UW- Seattle vs. USC vs. UC Berkeley vs. UCLA vs. UIUC

College Search & Selection
1

UW Seattle:
-Direct admit to Electrical Engineering. Planning to do a computer science on top of it - so EE+CS double majoring.
-Full ride (including housing)
-Close to family
-A lot of friends
-Will be considered a top student.
-Not as prestigious. but top CS and EE program.
-Close to industry

USC:
-Viterbi: Computer science and Business administration (Sounds extremely cool)
-20k a year
-I am not from a prep school so don’t know how I will fit into the preppy scene.
-I know nobody…
-Mediocre computer science program

UC Berkeley:
-Top CS program
-60k a year…
-Have a cousin there
-Have been my dream school since 8
-I can afford it but it will be a burden following me for years

UCLA:
-50k a year
-Cute girls
-Mediocre CS program
-Same as Berkeley but less prestigious

UIUC:
-Top CS Program
-60k a year
-Really far from home
-Not as supported by family and friends as USC/UC Berkeley/UCLA

2

UW for free with direct admit to your major is the obvious choice, except maybe if you really do not like EE and want to change to CS.

If the latter, and you do not want to risk not getting into the highly competitive CS major at UW, USC is the obvious choice on cost, unless you family is made of money. Also, the other three (especially UIUC and UCLA) can be hard to get into CS if you are not direct admit.

3

What??? Full ride at UW? That’s incredible! Congrats!