<p>My family is upper middle class. If I attend a UC instead of a Private, my parents will give me the extra ~$100K saved, preferably in the form of graduate school tuition or future living costs (house, apartment?). If I win any scholarships, same deal (to private or public U). Basically, whatever I save off the the total ~$200K for college costs. What would you guys do?</p>
<p>I'm thinking EE/CS.</p>
<p>Go to UC, get a great education, and go to grad school or put a big down payment on a house.</p>
<p>Berkeley's got one of the best EE & CS programs in the country, and UCLA's certainly isn't shabby, so you should definitely apply to those schools. And, if you go to grad school, it'll be paid for in either field, so you won't have to be paying for your graduate degree. That means you'd be able to possibly buy a house, get a car, or not scrimp and save nearly as much as your friends in grad school will.</p>
<p>Alternatively, that would make one hell of a seed for a retirement fund since you're going to be in a field that pays pretty well. Heck, if you were to invest it and it made 5%, that would be worth over $150,000 by the time you're out of graduate school. If it manages to sit in there for 40 years without you doing anything else (more aggressive investing, adding more of your own money), you'd have over a million dollars saved when you're in your mid-60s.</p>
<p>Yeah it'd definitely be super hard to turn down Berkeley, but UCLA's department doesn't impress me as much. Is there a big difference? Mainly I'm worried about not getting into Berkeley. Would CMU, Harvey Mudd, etc. be worth the extra $100K over UCLA? (college admissions seems so iffy right now)</p>
<p>definitely take the 100k</p>
<p>No brainer....take the head start in live. You'll still get a good education no matter where you go.</p>
<p>Cal Berkley would probably be a better choice than CMU or Harvey Mudd or Stanford.</p>
<p>Berk's definitely on par with MIT-Stanford-CMU, but UCLA/UCSD aren't quiiiteee there.</p>
<p>CMU is ahead of UCLA, and the difference between CMU and Berkeley academically is pretty small, though I think the difference in size of the schools could amplify the quality of CMU's education a bit, though.</p>
<p>That said (and as a CMU alum), I'd still go with Berkeley if it means over $100k saved. I love the school, and I only graduated with around $18k in debt, which is easily manageable for me. If I had the choice between $100,000 and going to Penn State versus CMU, I'm pretty sure I would have gone PSU.</p>
<p>I have to disagree with the majority here. If your parents can afford to give you a quality undergrad education I'd take it. If you graduate from an elite engineering program (though granted Cal is one), $100K isn't a big deal. You will easily make it again and again by having acess to top jobs.</p>
<p>There's also a good chance you can get a fellowship for grad school.</p>
<p>If it were $100K in loans that would be a different story, but if it's a matter of a lesser house for a few years, I'd take the better school.</p>
<p>I am only a junior so take my advice with a grain of salt, but it seems the overriding aspect of college more so than how good a school is would be quality of life. I mean who wants to go to Harvard if they would be miserable? So in that respects you would probably be able to have excellent quality of life at Berkeley i hear it is pretty good ;) and with 100K coming out of college it would give you the opporunity to pursue any path that you want whether that be grad school or a nice house. And you get to be the not broke college student.</p>
<p>How many schools out there can possibly offer a better education than Berkeley in EECS, newyorka? MIT, Stanford, CMU...?</p>
<p>Honestly, no school, not even Harvard, has a $100k advantage over Berkeley (unless, of course, you're a multi-millionare who likes to throw away money). Not to mention Berkeley's undergrad is very good, in comparison to the vast majority of colleges... especially in engineering.</p>
<p>I'm looking at doing about the same. I'll have around $75000 extra going to the University of Iowa then a private school. I'm pretty set on going to iowa and will probably use some of the money to get a new car and the rest will go towards grad school</p>
<p>Racin, EE/CS at Cal is certainly outstanding. The undergrad experience at Cal is something else. While many can threive at large schools where you fight to get into classes and to know your professors, many others would not threive in that atmosphere. </p>
<p>On campus housing is limited, budget cuts are never ending and quality of life at UCs ins in decline.</p>
<p>Is it worth $100K to have an outstanding undergrad experience? Clearly it is to many.</p>
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quality of life at UCs ins in decline
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<p>I don't think you're in a position to make such a judgment...</p>
<p>No, but my Grandfather, a former UC head, is.</p>
<p>Yes, because he's a current student there, right?</p>
<p>Go to the Berk.Awesome school.</p>
<p>newyorka:</p>
<p>I think that much of what you said is simply perpetuating stereotypes. I went to a UC and was involved in numerous research projects, got to know some professors quite well, never had trouble getting into classes (even those required for impacted majors), and had an overall great experience. Housing on the other hand is limited on some campuses. I guess what I'm getting at is college is what you make of it and if you put forth a little effort you can easily succeed in a big school.</p>