<p>How do these colleges compare in terms of prestige, engineering department reputation, job placement, quality of academics, and alumni connections? My intended major is Electrical Engineering. I'm from California and probably want to stay there after college.
Thanks! </p>
<p>Have you been admitted to all 4?
How much will each cost, after scholarships/grants, but before any loan?</p>
<p>I have been admitted to all except Lafayette but I should be getting in. How would they compare without regarding the cost? </p>
<p>The cali schools will be much less expensive than Lafayette unless you pulled down a Marquis Fellowship or Scholarship. Each of the cali schools is every bit as good as Lafayette in many respects and each (cal poly?) offers a strong humanities/social science gig to complement the STEM excellence, just as Lafayette does. I cannot think of a real advantage to going to Lafayette over these three except that Lafayette isn’t in CA. It is in a small postindustrial city with not anything spectacular going on there. The campus sits up on a hill and you have a long climb down to the city. This area of PA is probably my least favorite, but it is close to NYC and Philly both. You can easily pop into town for a show or a pro sports night out. The area has a tired look. Some people will insist that it’s coming back, but they’ve been saying that since I lived there in the 70s and Billy Joel was singing “Allentown.” It’s more like Springsteen’s “Your Home Town” than Rebound Town. Still, the campus itself is very nice and well taken care of. The food is good. The architecture is good. If there’s a downside to campus life it is the absence of anything to do if you’re not pledged or playing a sport. The admin is trying to snuff out the frats and drinking to elevate the school’s reputation, and while there are lots of clubs there’s also a lot of “another Saturday night an’ I ain’t got nobody.” The students are fairly preppy and upper middle class. I wouldn’t call them intellectuals. More like the kind of bourgeoisie against which the modernists ranted. Bottom line: it’s a curious choice for a cali child who wants to return to cali.</p>
<p>It’s impossible not to factor costs because you, the student, will only be allowed to borrow $5,500.
Lafayette’s only advantage (if financially it comes through) is that you’ll be discovering a new area of the country, with a very different culture from California’s, and you’ll be able to network in NYC (Lafayette students can intern there relatively easily). If your goal is to live in CA, though, you will have to return to CA for grad school, and network there then. Or leverage your internships into a job in the Midatlantic region, then transfer to California.
Overall, if your goal is to stay in California, Lafayette is an odd choice. If your goal is to intern around Philadelphia or NYC, it makes sense. So, you’ll have to decide your motivations for yourself.
Santa Clara is very good but is also known for its poor financial aid. Therefore, if you’re lucky, you’ll get enough to attend through grants, scholarships, and federal loans. But if they tell you to take PLUS loans, drop them.
If you get into UCSB and Cal Poly SLO, count on graduating in 5 years to estimate costs. Both are excellent, rather residential, well-located, and well-recruited. There can’t be a bad choice between those two.</p>
<p>I definitely want to stay in California. Does that mean Lafayette should be out? How would you rank the aforementioned schools in strength of engineering program and reputation? Would Santa Clara also have mostly upper class and preppy students? Thanks! </p>
<p>I’ll leave that to the West Coast experts, OP. And I’ll leave the ruling out of Lafayette to you. It’s time for YOU to make some decisions. We can only give you information and suggestions.</p>
<p>I’ve visited Santa Clara and Lafayette and in terms of environment, Santa Clara wins. Lafayette lacked the progressive West Coast vibe that I love being from Seattle. Being located in Silicon Valley, Santa Clara’s internships and job placement is impeccable. The school itself is gorgeous and not far from San Fran. Lafayette is quite far from Philly and nothing compared to the West Coast. </p>
<p>being from Seattle, I can think of zero reasons why you should pay OOS tuition to attend a California public.</p>
<p>If OP is from Seattle, the price does not matter that much. But Santa Clara is the most expensive school of all, a friend of mine who had kids in Santa Clara and Stanford, he told me actually Santa Clara is more expensive if you have to pay full load.</p>
<p>OTOH, Santa Clara does get recruits from all smaller companies in the Valley for its STEM majors. UCSB and SLO also are pretty good with their STEM programs, don’t get me wrong. The choice is on the OP.</p>
<p>My D is a current student at Lafayette and absolutely loves it. She is getting a great education, knows her professors, is involved on campus, is doing research, and has a busy social life. But she specifically wanted a small LAC because she feels that she really thrives in that type of smaller more personal environment. If you want to stay in CA and want to attend a larger university, then Lafayette may not be the right choice for you. Fit is an important part of the equation so you need to sit down, weigh the pros and cons of each school and choose the one that best suits your own finances, needs, academic interests, etc.</p>
<p>@AngryCookie, the best way to compare these schools is value. Engineering is a field where there less variation among different programs (relative to majors like the humanities), so avoiding massive debt is preferable. What is the after-scholarships/FA cost of each school?</p>
