<p>I got into both UIUC Honors and UC Berkeley (undergrad) for Electrical/Computer Engineering,
and I need some help deciding as to where I should go.</p>
<p>In terms of ranking, Berkeley is higher up as a school and on the engineering leaderboard,
but UIUC is ranked 2nd in ECE, while Berkeley is 4th, albeit a small difference.
However, that flips for their respective graduate programs,
Berkeley, Stanford, and MIT being tied for 1st and UIUC 4th.</p>
<p>Secondly, UIUC costs about 10 grand less a year (45,000 vs 53,000)
AND I got a 12,000 per year scholarship at UIUC which brings it down to 33,000 grand a year
- 20,000 cheaper than Berkeley!</p>
<p>Lastly, I got automatic placement in UIUC's honor's program (still waiting on iEFX though).</p>
<p>Under normal circumstances, I would choose Berkeley over UIUC in a heartbeat,
but considering the cost and the honors program has made this harder for me than I had expected!</p>
<p>I’d vote save some money and go UIUC for undergrad, unless there are social/environment factors that are worth 10,000 a year for you (academics are really pretty comparable). After that, you could always go UC-B for grad.</p>
<p>First, I’d say the differences between the two schools are so negligible for undergrad, that I’d go the cheaper route and vote for UIUC.</p>
<p>Second, may I derail this topic slightly and inquire as to the nature of the scholarship you received? When did you receive notification of it? Was it granted by UIUC’s engineering department or the ECE department specifically? Reason I ask, is because I applied for some scholarships in the ECE department, haven’t heard back, and would like to know if the notifications have already been sent out.</p>
<p>bailulantian, is there any reason you are getting on all the UIUC threads and advising everyone against UIUC?</p>
<p>UCB and UIUC are so close for an undergraduate engineering education that it really isn’t going to hurt anyone to choose UIUC over UCB. USNWR rankings are good for giving a rough idea of where a school stands, but they are still so subjective and rough that a difference of 2 or 3 in the rankings is essentially a tie. There is no way to say that UIUC’s ECE department is better than UCB’s for sure or that UCB is a vastly better engineering school because for all intents and purposes, it will be treated the same by prospective employers; as a top 5 engineering school with a great reputation regionally, nationally, and internationally.</p>
<p>I would have to agree with some of the previous posters in that, unless there are some outstanding other personal factors going on, I don’t see the benefit of paying $80k extra over 4 years to go to UCB, which will not translate to any real benefit in the long run. Go to UIUC for cheaper and then if you decide to go to grad school, go to UCB for free.</p>
<p>The whole University of California system is in deep ****e right now - you only have to do a quick Google search to find news about 33% tuition increases, riots, etc, and how a lot of people have to delay their graduation by one or even two years.</p>
<p>Now, Illinois is also faring badly - I think we only have less than 20% of our promised funding from the state, but we’re still in a much better situation than California.</p>
<p>From looking at the Engineering Career Fairs around here, it seems the same big companies recruit here as Berkeley. E.g. Google passes by here too.</p>
<p>I’m facing the same decision as OP, 33k for UIUC vs 55k for UCB, both are for EE departments.</p>
<p>I was originally set on UIUC but a lot of pressure is coming from my family to go to UCB. The weather is beautiful in california, they have great sports teams, and UCB is right close to silicon valley and SF, whereas UIUC is in… Urbana Champaign. The honors program would be a plus at UIUC, considering that I’ve read bad things about UCB’s bureaucracy.</p>
<p>Cost not considered UCB sounds like a better choice. Whether that’s worth an extra 80k, though, is another question.</p>
<p>BTW Foolio, the 12k scholarship is unrelated to engineering. I don’t know if they’re still handing those out though.</p>
<p>uiuc also has a good sports team (basketball) and if you have visited campus, you’d realize champaign/urbana is a pretty nice place considering is has 40,000 students in it</p>
<p>I would agree that UCB might be more desirable for a fellow ECE’er, but for $80k more? Not a chance. You’ll still get plenty of Silicon Valley opportunities at UIUC, believe me.</p>
<p>Berkeley in a heartbeat. Don’t even dare comparing any other public school to Berkeley in ANY major. However, only idiots look at the rankings the way you do. So in that sense, do not go to Berkeley. You won’t survive there.</p>