difficult, plus its a better overall school. I think youll get into berkeley, so i woudlnt worry, but i woudlnt consider ucsd a safety, probably a safe match for you (ucla, berkeley, and ucsd are rarely safeties for anyone). uci and ucd would be your safeties, and ucla and berkeley would be your match.</p>
<p>Seriously, go for it, if you have heart and compassion to really want to go to a school, don't let anyone hold you back. Personally, I did the same thing with middling stats, and now I'm happy where I'm going, so. seriously, just go for it, and good luck :)</p>
<p>I am in my senior year of high school. I followed my heart and applied to elite universities like MIT and Caltech, and got straight out rejected! Sometimes you have to be more realistic than just to follow your heart. However, I am going to University of Melbourne next year, and I will apply for transfer to the U.S. after my freshman year there. I was thinking about applying to: Cornell, Rice, Carnegie Mellon, UMich, UIUC</p>
<p>Is Berkeley harder to get in than Cornell, Rice and Carnegie Mellon, for an international student?</p>
<p>PS: If Flippy has that kind of stats UCSD is definitely a safety! I just cant see UCSD rejected a californian with that astounding stats.</p>
<p>Yeah, seriously. I know it's always possible, but I've never heard of anyone with my kind of GPA get rejected by UCSD except maybe their bioengineering program or whatever it was that was super selective (people reject Harvard for UCSD's Bioengineering program or something).</p>
<p>Anyways, I'm sorry you didn't get to make it to MIT/Caltech. =/</p>
<p>For an international student, Berkeley is harder than Cornell, Rice, and CMU if applying to Berkeley's College of Engineering, which is probably what you applied to.</p>
<p>Haha.. I may not know much but i am trying to help anyway. Well I guess i wont be applying to Berkeley... too competitive for international.</p>
<p>Anyway does anyone know if U Melbourne can match Umich or UIUC (for engineering), because if it can i just wont apply to umich/UIUC for transfer there.</p>
<p>i dont dig how USCD is considered a safety for engineering...it's actually considered one of the best in the nation for engineering, and after reading up and going the campus, i'd say it provides a pretty good environment for a serious engineer (i say "serious," becuase UCSD doesn't seem to promote interdisciplinary study or extracurricular activities as much as other schools, which is a big reason why i chose USC over UCSD).</p>
<p>My brother-in-law went to UCSD and he also thought that it was a good safety school, telling me that their engineering program is getting better. So yeah, UCSD does have a great engineering program, but it's just not that hard to get into.</p>
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but it's just not that hard to get into.
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<p>Well, certainly not relative to MIT/Caltech/Berkeley/Harvey Mudd/Cooper Union/ect, but it's no cake walk. It's just a few notches below in difficulty.</p>
<p>my friend got rejected from UC Davis but got into UCSD for aerospace engineering.</p>
<p>And no, the money doesnt make up for the difference. i guess it depends on the student. if you're dirt poor then maybe it does, but if you have the extra money to spend, uiuc owns ucsd. it matches in academics, owns in social life, owns in sports, owns in godliness.</p>