<p>If you are instate Ca colleges are a good bet. I loved UCSB and my niece did far more recently. Students do in general, there. People love SLO as well, and both are well thought of. </p>
<p>It is hard to compare their rankings because they aren’t ranked head to head since UCSB is known for its doctoral program (although USN does have an undergraduate ranking if you want to pay for it). Here’s this: <a href=“http://graduate-school.phds.org/rankings/electrical-engineering/rank/basic”>http://graduate-school.phds.org/rankings/electrical-engineering/rank/basic</a> However other rankings may go another way.</p>
<p>I’d go to UCSB for what I perceive as greater options, as well as the college experience there, but I admit to being biased.</p>
<p>This is a great resource for detailed information on ABET engineering programs. Type in the school of interest and then select ‘print entire profile’ in the upper right area. <a href=“http://profiles.asee.org/profiles”>http://profiles.asee.org/profiles</a></p>
<p>I’m familiar with the California schools. </p>
<p>Cal Poly has a ‘learn by doing’ philosophy which differentiates it somewhat from UCSB and Santa Clara. You will begin taking courses in your major the very first quarter. It’s graduates are well recruited by well known Silicon Valley companies. The engineering department is about 25% or the student body. As a CSU the institution is undergraduate focused which IMO is a huge benefit. The surrounding area is beautiful. You are 10 minutes from the beach. The town of SLO is a great place to spend 4 years. </p>
<p>UCSB - although it has 20K + students it is heavily undergrad focused. UG’s comprise 18K of the student body. The engineering department is relatively small 2K students - and that includes the grad students. The engineers are treated as somewhat elite members of the community in some rather important ways. First off, they have priority registration. UCSB wants you to graduate in 4 years and engineers are given a matrix of classes and the order in which they need to take them. If you need a particular class to stay on the matrix schedule the engineering department will get you into closed and restricted classes. The faculty to student ratio is high and there are a number of support structures available to the engineers that are not available in Letters and Sciences. Also, since the program is dominated by UG’s …you will have research opportunities early on. There is a ‘technology row’ of companies in Goleta which gives a number of opportunities for internships. As for the campus and surrounding area…well…it may very likely be the most beautiful place (if the dorms were private condos they would command a frighteningly high rent) you ever live. </p>
<p>Santa Clara: Well, it is run by the Jesuits and they know how to get things done! Beautiful campus, in the heart of Silicon Valley. Their engineering grads are sought after by local companies.</p>
<p>You really can’t go wrong with any of these. We did speak with Lafayette when S was evaluating schools. We found everyone to be very helpful and straight forward. I did get the impression that their engineering program was still a work in progress. Also, keep in mind the weather differences. I know this doesn’t matter to some people but if you are from CA and have never experienced a real winter it should at least be a consideration.</p>
<p>As an update, I received an $18,000 merit scholarship from Santa Clara (no grants), only $3,000 of grants from Lafayette, and nothing but loans from the publics. </p>
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</p>
<p>Four year graduation rates:</p>
<p>UCSB 67% <a href=“http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg06_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=635”>http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg06_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=635</a>
CPSLO 28% <a href=“http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg06_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=666”>http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg06_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=666</a>
SCU 79% <a href=“Santa Clara University Graduation Rate & Demographics | CollegeData”>http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg06_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=776</a>
Lafayette 85%: <a href=“http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg06_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=799”>http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg06_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=799</a></p>
<p>However, you may need to do more research to find out the reasons for the differing rates. I.e. is the low four year graduation rate at CPSLO benign due to lots of students doing co-ops (i.e. not paying school costs), or an actual problem of shortage of class space? The latter is commonly claimed (in general), but is probably a lot less common than claimed, since there are a lot of student related reasons why many students need extra quarters or semesters (needing remedial courses, not taking full loads, poor schedule planning, etc.). Students at private schools have extra financial incentive to avoid extra quarters or semesters, particularly if scholarships and financial aid end then.</p>
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<p>CPSLO $28,404
UCSB $34,177
SCU $61,638 - $18,000 = $43,638
Lafayette $61,155 - $3,000 = $58,155</p>
<p>CPSLO will be the cheapest even if you take two extra quarters of school compared to UCSB. Even if you take six years of school at CPSLO or five years of school at UCSB, it will be cheaper than four years of school at SCU or three years of school at Lafayette.</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses everyone! </p>
<p>SCU it is! I am excited to join the Bronco family! </p>