My S22 has the same issue right now. Admitted UCB EECS and UCLA CS with a Regents. Today we found out the Regents would drop costs by 8K/yr. So his current choice of UCB with loans plus work-study goes up against UCLA with 32K less debt (plus better access to classes and housing). Since Cal CS grads seem to have higher starting salaries on average, it seems that a few years after graduation there is probably no significant difference. What other things should we consider?
I’ll put in my 2 cents. I’m a Cal grad and Cal was my dream school well before 6th grade. Now I have a son who is a recent UCLA grad. I really wish Cal had as good of a housing situation as UCLA - housing at Berkeley would be a concern to me these days. Both have really nice campuses. Interesting that a few people above noted that UCLA students seem happier/less grim than Berkeley students. That is my observation too. That’s only based on a vibe I’ve picked up walking through the campuses. Since you are in NorCal (I grew up there), you may have the sensibility that Cal is the clear #1 school and UCLA is something lesser. Now that I know much more about UCLA, I see them as co-equals. UCLA will certainly not be a hindrance if you eventually want to go to grad school back in the Bay Area. No debt is a really powerful thing.
Regents at UCLA gives class priority registration which is a huge bonus along with other perks like guaranteed housing and faculty mentorship. UCLA grads will do just as well as UCB grads in the job market and as you stated, after a few years of working, it will not matter what name is on the diploma.
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Regents class priority should be enough to make the difference even if finances didn’t matter. Since they do, it seems like an obvious decision. In addition UCLA is cheaper than UCB in terms of both tuition and housing.
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If it’s 32k less in debt, I think the decision is a no-brainer. I work in tech, and after about 3 years experience, employers don’t even ask where you went to school. The “higher” starting salaries with Berkeley is really because the Bay Area has a steeper cost of living. But in reality, it’s an entry level job. In fact, a lower starting salary at a lower cost area (Dallas for instance) would have greater purchasing power and would be a more comfortable lifestyle.
I’d pick UCB EECS. A lot of the gains in employment through startups etc happen in the first year or two. I heard my son telling me that he saw 300 interns from Berkeley at Amazon the past summer out of 1500 or so. He thought strangely UCLA was seriously under represented. The 32k is nothing. It is just one summer at a place like Amazon.
UCB grads have higher salaries on average because more of them work in the Bay than UCLA’s which would be centered more around SoCal. The Peninsula-based techs as well as the SF financial-district firms/companies/banks have to pay a huge premium for their employees. Simply put, housing in the Bay is severely overpriced. A tech worker would be paying $3m for a Mountain View 1,300sf shack, so this is why many of the techs are going to telecommuting/remote-work, but then they’ll adjust salaries based on the worker’s remote location.
As to what @neela1 stated:
The supposed underrepresentation is undoubtedly in large part because UCLA’s CS program is under the aegis of its engineering program. UCB has 600+ CS graduates/year and most of them are through L&S, and pure CS at UCLA is ~ 250/year or so. For CSE it’s undoubtedly < 100 grads.
honestly, I am not a big fan of either school. They are too big and impersonal - with too many stressed out students -( this comes from recent grads of both) but, between the two, another vote for UCLA $32k more debt at B (about $350 a month for 10 years) is a big albatross when starting your professional life with ADD in the priority reg and a more manageable housing situation makes it an easy decision.
Go Bruins
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What do you think the EE means in EECS at Berkeley. For the price difference, I’d go with UCB. You’re lucky to have the option of getting instate rates to the best public CS in the country. UCB is easily recognized as a top 5 program.
@rjkofnovi , Oh but… @neela1 was talking about internships at Amazon, presumably in large part for CS students. I just stated “CSE” as a compromise between what OP was accepted to at UCB which was EECS and what this person was accepted to at UCLA, CS. Again, CS at UCLA is in engineering, so there’s a crossing over between the seven or so E majors at UCLA, by technical breadths, etc., so if this person wanted, this person could take a good amount of EE classes. UCB E and/or CS are great, but UCLA is in the process of growing its E majors with 100 additional professors; it is well funded. It is also highly respected. {Edit} And let me add, that with CS being under E’s umbrella, HSSEAS, the engineering school at UCLAwill keep class sizes under reasonable control. This is why there aren’t as many CS majors at the university. {/}
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Gotcha
Thank you all for your input.
I think my S prefers the idea of being in a competitive environment. He expects that more from Cal than UCLA. I don’t know how cutthroat it actually is.
We had considered that differences in starting pay were likely strongly tied to higher COL around the Bay Area. Nevertheless, the extra debt doesn’t seem too bad for CS grads:
The clear underfunding and overcrowding of UCB CS still concerns us. Although, the worst problems seem to be faced by future students declaring to CS via L&S. There are also the issues of UCB student housing that the Governor sidestepped. However, I don’t think either problem will actually stop students from graduating over the next few years.
Re, your first sentence, that’s why instead of having some students not show up for class in an undersized lecture hall, they should just zoom all the CS classes that have 500-2,000 students.
Re, your second sentence, that doesn’t seem to be your son’s problem because he’s already in the E school. Please correct me if I’m wrong.
All the best to your son; he’s got a great future.
He is in via EECS. So he doesn’t have the problem of getting into CS classes that students coming via L&S could have. Although, I’ve read that the partial (some may say poor) solution this year was to reduce the CS-intended admits without restricting others (who can still declare CS).
It is also my understanding that the crowding and lack of funding are a general problem caused the number of CS students from both L&S and EECS. But I don’t understand how much this affects the students.