Tough decision here.
So, I’m a Washington state resident. I was admitted to UW for pre-engineering, and was not a direct admit for the engineering program.
I was, however, admitted to Berkeley EECS. Berkeley has been my dream school for a while because of their high rank as an engineering and startup school. Berkeley is the only campus I’ve visited other than the UW, and I absolutely love it.
Berkeley is the clear choice for me, however it’s so expensive. I could maybe pay for it through some online work I currently do and end with little to no debt, or I could go to the UW and end with excess for a home or apartment.
It’s frankly a tough decision. It’s hard to deny my dream school. The decision would be much easier if I were a UW direct engineering admit.
I know that at Berkeley I might be able to pursue VC or a career at Google. Likewise I know that I have very similar opportunities with the UW, however I have no guarantee for their engineering program.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thank you!
It would be useful to know the actual cost difference, since the cost of UCB seems to be your main obstacle.
$26k/yr UW, $61.5k/yr Berkeley
How difficult is it to transfer into the engineering program at UW from pre-engineering? It looks like most applying go into pre-engineering, so you aren’t in the minority. If they odds are not good, however, you may wind up at a school with no debt but not be able to major in exactly what you want (a different major within engineering, perhaps). I would say UW would be a no-brainer if you had been admitted directly into engineering, but you have a direct admit as EECS at a higher ranked school. Do your math again and really be certain about the cost difference and how you would make it up. EECS students at Cal are VERY busy - you may not have time to make a lot of money on the side.
FYI, per PayScale.com, early career pay for a Cal engineering undergrad (2016/2017) is $77,800; UW is $71,200.
Can you provide some details on how you would pay for UCB?
I hear it’s very difficult to transfer into UW engineering from pre-engineering.
https://www.(reddit.)com/r/udub/comments/1a1blt/how_hard_is_it_to_get_into_the_cs_major/
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-washington/1830024-honestly-how-hard-is-it-to-get-into-an-engineering-major-at-uw.html
A couple news articles cite similar statistics and information. The sheer difficulty and unlikelihood of transferring into CS or even any other engineering program worries me.
I forgot to mention, I also got into UIUC engineering, which would be $44k less than Berkeley. At that point though, I’d be so far from home that flights/such would end up costing me a bit.
I can yea. There’s no way I would be able to attend Berkeley without my parents, so I’m very fortunate in that regard. Both I and my parents have contributed to a college fund which would cover one year. My parent’s offered to take a loan to pay for another year. I could pay for a year myself right now, but that would drain all of my funds (though I won’t need to for a few years, so I’ll be able to earn off of that).
I would then be able to finish school with a maximum loan of ~$120k, and a more likely loan of $60k. I could work a couple hours/day online and pay off that loan during college, but I’d need to be investing some of the money I’ve saved and there are no guarantees.
Even though the loan I take will be lower than if I had no help or money, $60-100k in debt is still frankly daunting and scary. It’s a lot of money to pay off, and It’s difficult to decide whether or not it’s worth it.
You sound scared right now. Imagine actually having your signatures on the paperwork. It’s not the end of the world if you don’t get into engineering. There are other STEM majors, plus you can throw in a grad degree for the money you’re saving, if so inclined. And if you do end up getting into engineering, you’re miles ahead. Work hard and make it happen.
Washington is a big risk of not getting into your major:
https://www.engr.washington.edu/current/admissions/admitstats
Berkeley is very expensive for you with inadvisable amounts of debt ($60-100k) – and you cannot take on that much debt without a cosigner.
Is UIUC direct admission to your engineering major $44k less than Berkeley per year (meaning $17k per year), or $44k less total (i.e. $11k less per year, or $50k per year)? If $18k per year with direct admission to your engineering major, go there.
Do you have any other choices?
I wrote out a budget for Berkeley. $37k is the max debt I’ll be taking on (if no scholorships, ap credit, etc) and my parents will cosign for me. UIUC is $11k less per year. No other options aside from WSU & Montana State.
While I think the poster should go to udub, it’s important to note that every STEM major at udub other than physics and things like environmental/atmospheric sciences is competitive. That said, I’ve never been able to figure out if there are people who are completely shut out of every major. In other words, you don’t get CS but you do get computer engineering, EE*, ACMS or industrial engineering.
*From what I understand, EE at udub is crammed with people doing an embedded systems concentration with almost no one interested in the other sub-disciplines.
The competitiveness of each “competitive” major varies, and for this student, it is unlikely to be an issue.
@fragbot, my understanding is that many students complete more than one of the concentration areas:
https://www2.ee.washington.edu/academics/undergrad/MajorConcentrationAreas.html
Is the $37K of “max debt” for 1 year or 4 years?
I’d say go with University of Washington. The money you save will be very helpful in the future, especially if you are interested in startups. Students from the University of Washington are also very entrepreneurial and Seattle has a great startup scene.
If you are worried about your major, I’d say two things:
1.) If you are qualified enough to get into EECS, then you should not have a significant amount of trouble getting into the UW program. Just work hard your first semester and you’ll be fine.
2.) The reason many people say getting into UW engineering is hard is because they are OOS students. UW likes to give preference to in-state students, so the fact that you are a resident will help as well.
Berkeley is not worth the financial stress when you already have the University of Washington as an amazing school. You will also have more time to focus on your own startups / online work.
$37k would be the maximum 4-year debt I’d be taking on.
This would be if I made no money over those 4 years and got nothing from AP.
UW would be great, and a lot of the responses have reassured me, but I can’t deny that the UW just isn’t a guarantee. The fact that I might not (and have a solid chance not to at that) get into UW CS is still daunting.
Anyway, thank you very much for all the responses. Still thinking on it.
Berkeley CS isn’t guarantee either regarding surviving the rows of lower-div courses before you are eligible to declare the CS major.
I’d say it depends on what you want to do with a CS degree and where you want to live afterwards. Obviously graduating from UCB has a better chance to get you a job in the SF Bay Area, but considering the area is turning into a housing hell, I don’t know if that is the place to be anymore.