<p>hello, i am a high school senior who has an interest in civil engineering, but i lack the test scores (and funds) to attend a prestigious school of engineering right out of the gates. if this is in the wrong place, i apologize and would appreciate it if it were moved to its proper location! </p>
<p>anywho, I am planning on attending Santa Monica Community College (don't have the funds to start off at a UC or CSU, and would rather wait 2 years and go to a good college rather than rush things). My plan of action was as follows:</p>
<p>1]Attend SMC for G.E. as it is cheaper than say, a UC.
2]-Hopefully- transfer to UC Berkeley for Under Grad studies under Civil Engineering, and get my BA from them.
3]Go to Stanford for my Graduate Studies in the same field and earn my degree there. </p>
<p>my reasoning for this is, Berkeley is #1 in the country for civil engineering, but Stanford has a higher prestige. </p>
<p>Would this be a wise route to take? If not, what would be?</p>
<p>1) You won’t be getting a BA in engineering, you will be getting a BS.</p>
<p>2) Don’t already convince yourself you are doing graduate school because you have no idea if you will even like the major once you get into it. Instead, focus on doing the best you can while deciding if you actually like the major. Worry about graduate school after a year or two in your program.</p>
<p>3) Stanford and Berkeley will carry pretty much equal prestige in the engineering community. No one is going to say “You are equally qualified to this Stanford guy but I just can’t hire you because you went to Berkeley.” It doesn’t work that way. Just go where you feel you fit the best. Overall prestige matters for naught in engineering. It is all about engineering reputation.</p>
<p>4) Choosing a graduate school based on overall prestige or even department prestige is misguided. For graduate studies, you choose based on schools who have research groups that are are well-known in your area of interest. You may find out that the area you are ultimately interested in isn’t even covered at Stanford but that they top research group is at UCSB or something. In that case, UCSB > Stanford. Either way, worry about that when you have more experience in civil engineering.</p>
<p>The University of Texas and Illinois also have top-rated grad programs in civil engineering. boneh3ad is right - once you have narrowed down your areas of interest, you can find out which school does research in it. Also, you might get more money from one school over another. That’s why my husband picked Texas many years ago. He called from Wisconsin and talked to my father, a UT prof. Dad said, “Sure, come on down - we’ll get you a research assistantship.” Thank goodness that conversation took place, or I wouldn’t have met my future husband. :)</p>
<p>bonhea; thanks that was a very helpful post. I will have to look into the better graduate programs for civil engineering since i thought it was just based on overall school prestige. is georgia tech any good for graduate school? they gave me a call but i fear i must decline at the moment since i don’t have the funds (nor my parents) to send me there.</p>
<p>maine; thanks for the info and thats nice to hear about the way you met your husband</p>
<p>ucba; thanks so much! the first link was very very helpful. the problem with the ucla civil engineering is that berkeley is the best go-to school for C.E. regarding, CC would you happen to know if i get AP test credit in CC? (would appreciate if anyone answered) </p>
<p>But check the AP credit policies for both the community college and the four year schools that you are considering transferring to. In general, the most commonly granted subject credit and placement for AP credit is in math and English.</p>
<p>GT is a fantastic school for engineering. I know nothing of their civil department, but they are very well respected in the engineering community as a whole.</p>
<p>But when you consider the amount of students who drop out after the first year; I would not call it a prime school if you have to worry about grade inflation all the time.</p>
<p>i talked to my friends about this yesterday and they told me it would be best to go to the school (like berkeley or GT) right out of high school rather than wait for CC to finish. is this true? </p>
<p>(sorry if my questions seem dumb, i am a 1st generation so i don’t know where else to ask since my school is not the greatest)</p>
<p>CC is often less expensive. However, if you get good aid at the four year school and you are near enough to commute, going to CC may not save much, if any (e.g. if you go to UCLA and are low enough income to get Blue and Gold Opportunity free tuition and are close enough to commute to UCLA, then costs may not be too much different from SMC).</p>
<p>Academically, CC may be missing some courses, so you may need to “catch up” after transfer (see the articulations on [Welcome</a> to ASSIST](<a href=“http://www.assist.org%5DWelcome”>http://www.assist.org) ). You also cannot take junior or senior level courses early at a CC. However, class sizes are generally much smaller at a CC than the freshman and sophomore class sizes at UC and other big public universities.</p>
<p>CC is more flexible in terms of part time attendance if you need to do so for some reason. However, some California CCs are overenrolled, so it may be difficult to get needed classes. Some CSUs seem to have that problem also. Students posting in the Berkeley forum do not seem to have too many problems getting their core major requirements, but electives and breadths may be hard to get.</p>
<p>CC may be better for a very undecided student who does not want to be put on a clock to commit to a major within two years. This does not appear to apply to you.</p>
<p>In your case, if you get into a four year school with a good ABET-accredited civil engineering degree program and enough financial aid to avoid excessive student loans, it may be a better choice to go there as a freshman rather than do the CC route. But the CC route is not bad or anything like that if you do not get in to the desired schools as a freshman, or do not get enough financial aid to make them affordable.</p>
<p>Note that most out of state public universities do not give much financial aid.</p>
<p>thanks for thievery helpful post they jacked up UC and CSU tuition again last week so I’m just hesitant about going for my GE if i can get it for cheaper at a CC</p>
<p>Note that UC and CSU freshman application deadlines are soon. If you are not sure, apply for admission and financial aid; that way, if you are admitted, you can defer the decision until next April (by which time you will also see financial aid offers from any schools that admit you).</p>
<p>BeachHouse, I would not discount applying to Cal poly SLO or even Pomoma especially since they would be the most affordable. Nor, it you can get the funding, USC which is ranked pretty high as well since going OOS will not likely get you better aid and then you have costs of being away from your home state.</p>
<p>Transferring from a CC to UCB would be extremely difficult, but if you transfer to a less prestigious UC/calstate and excel there, getting into UCB/Stanford’s grad school will be more reasonable.</p>
that was a very helpful post. I will have to look into the better graduate programs for civil engineering since i thought it was just based on overall school prestige. is georgia tech any good for graduate school? they gave me a call but i fear i must decline at the moment since i don’t have the funds (nor my parents) to send me there.</p>