<p>I live in Austin and am finishing High School here. </p>
<p>UT Austin offered me admission to Elec and Comp Eng Hons with a full-ride merit scholarship. I'd live in a dorm if I chose UT, not at home with parents.</p>
<p>UC Berkeley also admitted me . It has a better EE&CS dept apparently, but out-of-state means the cost of attendance will be 55k per year for 4 years = 220k total. No scholarship offered. Won't qualify for need-based financial aid; my family's income is just above the cut-off, it seems.</p>
<p>My parents can pay but is UCB worth the extra cost? I could save the money for a graduate degree, but I don't want to reject UCB only because of the money. </p>
<p>could get a so much of a better education at UCBerkeley that my enhanced earning potential would make up the difference?</p>
<p>there also Rice Univ without fin aid, which I have dropped from my list</p>
<p>If you’re determined to go to Berkeley, do your undergrad for free at UT and then go to UCB for grad school. Here’s an article that would make me think long and hard about doing undergraduate work at Berkeley.</p>
<p>This should not even be a question. There is nothing special or magical they’re going to do at Berkeley that is going to make you any better of an engineer then you would be if you attended Austin. With a ABET accreditation, you’ll take essentially the same courses no matter where you go.</p>
<p>It would be a toss-up at even money. Your experience will be much better in Austin. Add the Honirs and the scholarship, and it is such a no-brainer. </p>
<p>Take some of the money for nice Spring Break travel and summer internships. Best of both worlds.</p>
<p>If you go to UCB you will have the crushing weight of 220K of debt on your family, making any financial turn down a crisis v. the skipping through a field of flowers feeling knowing you are getting a college education free…
Easy decision, enjoy UT.</p>
<p>I don’t think Berkeley is worth the extra cost. You won’t necessarily have any enhanced earning potential - there’s not much evidence that engineers from higher-ranked programs make higher salaries than engineers from other well-reputed but not as highly-ranked programs. UT-Austin is an excellent university; there are people who are fighting to get in there (as evidenced by the recent Supreme Court case) and I think you should go there.</p>
<p>When I was an undergrad at UT, long ago, I had two friends who were EE undergrads who were admitted into grad school at Berkeley in EE (in different years, they didn’t even know each other). As someone above stated, you can make grad school at Berkeley your goal as you go to UT.</p>
<p>I’m surprised you were so quick to shoot down Rice- I’d easily pick it over your other two options, if cost wasn’t a problem. But between UT and UC, UT is easily the better option. They’re very similar schools- massive undergraduate pop and focused on research. But Austin is a better place to live and it’s free.</p>
<p>Definitely UT for free. Austin is a technology center…I’m sure there are great opportunities. I wouldn’t worry about the recruiting differences, since the costs are so different in your case. </p>
<p>it seems that UC B has a larger number of professors in the EECS dept than is usually the case. is that true? if so, then the class sizes must be smaller than at UT for undergrads</p>
<p>also i wonder if the professors are better teachers at UCB than at UT A</p>
<p>A larger number of faculty members should NEVER be taken as an indicator of the size of the classes. Some of those people may well not teach any undergrad classes at all. A few won’t even teach grad classes - they will just do research and supervise grad students.</p>
<p>For a notion of quality of instruction, check ratemyprofessorsDOMcom</p>