<p>I am a current high school junior planning to major in Chemical Engineering. UCB is my top choice, however the out-of-state tuition does seem to bring down my spirit.</p>
<p>I can attend Georgia Tech (not as strong in ChemE) practically for free as an in-state undergrad and choose to go to grad school later at UCB.
It seems like a sensible choice, but the atmosphere at GT does not come close to that of UCB. I'm particularly interested in research opportunities, student radio, and community events. </p>
<p>What justifies either choice? Will UCB be just as notably stressful as GT?</p>
<p>Your response would help me greatly. Thank you in advance.</p>
<p>You’re extremely lucky that GT is your in-state school.</p>
<p>Both GT and Berkeley will be stressful, but if you want to continue study after your undergrad, I would definitely attend GT for your undergrad then come to Berkeley. Georgia Tech is still a very legitimate school and has plenty of research opportunities since it is such a big school exclusively for engineering. Also, please do know that Berkeley graduate chemistry program doesn’t accept undergrads from in-school, so you can’t attend Berkeley for both undergrad and grad for chemistry.</p>
<p>In short, ace your undergrad years at a school that is already awesome and come to Berkeley if you want to continue studying.</p>
<p>P.S. I visited GT last spring break and I thought the atmosphere was better than Berkeley. You guys had better buildings with newer facilities and I could definitely feel the intensity of hard working similar to Berkeley.</p>
That is definitely not true. They might prefer non-Berkeley-undergrads for their grad program (and even that proposition is only hearsay; for all I know it is also not true).</p>
<p>I remember reading part of the handbook and the phrase was something like “we highly encourage the current undergraduate students to pursue continuing education in a different environment…”</p>
<p>So sure, it is not a complete dead end and I have to eat my hat.</p>
<p>I am searching for the link about this and will post it once I find it, but overall I think that is really no way to treat the College of Chemistry undergrads for all that 4 years of hard work only to kick them out.</p>
<p>PhD study in chemical engineering is likely to be funded, so the cost difference is likely to be much smaller for PhD study. It would make more sense to go to some place good but lower cost (e.g. Georgia Tech in-state (especially if “practically for free”) or Minnesota) for undergraduate.</p>
<p>I looked up “academic incest” and it makes sense to get an education elsewhere after undergrad. Are UCB undergrads more competitive than say, GT, for grad programs at MIT or Stanford?
I may find several financial aids and scholarships given my SAT and academics stay competitive along with my motivation and involvement as a minority female 1st-gen engineer…
Perhaps shooting for UCB undergrad and even higher-ranked programs as grad works too?</p>
<p>Thank you all for the responses. This has definitely helped!</p>
<p>It is true that Berkeley ChemE undergrads almost never stay at Berkeley for their PhDs (academic incest), but why does that really matter? There are many, many great PhD programs in this country. </p>
<p>I do know several UCB ChemEs, however, who have gotten into Berkeley for PhD programs in BioE or MatSciE. One can even work in a ChemE lab while getting a PhD in materials science or bioengineering.</p>
<p>Jhansen, since you can go to Georgia Tech “practically for free” definitely go there unless your parents can easily afford to send you to Berkeley. Georgia Tech in your situation is the sensible choice.</p>
<p>If you’re a strong student and want to go away to college, you might look into Princeton since it has a strong ChemE program and is more generous with financial aid.</p>
<p>In general, all UCs recommend that one go elsewhere for grad school. And that ‘policy’ is true at many colleges, particularly the publics. Of course, there are exceptions: rumor has it that Carolina loves its undergrads. Michigan’s professional schools love their undergrads, but that must may be due to the fact that most are instate and the professional schools give a tip to residents.</p>
<p>OP: At the price, GT is hard to turn down. But, depending on your numbers, you might receive merit money at some other colleges…perhaps Purdue, for example?</p>
<p>One of my closest friends back from when I was in high school went to G Tech (he’s a CS major though), and he seems to have tons of opportunities (did robotics research and is now doing a robotics internship), so going to G Tech “practically for free” is a crazy awesome deal. I got deals like that for Idaho universities but obviously Idaho schools don’t have the same engineering name recognition as G Tech does so you’re super lucky!</p>