UBC vs. TAMU vs. University of Washington

<p>I'm a Canadian citizen living in Texas. I'm planning to transfer to a better school in the US after my freshman or sophomore year. My intended major is engineering.</p>

<p>My total cost of living for each of these schools are: </p>

<p>UBC: $16,880
TAMU:$ 20,531
UW: $36,974</p>

<p>I initially wanted to go to University of Washington. But recently my parents were told by their coworkers (engineers) that TAMU is a good engineering school and that I shouldn't waste money going to an average OOS school (University of Washington). I'm worried that it will be a lot harder to transfer to a good school from A&M than from UW because of A&M's lack of reputation outside of Texas. Personally, I hate the atmosphere at A&M.</p>

<p>If I'm forced to give up UW, my other option will be University of British Columbia. Even though it's one of the top schools in Canada, I would still like to transfer to a better school in the US. </p>

<p>So basically my questions are:
1. Is it worth the money to go to UW instead of my other options?
2. Should I go to TAMU or UBC? considering that I want to transfer to an American school later.</p>

<p>Why do you want to go to UW so badly? What’s there that you can’t find at UBC?</p>

<p>Because UBC is in Canada and I’m worried that going there might hurt my chances of transferring to a school in the US later.</p>

<p>bump bump bump</p>

<p>No Way! UBC is a Canadian IVY! You will have no problems getting into a top US grad school.</p>

<p>I agree with vociferous. I think UBC is probably the second most popular Canadian university for Americans. (after McGill) Many Canadians come to the US for grad school, so I’m sure transferring for undergrad wouldn’t be a problem.</p>

<p>i think they use another credit system instead of the 4 point GPA used in the US. So I have no idea… Is there a forum like this for canadian schools?</p>

<p>bump10char</p>

<p>But UW is a Public IVY! (I LOVE capiTALIZING random LETTers, tOO!)</p>

<p>UW isn’t worth the cost, honestly, even though it’s really a great university (WA bias is probably kicking in, but whatever.).</p>

<p>I think the difference between UBC and TAMU in terms of cost is pretty much negligible, relatively to UW. I don’t think you’d have a problem transferring from either…</p>

<p>Well if you want to transfer after two years no matter where you go, just go to the cheapest school</p>

<p>University of Toronto and McGill uses a 4 point GPA system, while UBC uses a 0-100% system. However, it is convertable and it is entirely possible to transfer from UBC to American universities or go to American grad schools from UBC. Credits wise, every course in Canadian universities is worth 3 credits as opposed to 4, and a full course load is 5 classes (15 credits) as opposed to 4 classes (16 credits).
Between TAMU and UBC, UBC is the better school hands down. The campus is really nice and Vancouver has great weather. Example - skiing/snowboarding up on the mountains in the morning, beach in the afternoon :). The drinking age is 19 and Vancouver is much more exciting than College Station. However, I would suggest a visit before you make your decision. Despite what people may believe, the culture between the U.S. and Canada IS different, and it’s not something you can learn by reading.</p>

<p>Yea I’m leaning towards UBC also. I know it’s a better school for sure, it’s just the international transfer thing that’s giving me doubts. I’ll call some schools this week and ask about the whole transferring thing. </p>

<p>I still would like to hear more opinions though :)</p>

<p>bump again</p>

<p>i think im gonna… bump</p>

<p>btw. Washington is officially out of the question as I recently canceled my housing app</p>

<p>Don’t go to a school where you hate the atmosphere, like you said you do at A&M. Go to UBC and transfer if you don’t like it.</p>