So I’m a transfer student that just got most of my admission decisions recently (still waiting on USC, my top choice). I got into UCLA, UCSD, UCSB, UCI, and CP SLO for electrical engineering but I don’t know where to go. There are pros and cons to a lot of them, which is why I’ve been really confused about where to go for the past few months. Here’s some of them
UCLA
Pros: Great engineering program, Great student life (love the athletics). Great food, UCLA name. Very nice location. Great campus.
Cons: lol honestly it’s because I need to take COMP SCI 32 and I don’t remember anything from the COMP SCI 31 prerequisite equivalent that I took at my community college. My friend also carried me starting around the arrays chapter, so he literally carried me for 85% of the class lol. I’m scared that I’m going to get screwed over so :/. Not sure if its possible to retake that class at UCLA. UCLA is also Kind of broad? Like USC and UCSD have specific course plans/routes that lets you specialize in a certain field but UCLA doesn’t have that AFAIK
UCSD
Pros: Great engineering program, Got into Sixth College and I heard everything is brand new since they moved it, Have some friends that go there already, Can enter specialized “routes” in their ECE program. For example, I can take specific classes for Electric Circuits and Systems or Computer Systems Design.
Cons: “UC Socially Dead” lol I kinda want a social life. Or rather, as much as I can get as an EE major, Heard its VERY theory heavy and that students shouldn’t expect to actually be taught the material
Cal Poly SLO
Pros: VERY good engineering program that employers like because of the learn by doing motto they have. Because of this, there’s a lot of internship and job opportunities so its fairly easy to secure a job right after graduation, which is really APPEALING. Unfortunately…
Cons: Compared to the UCs, it’s more expensive lol. I’ll need to pay an estimated $16k after financial aid is applied at SLO while at the UCs, I only need to pay an estimated $10k. So Cal Poly is $6k more than the UCs. I also saved up enough money to pay off at least 1 year at the UCs while still having some spending money for myself. Assuming I’m at the schools for 2 years, I’ll need to pay an estimated total of $22k ($32k-10k) at CSUs and $10k ($20k-10k) at the UCs for two years. That’s a lot so I’m not sure if I can afford that unless I take a lot of loans… This is the main thing holding me back from Cal Poly. My family is pretty poor and I don’t really want to put a financial burden on my parents. Another con is that more than 50% of the school is white lol i want some diversity
UCI and UCSB
I dunno, I mean I guess they’re good but not as good as the schools I listed above? A pro is that student life is pretty good at both of these schools but that’s it lol
So yeah, those are the pros and cons of the schools. I really don’t know where to go. If anyone can help make my decision easier, that would be great.
Thank you!