<p>A couple days ago I received UCLA's HSSEAS (Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science) Open House Invitation--basically a "likely" letter telling people to book there calendars for an April 11th meeting for engineering majors. I was a little surprised because I didn't think I had a great GPA (3.6 UW/3.93 W), though my other stats (don't want to be cocky, but) were in great standing.</p>
<p>Now that getting into UCLA is a real possibility, where should I go: UCLA or Georgia Tech? I'm from California so I would be paying in-state for LA and oos for Gatech. UCLA's in-state tuition is about the same as Georgia Tech's in-state. Still, I'm looking to go to a strong engineering school so I can get involved with research, learn my fundamentals, and get into a great Ph.D program.</p>
<p>I'm not sure if I'll get into Berkeley (which I would probably choose over both Georgia Tech and UCLA because it has a great engineering program), so I need some help deciding between these two. All advice appreciated. Thanks.</p>
<p>There is no doubt Georgia Tech’s engineering program is better than that of UCLA (and I believe even of Berkeley) with more research opportunities. However, the fact that you will be paying in-state tuition combined with the fact that UCLA is located in LA is something that you should consider. </p>
<p>If I were you, I would pick Georgia Tech because of its strong engineering program. An engineering degree from this university could help you get to a really prestigious university for your graduate studies. Moreover, since its out-of-state fees are not insanely high it could be a good opportunity for you to spend some of your university years out of your home-state, and experience what the american south has to offer!!</p>
<p>I’m about as biased as you can get (in favor of GT), and I would choose UCLA in-state over GT out-of-state. The difference in quality isn’t enough to justify the cost. Now if both schools were out-of-state or if GT gave some nice scholarships, things would be different.</p>
<p>Dude, GT out of state cost of attendance is quite high and UCLA, like Tech, is a damned good school overall. If the OP decided that he didn’t want to do engineering when he got to college, he might be in a better position at UCLA. The non-engineering opportunities there are probably more abundant. Would be nice if the OP got into Berkeley though.</p>
<p>I’ll disagree Bernie. I think the OOS costs for GT is extremely cheap. $36k for such a prestigious university is a great price. You could go OOS to UConn for the same price - now which one would you choose for engineering? GT or UConn?</p>
<p>How about UIUC - a school very equal to GT in prestige. But you’ll have to shell out an extra 4-8k a year to go there.</p>
<p>Dude, I’m not doing a comparative point of view. I’m looking at it from my perspective as what would be considered a lower income student. If I was from OOS, and didn’t have a scholarship going to Tech, I would be screwed. And if we want to look at it comparatively, I still hope the OP gets into Berkeley. I don’t know specifically about electrical engineering, but Berkeley undergraduate engineering may rank slightly higher (for those who care about that) than Tech. There in state cost of attendance is less than 11K, same for UCLA. Now if he doesn’t get into Berkeley and Tech is a financially feasible option then I would consider it. However 11K for an awesome school (UCLA) vs. 36K for one is a tough choice if you look at more than engineering. Tech hands down if the OP can afford it and only cares about engineering. Again, line is blurred if he is admitted to Berkeley. Oh, and OOS Berkeley isn’t too much higher than Tech.</p>
<p>GT OOS is fairly good compared to other school’s OOS costs and private school costs. However, that’s not the question here. The OP’s question is regarding GT OOS vs. UCLA in-state. In other words, is the difference between GT and UCLA worth $100,000 over four years? </p>
<p>I say that it’s not. Obviously if you really really hate LA, are very well off, really want to work in the Southeast, get rejected from UCLA, and/or receive aid from GT, it’s a different question. But without any of that, I’d take UCLA engineering + $100,000 over GT engineering.</p>
<p>I’d pick UCLA because of the $$$. Still a good engineering school and you get to live in that wonderful CA climate. However, it would be hard to go to school in such a rich area knowing you’d *probably never afford to live there.</p>
<p>Fair enough, it is high in relation to the in-state tuition he would be paying. But honestly, expensive is expensive sometimes. Doesn’t matter if it is lower than comparable OOS options in terms of quality. It wasn’t like the OP was considering the other options anyway. At least not in this thread. I suppose I should have eliminated the “quite”.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, I didn’t get into Berkeley. But, more relevantly for this thread, I accepted UCLA for Electrical Engineering a couple days ago. I just wanted to say thanks for all the advice. UCLA ended up being the better option because it was 1. Cheaper 2. Close to home 3. Actually a pretty good engineering program.</p>
<p>I’ll expand on the third. My Dad’s an engineer (actually got his Ph.D from Georgia Tech), my mom’s an engineer, and my brother’s an engineer (Caltech, B.S. Ph.D). Now, I’m not saying all of this because I want to boast about my family; The UCLA Engineering Open House was this past Sunday and they really walked us through the curriculum for every engineering major (it was split into sections for each particular major). What my family found was that UCLA offered a very structured, appropriately emphasized, well-designed curriculum for Electrical Engineering. The funny thing is, every couple minutes after making a point, speakers would try to convince the audience why UCLA was a better choice than Berkeley (I was also surprised to find that a lot of kids at the Engineering Open House were seriously considering LA over Berkeley).</p>
<p>Now, some of you mods might be saying “this belongs in a UCLA forum, not Georgia Tech!”.-- My point is this: if you are out of state, consider your options and don’t simply look at the ranking. In this case, my entire family and most others would agree that Georgia Tech is a fantastic engineering school compared to UCLA. If I lived in Georgia, or even on the East Coast, it would be somewhere I would be inclined to attend. However, often times schools that are close offer similar programs that may not be as good, but certainly more practical to attend than an OOS school like Georgia Tech. For those of you in Cali, caught in the decision between a local school of merit, in particular UCLA, and Georgia Tech, consider all of the things in this thread.</p>
<p>When you live in a state with a very strong in-state engineering option (e.g. California, Michigan, Georgia, Texas, Illinois, etc), it is very difficult to justify OOS tuition.</p>
<p>Just wanted to put in a point of reference… according to my info, in state costs for ucla are appx 29k vs oos costs for GT of appx 38k…difference being less than 10k/year and certainly under 50k for 4 years. Now, in your opinion, how does GT match up?</p>