<p>I've been admitted to UC davis and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and I am having a difficult time deciding on where to go. </p>
<p>My Major: Computer engineering </p>
<p>UC Davis
~pros
1.Close to home. (I live in the bay area)
2.Good financial aid package
Estimated cost of attendance :$32,903.00
Estimated Financial Aid: $29,103.00 , $5,500 of which are in loans
3.It's a good school in general </p>
<p>~cons
1.The computer engineering program isn't as well ranked as the one in UIUC</p>
<p>UIUC
~pros
1.Extremely good computer engineering program
2.Good school for engineering in general</p>
<p>~cons
1.Financial aid package is pretty bad
Estimated cost of attendance :$$48,064.00
Estimated Financial Aid: $ $48,064.00 , $33,048 of which are in loans
2.It's far away</p>
<p>UCD hands down. Don’t take out that much debt. My son goes to UIUC, but we are instate.</p>
<p>Thanks for you input.
Bump</p>
<p>I agree. I’m a big UIUC fan, but not so big that I would suggest you choose it over UCD at that huge cost difference.</p>
<p>UIUC isn’t even a real option because you can’t borrow that kind of money without a co-signer. On your own, you are limited to the Stafford Loans (and Perkins if your college/university offers them). For Freshman year, the maximum Stafford is $5,500. If you check, you will see that that is exactly the amount of loans included in your UCD package.</p>
<p>It looks like UCD expects you and/or your family to contribute about $3,000 from your own funds. If you start looking around now, you should be able to land a job where you can start making some of that money. Heck, you might not even need all of it over the course of the year if you manage to keep your costs for books and personal expenses low once you are at UCD.</p>
<p>Go to UCD. You will be fine there.</p>