<p>I can either go to Berkeley or Arizona State for my engineering undergrad. Berkeley offers the third best engineering school in the country while Arizona State is... well... Arizona State. I have been offered $22,000 in scholarships and grants to Berkeley but the total cost is around $54,000 a year according to their website. For ASU I have been offered $15,000 with a total cost of $23,000 a year. These costs including everything from tuition, room and board, fees, food, travel, etc. Due to personal issues my parents cannot really contribute money and I have some savings bonds but not much. Would it be worth it for someone in my situation to choose Berkeley. I do plan on attending a grad school like Berkeley after I get my bachelors in mechanical engineering no matter where I go.</p>
<p>Berkeley: $32K/yr out-of-pocket x 4 = $128K
vs.
ASU: $8K/yr out-of=pocket x 4 = $32K</p>
<p>imo, it’s too much debt to take on for UCB, especially if you’re planning on grad school.</p>
<p>you are oos for Berkeley then. why’d you apply? That’s too much money to borrow. Focus on doing extremely well in your program and you will have a choice of prestige programs for grad school. You only have these extreme choices?</p>
<p>Due to personal issues my parents cannot really contribute money and I have some savings bonds but not much.</p>
<p>So, the question REALLY is…Is a more prestigious college worth big DEBT.</p>
<p>No…especially not for engineering. Your salary will be the same whether you graduate from ASU or UCB. And, since you have grad school in your plans…that degree will matter more.</p>
<p>Besides…YOU cannot borrow that much. You’d need your parents to co-sign, which many parents wisely won’t do.</p>
<p>You must have amazing stats to get that much money from UCB as an OOS student. Weren’t you offered big merit elsewhere? Are you a NMF?</p>
<p>Run your offers through this calculator:</p>
<p>[FinAid</a> | Calculators | Award Letter Comparison Tool](<a href=“Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid”>Award Letter Requirements - Finaid)</p>
<p>UCB is too expensive for you.</p>
<p>No, I don’t think it’s worth it unless you can go to hypswm. Honestly, it’s kind of messed up, but going to one of those six schools/program is like a big club…grads of the schools end up finding each other. I realized the other day that all of my dad’s best friends were/are harvard/yale law grads</p>
<p>^ Why are hypswm eng’g programs worth the OOS and berkeley’s isn’t?</p>
<p>DoinSchool, are you a working engineer? All of the working engineers who have posted on this kind of topic since I’ve been here, have written that hypsm does not mean an engineer will get a better job or be paid better starting out. And certainly the kind of debt the OP is considering is ridiculous for any undergraduate degree!</p>
<p>No. Too much debt, especially for a school that in some ways is pretty similar to ASU (big state flagship, diverse, located in a big metropolitan area, etc.).</p>
<p>I wasn’t speaking to engineering programs at all (somehow I didn’t see that part of OP). anyway I know nothing about engineering but my dad is a mech engineer PhD and STILL ended up networking with HYPSM grads who werent in his field (primarily, law). All I am saying is people from those schools find each other and, in my opinion, there is definitely a value to being “in” that group. I agree that this thread wasn’t the best one for illustrating that point. I’m just saying that those six programs (wharton, mit, princeton, yale, harvard, stanford) are probably the only ones I would consider going into significant (>$50k) debt for</p>
<p>For engineering, go to ASU and do well there and you can get into any strong grad school. In engineering, no one looks more favorably on HYPSM than other good schools. If it were Cal Tech or MIT, that’d be different. Enjoy ASU!</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>True…my friend’s son graduated in May 09 (almost 2 years ago) with an engineering degree from Columbia and still doesn’t have a job!</p>
<p>
Berkeley =/= Arizona State</p>
<p>However, I agree with not saddling yourself up with a huge debt burden. </p>
<p>OP, FYI, it’s not necessary to get a masters degree right away to work as an engineer. Get your BS. Work for a couple years. See where your career path takes you and then go back for a masters degree or MBA. I say this because your interests could change and your employer might help pay for your advanced degree.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Civil engineering? 2009 was the worst time to graduate in that major, due to business cycle effects (real estate / construction crash).</p>
<p>I am thinking of doing AFROTC starting after my first year but I don’t know if I would get enough of a scholarship from that too or how an ROTC scholarship would change the finaid that they offered.</p>
<p>“Berkeley =/= Arizona State”</p>
<p>Well, duh. But this is not a situation where the kid is longing for Swarthmore and has to go to ASU. That’s a case of zero overlap, and a kid perfect for one school is likely to be miserable at the other. UCB/ASU overlap is moderate; if you can love one, you can like the other.</p>
<p>^ Good point.</p>
<p>DoinSchool,</p>
<p>According to Forbes’ payscale.com’s latest survey, Yale grads don’t make that much compared to Berkeley grads. </p>
<p>let me show you the figures:</p>
<p>Key Statistics for Yale University Alumni:</p>
<p>Bachelor of Arts (BA/AB) $49,910 - $97,259
Bachelor of Arts (BA/AB), Economics $45,379 - $79,872
Ph.D. $50,868 - $123,696</p>
<p>Here’s Berkeley’s:</p>
<p>Bachelor of Arts (BA/AB) $49,395 - $109,697
Bachelor of Arts (BA/AB), Economics $52,981 - $80,293
Ph.D. $67,407 - $128,178</p>
<p>I think the gap would even be wider for engineering majors.</p>
<p>Basing on the figures above, shouldn’t you be making ties with the Berkeley alumni? ;)</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.payscale.com/research/US/School=University_of_California%2C_Berkeley/Salary[/url]”>http://www.payscale.com/research/US/School=University_of_California%2C_Berkeley/Salary</a>
<a href=“http://www.payscale.com/research/US/School=Yale_University/Salary[/url]”>http://www.payscale.com/research/US/School=Yale_University/Salary</a></p>
<p>Although not as good as Berkeley’s, ASU’s engineering program is still excellent. Were you accepted to Barrett, The Honors College? If so, you’ll have a great experience. The dorms are beautiful and the dining hall is great. ASU gets a somewhat negative reputation sometimes, but it really does have good academics (especially engineering). Considering the financial advantage, I would choose ASU, especially since you are planning on mechanical engineering.</p>