My teenager is choosing between OOS UC Berkeley vs UMD for a double major in Math and CS. According to most rankings UC Berkeley is ranked higher in both math and cs. UMD is our instate option and is 3.5x less. We have saved enough that we could afford UCB oos. I wonder if spending 3.5x more for Berkeley is worth it?
Note that UCB L&S CS requires a 3.3 college GPA in the three prerequisite CS courses to declare the L&S CS major.
IMO, no. Both are huge state schools that are strong in CS (obviously Cal is stronger and more renown). So the experience won’t be too different except Cal is more stressful. But going to UMD didn’t hold back Sergey Brin. Top undergrads can take graduate classes at UMD.
Cal is also in the Bay Area, which is advantageous, but remember that life doesn’t end after undergrad. If the Bay Area is truly that important, he/she could go to Stanford/Cal for a masters and you’d still end up ahead financially. Or enter a PhD program and then you don’t need to pay. And there’s a lot else you could do with the saved money besides getting a masters (handy for a career change if he wants that later): seed funding for a startup, seed to grow a nest egg for retirement. The difference is what? 120K total? 150K? 120K put in a relatively conservative 75/25 portfolio grows to $1M in 40 years on average (obviously with wide variation). Would make earlier retirement more possible if your kid wants that.
Plus, with Amazon in NoVa, I imagine that UMD would have a strong pipeline to there in coming years.
1 Like
Unless your daughter is desperate to go to school in California, UMD makes a lot more sense. I’m a retired programmer with a CS degree and have always found that the quality of CS grads coming out of various schools is indistinguishable.
The DC area is one of the best areas for CS jobs, so going to UMD doesn’t suffer much of a disadvantage in that respect.
1 Like
Even if the OP is desperate to go to CA, as I mentioned, you would save money yet get an extra degree by getting a masters there later.
I was a math major but took a lot of CS courses and worked in high tech my entire career. This is a double major that appeals to me.
UMD is very good. Berkeley is higher ranked. However, there are MANY universities that are very good for math and computer science. There aren’t any secrets that either university is going to teach an undergraduate student.
Then there are the long coast to coast flights.
I would stick with UMD. You will have money left for a master’s degree if you want to consider that when the time comes.
A CS degree is highly employable, especially in DC. You can’t throw a stick in DC without hitting someone looking to hire Computer Scientists.