Hi I am a high school senior currently deciding between staying in-state and attending Rutgers University – New Brunswick or going out west to UCLA. Both schools are for Computer Science, which at Rutgers is a B.A and a B.S at UCLA.
Although I would love to go to UCLA and I eventually want to work in Southern California, it will cost me ~$170k over four years while Rutgers will cost $15k for 4 years and I can graduate in three years due to AP Credit going towards some math classes and general education classes. This also means that I could most likely complete Rutgers’ 5 year accelerated B.S + M.S in Computer Science in 4 years.
If I did in fact choose UCLA, I wouldn’t have to take out any loans. My parents would cover the cost. However, that is a mighty hefty sum to take on and I don’t want to waste their money if the advantage conferred upon me by attending UCLA isn’t much greater than that given to me at Rutgers.
I either want to work at a startup doing something really innovative or work at an established company such as Google or Microsoft that is innovating in the area of Artificial intelligence.
As a final note, I do expect to attend grad school, as I want to get into Artificial Intelligence and it seems like that is a field that is mainly covered in graduate studies. If I went to UCLA undegraduate, I would have to find money to pay for graduate school as my parents won’t have it.
What is your guys advice?