<p>Ok, so I have been known to take 1 hour on deciding where to eat so deciding where to go to school has left me frozen. I was accepted into SLO for my intended degree of computer engineering and was even awarded a $3k scholarship and guaranteed housing (plus an ipad . On the other hand I was also accepted into UCSD for my second choice major of electrical engineering and my third choice college of Thurgood Marshall and am getting a $3.9k scholarship from them as well. In both cases i'm also getting a cal grant and pell grant. Having not had the opportunity to go to SLO, SLO is still my choice for I prefer their more hands on learning and smaller class sizes and I dislike the atmosphere at UCSD. Now the reason I still haven't accepted SLO is that if I go to UCSD, I can live at home and save 10k off my tuition and thus have my grants and scholarships cover my entire expense (at least for my first year). My research points shows a significant gap in wages for UCSD EE and SLO CE in favor of SLO(around 15k a year) but almost no gap between UCSD CE and SLO CE.</p>
<p>Basically, would it be easy to change majors into to the impacted CE program at UCSD and if so, is saving 10k a year worth living at home and getting a free college education vs a dorm at SLO and getting the "college experience"?</p>
<p>SLO is definitely a top engineering school and with the hands-on approach, it seems like that would be the better choice. In my opinion, there is no different than going to high school if you’re commuting, and it is harder to make friends as almost everyone stays in dorms. The tuition in SLO is also much less compared to UCSD but living cost is pretty big. Look at the financial aid package and decide.</p>
<p>From your post, it seems like you have already made up your mind that you like SLO better than UCSD, and the problem right now is based on money. </p>
<p>In general, just think about it that you going to be in debt in both situations. UCSD’s tuition is higher, but SLOs living cost is higher. They will ‘equal’ out in a sense.</p>
<p>SLO is known for their engineering program, and you also got into it with your first choice major, so in my opinion and from what I read from your post, this is the school you want to go to, so why not try living away from home and learn how it is to be on your own for your college experience to grow as an individual.</p>
<p>I graduated from SLO some 25 years ago majoring in EE with a focus on computing engineering (back then, computer engineering was not even a major in any university). Yes, SLO’s electronic engineering program was really good. At my first job, I was able to jump in and start to doing my design work with 2 weeks. Heck, I already knew how to use most of the design tools and equipments where the Berkeley, Cornell and MIT kids were still reading their “manuals”. </p>
<p>I had a choice of CS in Berkeley, EE at Poly, EE at Rensselaer (full sclolarship too), and I chose Poly. And I actually studied at UC Berkeley for two summers at their special program for the local high school high achievers. And I had automatic admission to UCB but I chose Poly.</p>
<p>So if you are accepted at SLO with scholarship, you really should give it a try. But just in mind that the drop out rate of their EE program is more than 35%. EE was by far the most most difficult major you could take in SLO. And Computer Engineering at SLO probably is also just as hard.</p>