UC Berkeley (CS) vs. Georgia Tech(ECE) vs. UT Austin (ECE) vs. College Park (ECE/in state)

The reasons I would be considering each are listed below:

UC Berkeley: #1 in CS and entrepreneurship, California good weather, close to Stanford, CalTrain to Silicon Valley, but competitive and large class size, budget cuts, and high tuition and high cost of living

Georgia Tech: High ranked engineering program, and good co-op program, I don’t know much about Georgia

UT Austin: High ranked business/engineering program, growing economy, I don’t know much about UT Austin either

College Park: Decently ranked CS program, and in state tuition, but in a kind of uneventful place

I also got into Purdue, and UIUC
Please help me decide, I’ve narrowed it down to these 4

Austin is an easy place to live. Mostly nice weather, good food, great music, etc. The campus has what I consider a classic southern campus feel with grassy quads and older brick building with some more modern architecture. Austin is a liberal city located in more conservative Texas. Campus has a friendly vibe. In my experience as a teaching assistant at U Texas, there was a lot of grade grubbing. Most in state students graduate from the very top of their class and seem to have a difficult time handling academic challenges.

At Berkeley, the CS major in Letters and Science is one that you apply to after two years. There is no guarantee that you would get in. Many do not. I would lean towards one of your admissions that guarantees that you will get your major.

What is your out of pocket expense for all your universities, and do you have direct admit to any of the CS programs?

Every one of those schools will be competitive and have big classes since they are all public schools. Even private schools like Stanford have 800 people in their first computer class. In this day and age, the class sizes, at least for Berkeley it doesn’t matter that much since the large ones are always webcasted, plus the discussion and lab sections for the classes are always small.

Now that I reread your profile, I would lean towards Terpland since it’ll probably be significantly be cheaper and all the programs are Top 20 programs.

thank u for ur advice! heres a rough estimate of the costs
50k ut austin
55k berkeley+georgia tech
20k college park

however, ive heard the starting salary at berkeley is 100k, and my parents are willing to pay 30k evey year, so if i end up there, i would work or get an internship during school to pay off as much as i can and pay off the rest after i get a job

The average CS starting salary for Berkeley grads is around $110K, possibly more now, but some of that is due to housing being so expensive around here. I personally think that the Maryland CS program is an outstanding program, a couple of my neighbors have their kids going there for CS. $140K diff overall over 4 years is a lot of moolah.

Are you in L&S CS or EECS for Berkeley, and are you direct admit for Maryland for CS?

I am in L&S CS for Berkeley, and Computer engineering for Maryland

OP, regarding post #5, don’t focus only on the starting salaries. The Bay Area is expensive…period. And it is not only the housing. I just paid $4.17 for a gallon of regular unleaded gas! What about the taxes (State, Sales, etc.) ? No one seems to mention that this should be factored in if you are considering salaries (take-home) as a factor ?!?

Having said this… I would suggest UMD for you based on what you have posted.

Ok so you’re not direct admit for Berkeley. How about for Engineering at Maryland? Are you a direct admit or LEP?

Yes, I’m direct admit, I am really considering UMD at this point, but i dont want to feel like i missed out on an opportunity and my parents are pushing berkeley as well

Since you cannot borrow more than $5.5k first year without a cosigner, that leaves you with one affordable choice out of the above list.

Seems like they need to put their money where their mouth is.

But also, admission to UCB L&S is undeclared. To get into the L&S CS major, you need to earn a 3.3 college GPA in the first three CS courses. About half of the students in these courses earn B+ or higher grades.

Berkeley does have an amazing program for CS. Definitely one of the Big 4 (along with Stanford, CMU and MIT). As an L&S CS admit, you do however have to get a 3.3 GPA (B+ average) in your first 3 CS classes in order to continue on and declare for CS. Has about a 50% success rate.

CS you can definitely be successful at any of the other schools as well. Personally I would save the money and stay close to home at UMD especially with the direct admit, but reading between the lines it also seems like you want to get away from home too. Either way, I think you’ll be fine as long as you can afford it and won’t cause any major financial burdens on your family.

my uncle is lending money to me, and i am paying him back during/after college, no interest, and i currently have 30k saved up for college.

It is FAR more difficult to pay off debt than you would imagine. Don’t saddle yourself with that when there’s no need. Choose UMD, do well, and you will be best off in the long run.

There are 2 different environment styles on your list.

Engineering college vs University.

GT vs UC, UT, MD.

How did you get the 55k for GT? It’s not that high even if you didn’t get any FA

The thing about technical jobs is that it doesn’t matter one bit where you graduate from. The salaries are adjusted to the cost of living. A $100k salary in Silicon Valley is worth about $55k in Austin, TX. That’s still an entry level salary either way. Plus, $35k a year from your parents won’t get you very far in a place like Berkeley. You’ll be taking out a lot of student loans, especially for living expenses.

If I were you, I would go for as little debt as possible. There’s no shortage of tech jobs.

^^ the above statement is slightly misleading. The person only took into account San Francisco, where only people with the highest salaries are going to live quite frankly. Most people not making great salaries and/or sensible/frugal people will find somewhere else cheaper to live. Almost anywhere else in the Bay Area the cost will be cheaper. Put in any city in Silicon Valley other than San Francisco using Payscale (where he got the info from), you’ll see that the difference between Silicon Valley and Atlanta and Austin is more closer to 30% not 45% and the difference between cost in Silicon Valley and the DMV is pretty much, none.

Anyhow, regardless of the difference in cost, the hub of most technological employment and innovation is right here in the Bay Area. It is something to ponder.