Need help deciding on a college for Electrical Engineering

Senior in high school, but have completed an associate’s degree through a dual credit program at a local college in Washington State.

Intended major: Electrical Engineering, but would like to do some work/research in Bio-medical engineering department

Deciding between these schools:

University of Washington - Seattle Campus
Purdue University - Main Campus (West Lafayette)
Cal Poly - San Luis Obispo

I have been accepted as a First-year engineering student at Purdue and UW, and am in the EE department at Cal Poly.

Factors I am taking into account:

  1. Strength of EE department
  2. Cost of Attendance
  3. Credit Evaluation (this is decided by the school, but so far I know UW has guaranteed transfer of all 2 years of credit, Cal poly most credits)
  4. School Ranking
  5. Reputation to job recruiters (regionally in the west, and nationally)

Thanks in advance to anyone that replies!

They are all very good schools and pretty different. Were you offered direct admission to EE @ UW? Are big time college sports important to you? Where do you ultimately want to live, still in the west? Have you visited?

  1. Sadly not direct admit to UW EE, just first-year engineering. If I were to go here, I would have to apply again for the department by the end of next year.
  2. I will definitely be involved in terms of going to events related to college sports, but it isn't a "deal breaker" for me on any end.
  3. To be honest, I could see myself living in any of these campuses, although if i were to rank it would be (Cal Poly > UW > Purdue)
  4. Only visited UW seeing as how I live in Washington.

All in all, academics and what the college can offer in terms of my major are what I’m really boiling down to (Which college is most prestigious, highest ROI, etc.)

What does each school cost you?

UW (in-state) ~ 12K
Purdue ~ 45K
Cal Poly ~ 37K

Seems like an easy choice to me. UW is a really good school but I don’t know how hard it is to get to EE after 1st year. I know people who are coming there after getting their bachelors at UC Berkeley for masters and PhDs.

That’s a huge difference in price. Unless there’s some really urgent need, I can’t imagine recommending anything other than UW.

US News Ranking

UW #52 nationally, #27 Engineering School
Purdue #61 nationally, #6 Engineering School
Cal Poly regional rank so not comparable

For the price, UW hands down!

@colcon101, Did you get a HUGE scholarship at UW or will you live at home? The numbers don’t quite make sense. I understand no aid from Poly. They don’t give much to anyone. I’d have expected that Purdue on the other hand would have offered you SOME merit if your stats were good enough to warrant that number at UW. Just curious. Something doesn’t add up. If your stats were that high, you would have been offered direct EE admission at UW. Help me understand that piece and then I’ll add additional comments.

Rankings are not definitive in any way.

Purdue offered me 5K in aid, which was already factored in haha.

UW is in state tuition, that’s why its 12K for me.

I thought UW mailed out decisions on 3/15 at the earliest.

From the standpoint of cost and major, Purdue is less desirable than CPSLO, because it is more expensive and you do not have direct admit to the major, unlike at CPSLO.

So it comes down to CPSLO (direct admit to the major, more expensive) versus UW (not direct admit to the major, less expensive). So it really comes down to the following:

  1. How much is cost a factor in your decision?
  2. At UW, admission to the EE major is competitive; see https://www.engr.washington.edu/current/admissions/admitstats . You may want to find out if and how your community college courses and grades are used in the admission to the major process, but note that there is also a statement of purpose essay. Consider what you would do if you are not admitted to the EE major -- would your backup plan be to settle for a major with less competitive admissions, or transfer to some other school (e.g. WSU) for your major?

UW lists its in-state cost of attendance as $27,034 living on campus, or $19,279 living with parents, with tuition of $11,839. Do you mean to say that you will commute to UW and that your parents will continue to subsidize non-tuition costs living at home and commuting if you attend UW? Or did you get scholarships and/or financial aid at UW to reduce the price?

Thank you for the substantial response!

It becomes 19,279 after factoring in costs that any person, let alone college student, would have when living in a house with their family (eating food at home, rent under the house with family, etc.). I feel that they may have randomly factored that in on the website to make living on campus look more appealing or reasonable.

Remember that food, utilities, and transportation costs for a commuter student living with parents are not $0, although many students and parents act as if it were $0, even though your parents would not spend that amount if you lived in the dorm or off-campus near the school. Remember that there is also an estimated $1,206 in books and supplies for all living situations.

https://www.ee.washington.edu/news/2015/UWEERanked18byU.S.NewsWorldReport.html

Makes sense, can’t count out what my family is in fact paying for. To be honest, my parents and I are solely looking for the best choice of these three academically for my major (money is still a factor, but the return on investment is higher on the scale. What I’d like to get out of this thread is where Cal Poly ranks out of these three ("nw2this mentioned it isn’t comparable since it’s only a regional school). Would love to get an answer on that specifically with regards to EE.

I understand why UW seems like the clear choice here, but the fact that I am already in the department at Cal Poly is the conflict between making my final decision.

Engineering does not necessarily give you a better return based on a school you attend.

I was going to point that out before @ucbalumnus beat me to it. It’s not $12k no matter how you shake it and bake it. You need books, gas money and food. Whether or not you are at home or on campus, the cost of those is the same. It’s simply a matter of if they cut the check to the school or the grocery store. You would save rent if you lived at home, but then your collegiate experience would be vastly different.

My son was faced with a similar situation. He could have chosen Oregon State, his instate flagship, or pay more to go to Cal Poly. OSU is like UDub in that you start in pre-engineering, but at OSU you don’t get tracked into your specialty until junior year. It’s not as hard to get your choice at OSU as it is at UDub though.

He chose Poly because the class sizes are much smaller than most big state schools, the program is respected, at least on the west coast where he know he wanted to stay, and he really liked the curriculum. They were very generous in allowing AP and dual enrollment credit to used.

I’m biased towards CP, because my son goes there and has had a good experience. I think it really though boils down to the money vs. the risk of not getting the major you want. Look at both curricula. Go with your gut, but don’t go into lots of debt for any of them.

Good luck.