<p>Son is having a really hard time deciding which school to pick. </p>
<p>With Regents, Berkeley would be around $8500 each year but he has to maintain a 3.0 for Mechanical Engineering. If he falls below the 3.0, then he can't afford to stay there. </p>
<p>UCSD is a full ride with a Jacobs Scholarship in Aerospace Engineering and he has to maintain a 3.6. UCSD also gave him regents for a "safety net" if his gpa falls, then Regents kicks in and would be the same price as Cal as long as the gpa is above a 3.0. </p>
<p>He was also accepted to Columbia Seas and that is a little more expensive but not so great for Engineering despite the Ivy name? There is no gpa requirement attached to his financial aid at Columbia.</p>
<p>I would go to Berkeley.
Maintaining a 3.6 is certainly possible, but no guarantee.
And 8500 a year is not <em>so</em> much. With some summer internships etc, he could graduate with relatively little debt.</p>
<p>First, congratulations to your son as those are impressive scholarships. I’m guessing that your son has the academic potential to maintain a 3.6 overall at UCSD. But, that’s a very high standard. The safety net they offer is fine but if the price was the same I think I’d go with Berkeley. I’m assuming that you’ve visited both campuses and like the atmosphere at both. If you haven’t visited then definitely do so before the decision. Sometimes a college will look good on paper but really turn-off the student for some reason.</p>
<p>He did visit both schools and did an overnight at each one. He liked both schools, Berkeley a little more, but put off by what others have described as the “cut throat” competition vs. the seemingly collaborative atmosphere at UCSD. </p>
<p>The other Jacobs Scholars told him there is no problem keeping the 3.6 at UCSD. No one has ever lost the scholarship unless they transferred out of Engineering. He liked all the kids he met and really enjoyed his stay at both schools. UCSD is really throwing a lot of “opportunities” at him regarding research and internship opportunities. They will even pay for his parking pass.</p>
<p>It’s hard to find the stats for Cal Regents to know if anyone has ever lost that scholarship going below a 3.0 in Engineering so that’s hard to judge and makes him lean toward UCSD just because it’s an unknown factor. Do any of you know how difficult keeping a 3.0 at Berkeley in Mechanical Engineering would be? I saw some stats that said freshman in Eng had a 2.6 average gpa and another that said it was 3.2. I don’t think any of the kids that get into Cal engineering are “average” so DS is probably not so far ahead of the crowd there. Again, if he lost regents at Cal, our cost would shoot to $20K/yr and then he couldn’t afford to stay there.</p>
<p>Although he liked Cal more, the housing is triples and at UCSD he would not have to have a triple, probably a double. Cal is in a better area for things to do, nothing at UCSD without having to drive somewhere else. Guaranteed 4 years of housing at both places so that’s not a concern. </p>
<p>At UCSD, he would be the “big fish in a small pond” but at Cal, he would be struggling right along side of everyone else with a few benefits of regents like priority enrollment. The rankings for Cal are SO much higher than UCSD though and Cal is only 2 hours from home vs. 9 to UCSD. We’d have more money though at UCSD so he could afford to fly back and forth. It’s really a tough choice!</p>
<p>He is going to go see Columbia Seas in 2 weeks. The only thing going for that school is NYC and the fact that money is not tied to a GPA. </p>
<p>How much better do you think Cal is over UCSD? When he applies to grad school, would he be better off coming out of Cal or UCSD or is the only thing that matters the GPA? Would grad schools know that he picked UCSD because of the full ride or does that not matter? </p>
<p>San Diego is nowhere near Berkeley and Los Angeles for engineering. UCSD goes with UCSB and UCD, the mid tier UC’s. This should be an extremely easy decision.</p>
<p>Well, actually, they are not that far off. U.S News ranked(eng.) Berkeley #3, and SD #14, SD even beat LA,(16th), If u r considering privates, USC was 9th. but like others say, Berkeley is a lot of competition, but SD is a little less and you get to enjoy more of the college life. I have friends to went to both, and ofc. both like to talk about the good things on campus. It’s really up to you, if you consider ranking, or tuition, or prgm. quality more than another. gl! and any tips on what your son did to get admitted, I also want to pursue eng but am having a hard time picking out related EC’s. any help would be greatly appreciated!</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for your ideas and opinions. He still hasn’t decided. He was also accepted to Pomona which is a whole different type of school but next week, he will visit Pomona and Columbia so hopefully that will help him rule some schools out since May 1st is approaching so fast.</p>
<p>Dream4Life, my son had a 35 on his ACT and a 4.0 unweighted gpa so I guess that is why he got such good offers. His ECs were not that stellar but he did some music things, a couple of clubs, some community service because it’s required to graduate at his school and he tutored a lot both for pay and volunteer. The only eng related thing was robotics so I think you just have to do what you like and score really high! He got high scores on his subject tests too, something like 800, 780 and 760 and has all 5s on his APs. He did like USC a lot but they package $5500 in loans with his offer even though they gave him a scholarship so it’s more than $ the other schools and it seems silly to take loans when you have other choices.</p>
<p>AirforceWuhn, are you going to take the Jacobs? Did you go to the reception last week? What is your major? DS was told he could easily switch out of Aerospace into Mech Eng since they were both impacted majors and he was told Mech Eng would be a better foundation for anything in the future. Did you also get into Columbia SEAS? I thought I saw something about you thinking of NY, too? If so, what do you think of their program?</p>
<p>Thanks again! Yes, it’s hard to turn down Free!</p>
<p>sstory are you saying that OP should choose SD instead of Berkeley ? That’s laughable. $8500 for Berkeley is a very good deal and OP only has to maintain 3.0 at UCB but at UCSD a 3.6 is required. Yes Berkeley is definitely 10k better than San Diego especially for engineering.</p>
<p>dude definetly Berkeley. I had gotten a prestigious scholarship to a top 10 eng school and also assumed I could have maintained a very high gpa. Well turns out my first term i got a 2.8. After that term I always got a 3.5+ but the point is a 3.6 is a high risk gamble.
