My son (from northern CA) got an offer of admission from the following:
- Purdue : FYE in honors program and $10,000 per year scholarship for all 4 years, as long as he maintains a certain GPA. There is a slight chance he may not get in Computer Engineering (CmpE) as everyone from the Engineering school does FYE and depending on GPA, Purdue will decide. The professors and others we met said most students with GPA greater than 3.0 will be able to get their first choice. The scholarship brings the cost down to about the same as UCs. Weather and distance from home are negatives. Reading about Purdue's tough grading in Engineering, there is also a chance that he may not be able to maintain the scholarship for all 4 years.
- UC Davis (Computer Engineering) : No scholarship, closer to home, guaranteed admission to CmpE.
- UC Irvine (Computer Engineering) : $3000 scholarship for first 2 years, guaranteed admission to CmpE
- UIUC : Got Aerospace engineering, no scholarship, interested in CompE - Most likely will not consider. Do not like uncertainty of the major.
- U of Washington : Admitted with scholarship ($7500 per year) but not direct freshman admission to CmpE - Most likely will not consider. Do not like uncertainty of the major.
We have visited the first 3 colleges and still are not sure what the best choice would be. Appreciate any opinions / advice.
Thanks.
Seems like UCD and UCI are the most obvious choices based on both cost (without having to worry about a high GPA to renew a big scholarship) and direct admission to the major.
The CSE major at Washington would be much less uncertain if your son’s stats are around the top 25% of the class (that is, around 3.9+ UW GPA and 32+ ACT (33 M)/2100+ SAT (730 M)). Otherwise, UCD or UCI would be my choice if I were in your son’s position. Impressive set of acceptances. Congratulations and good luck to your son.
Thank you ucbalumnus and UWfromCA. Any idea how the AP credits get transferred to each? I have contacted UCI and UCD and they are saying he will get credits but they are not committal on if he can skip taking those classes altogether and go directly to sophomore classes. In email they said “we will give more information during freshman orientation”. 
My son has following AP scores:
Calc BC: 5
Chemistry: 5
Computer Science: expected 5
AP Language and Composition: 4
Physics C: expected 4
Stats: expected 5
AP Lit: expected 4
From Purdue’s web site, he will get credit for half his freshman year classes and he may not have to take those. Not sure same applies to UCI and UCD. I was reading some more on UCD web site and it seems APs are not given any weight at all.
I still haven’t got concrete answers from Purdue about how does the AP credit transfer affect his scholarship and selection of his major. I have read that Purdue’s engineering is tough but with many AP credits transfer it may be less stressful if he chooses the classes wisely and spread them over the 4 year course. He may also be able to take some extra classes or if possible do a double major to graduate in four years. Any advice?
Thanks.
That $10k per year Purdue award will become less meaningful each year as tuition goes up. Right now, you probably don’t even know what 2016-17 school year tuition is, because schools generally announce that in the summer, right before classes start. For the current 15-16 school year, the OOS tuition is about $28k. My the time your child will be a junor or senior, the OO tuition could easily be $35k plus $17k-20k for the other costs, and suddenly that $10k per year will seem rather miniscule.
If he’s going to go to college for four years, then what difference will AP credits make…or not?
UCD AP credit: http://catalog.ucdavis.edu/admission/ap.html
UCI AP credit: https://www.admissions.uci.edu/applicants/ap_exams.html
Compare the courses he would be exempt from with the requirements he has for his major and general education at each school.
If he has AP credit that exempts him from a course where he intends to take a more advanced course (e.g. exempt from calculus and intends to take multivariable calculus), it would be a good idea to try the college’s final exam for the course that he is considering skipping to verify his knowledge to the college’s expectations.