I’m new to College Confidential! First post!
I have recently received admission to both programs mentioned above. Still can’t fully wrap my head around that:
I have not yet been able to visit either campus, so on that front I’ve got nothing. In terms of cost, I have in-state tuition for Berkeley and a small financial aid package knocking my payments down to 20k total (I plan to also work-study). For Georgia Tech I have very little financial aid, so the program will cost me about 40k for out of state tuition.
I know that these are very different programs, but upon applying I had very clear goals for both. For GT, I wanted to do mechanical with a energy or electrical emphasis (they have very flexible programs that I wanted to take to supplement my degree) while partaking in Robotics and research on campus.
For Berkeley, I want to do Engineering Physics with course choices in EE (there is an opportunity to take a very large number of EE courses within the Engineering physics degree plan) while taking physics courses that I really enjoy, maintaining the engineering flavor of the material. The problem with this is that I would have to make a concession in terms of design and robotics, but I would gain a more rigorous program.
I thought this decision would be pretty cut-and-dry, and that Berkeley would easily be my first choice, but speaking to current students, a lot of them speak to the difficulty of the program, finding internships and a job (Especially in Eng Physics) as well as the lack of advising for such a large class.
If you have any advice on this subject, I will really appreciate any input I receive.