Thank god my scholarship said to maintain above a 3.0 each year, so I was saved.</p>
<p>fido, I did attend the reception last week, my major is Computer Science/Engineering from CSE. I’m still undecided. I like NYC but I didn’t apply to Columbia SEAS eventhough my mother went there.
On the subject of GPA, my mother has a coworker who has a son graduated from UC Berkeley with a 3.5+ GPA from EECS and another coworker with daughter graduated from Haas with 3.9+ GPA. I think it depends on the quality of their high school. These students graduated from very competitive high schools in California such as Troy from Fullerton and University High from Irvine.</p>
<p>Look at the class schedule. I think the junior year will be the most difficult for your major. If you think the first 2 years are reasonable, you can get the full ride for the first 3 years without problem.</p>
<p>Yikes, @Xtreme I think you need to do some updated research on UCSD. It’s stellar, and as hard or harder to get into as Cal and UCLA in many majors. UCLA ranks below both Cal and UCSD for engineering. </p>
<p>So far as this major, Cal ranks higher but UCSD is not far behind. Has he visited UCSD? Beautiful, safe campus, very studious, not a lot of sport or party life (academics are by far the main objective), very heavy international student enrollment in that major. The students are extremely competitive for grades. A 3.6 will be a lofty goal. If that’s what he’s looking for, it will be a great fit.</p>
<p>I can’t speak for Cal engineering, but the football games are sure fun!</p>
<p>Frosh do have the highest GPA risk, due to risks of adjustment to college academic and social life, and not having a buffer of previous terms of high GPA against one bad term. Students’ GPAs also tend to increase at higher class levels as they take more courses in their majors (which they are presumably more interested in than breadth requirements or prerequisite courses).</p>
<p>In practice, it is probably not difficult for most top scholarship students to maintain a 3.0 GPA, but maintaining a 3.6 GPA can be considerably more difficult.</p>
<p>Thanks for posting the study, ucbalumnus. It’s very helpful just wish it was more current. It seems that the gpa average is higher at Cal but as you’ve and others have said, so much depends on preparation. At the UCSD scholars reception, the current students said no problems keeping the 3.6 gpa but we don’t really know. As said before, maybe it is best to pick a good financial aid package over one with merit strings attached.</p>
<p>So hard for DS to decide what to do! This is the problem with not having a “dream school” to shoot for and a clear first choice. He joked all along that he would go with whoever gave him the most money but that would be Columbia just because their costs are so much higher than the rest. He left today for the Pomona overnight but can’t see any “career” coming out of there. Thur-Sunday he goes to Columbia but I know he is still hoping for the Drake to come though. That would seal the deal for Cal but we don’t know if that has a different GPA requirement. It must have some strings attached. </p>
<p>Thanks, dream4life, at least none of his choices (except for Pomona) are exactly scraping the bottom of the barrel in Engineering. Cal is 3rd but UCSD is 14 and Columbia is 15 in USNews. If USC throws a tiny bit more money his way, it would be on par cost wise to Columbia and USC is ranked 9 so he hasn’t even been able to rule them out over a $2500 difference.</p>
<p>irisss, that is a good idea to look at the schedule. I think he has already done that but certainly if he picks one of the schools with the required gpa, he should plan his choices to protect that gpa, especially in the first year. I don’t know how much wiggle room there is to switch around and still graduate in time for the engineering tracks though. Cal does provide $$ for the 5th year unlike the rest so that’s another plus for them. He plugged in all his APs for the different schools and again, Cal gives him the most credit. </p>
<p>AirforceWuhn, Did you get the impression that the >3.5 was not impossible from the other scholars at the reception? Are you looking at Berkeley, too? What are your other options? Are you undecided about UCSD because of the gpa requirement or just the school in general? My kid is not so worried about the party/social life but it’s kind of a bad place for a school considering there is nothing to walk to unlike Cal’s vibrant campus. He can have his car at UCSD though so that should help with that aspect since there is a lot to do in SD if you can get to it.</p>
<p>Thanks again everyone for your ideas and opinions. I feel for those of you having to make this decision in just 2 short weeks!</p>