Ok guys I need some help here. I’m at the point where I need to decide which school to go to, but I can’t decide. Do you guys think I should attend CSUN? If I go to this college, financial aid will cover everything. Also, there’s a possibility I will be double majoring in physics and electrical engineering. It is 15 min away from my house. Or should I attend UCLA? If I go here, I might need student loans. I will only be majoring in Electrical engineering. And it’s 45-60 min away from home. Also regardless of what school I go I will have to work 40 hrs a week. I guess I’m undecided because I don’t know if CSUN will give me the same job opportunities as UCLA. Please guys some advice here. Should I even double major at CSUN? Does it matter where I go? Or will I have the same job opportunities? What do you guys think? Which of these schools is more hands on?
i am a transfer from los angeles Pierce College.
Maybe your financial aid packages were different, but for me, UCLA actually covered more than any of the cal states I applied to! I had about $9,000 I still needed to cover for UCLA (For my total yearly expenses) and over $10,000 for the cal states. But if you are looking for more hands-on, the cal states usually win. UCLA does have a lot of research opportunities, though.
You should go google “UCLA financial aid calculator” to see how much your estimate of costs will be; it tends to be very accurate. It certainly was for me and others I know. Also look into using CSUN’s financial aid calculator; they should have one.
UCLA may give you slightly better job opportunities, but an engineering degree is an engineering degree, and CSUN likely has extracurricular activities and networking opportunities for highly motivated engineering students like yourself that can assist in getting a great job after graduation. You should link up with a counselor at CSUN or go online to research these possible opportunities. Do the same for UCLA, and try to figure out which one is best for you.
With regards to double majoring in physics and electrical engineering, there’s a lot of overlap there, so it’s probably very doable and probably wouldn’t cost nearly as much in time or money as if you were double majoring in completely unrelated majors, like history and psychology.
Either way, though, since you’re presumably going to community college because you’re posting in this forum, you’ll be saving a lot of money no matter which school you want to go to, if you get accepted into both.
For me, I got $0 in free money from Cal States. (Scholarships, grants) But I had all of my tuition and fees paid for by the UCs. Don’t automatically assume that because they’re more expensive that your cost will be more.
If you have to work full time, CSUN may have more flexible class schedules to accommodate people who work. Ucla really doesn’t do that. It’s not easy to work full tin and still get all the classes you need at ucla.