I’m a current senior, and have offers from University of Washington (pre-engineering), UC Santa Cruz (pre-engineering), and UCR (chemical engineering).
I know my high school grades don’t reflect my true potential (I was, and still am depressed, have anxiety, which had an impact on my academics), which is why I was rejected from many of my top choices. My question is, should I suck it up and go to a CC for two years and then transfer to Cal/UCLA/UCSD or is UW a good school for engineering, and would I be crazy for turning it down, financials notwithstanding.
Feedback would be appreciated, many thanks!
UW is a pretty decent school for engineering. But if you’re willing to transfer from a community college, there’s no reason you can’t transfer from UW. Plus going there first might convince you if it’s for you or not.
Have you visited yet? Are you a Washington resident?
One area you will want to explore for all your options is the availability of on-campus support, both emotional and academic.
Washington is a good school, but http://data.engr.washington.edu/pls/portal30/STUDENT_APPL.RPT_APPLICANT_STATISTICS_YEAR.SHOW_PARMS indicates that getting into engineering majors at Washington can be competitive.
UCSC has only computer engineering and electrical engineering, not chemical engineering.
What is the net price of each school? If you are a California resident, it is unlikely that Washington is really worth the price compared to your in-state public options.
I live in California @ucbalumnus I plan on majoring in biomedical/ bioengineering at UCSC and UW. UCR is offering me enough grants so I’d take out ~10k in loans per year, still waiting on UCSC/ UW’s financial offers.
You can wait till you have all your offers before turning anyone down. But as an OOSer UW will be very expensive. I’m guessing too expensive.
I’m going to UW for Chem Engineering in the fall. As far as financial aid, expect little to nothing from UW. It will be around ~45K/year and there is almost nothing for out of state students. I’m going because I really love Seattle/the campus and plan on moving out there anyway. If you’re not deadset on UW because of Seattle, then I would recommend saving your money.
Keep in mind that all engineering majors at UW are pretty competitive to get accepted. After you arrive on campus, prepare to work your A$$ off for the first 1 (or 2) years. So many people wanting to do engineering majors didn’t have the commitment and discipline to excel in their classes, so ended up transferring colleges or doing a low demand major like Physics.