Where do you guys think I should apply for Electrical Engineering?
I live in Texas and have a 4.46 unweighted GPA and a 3.76 weighted GPA( mostly A’s with a couple of B’s).
I got a 33 on my ACT and a 1540 on my SAT.
I did FBLA, MU ALPHA THETA, TENNIS, BAND, and NHS. My family is not that rich but we have 80K saved up for my college.
Im thinking UT Austin or A&M but im not sure if i should apply for a better college like Berkeley. Do you think I will have any chance?
And also what do you guys think the best engineering is, is electrical any good?
You have great in-state options, and the stats to get into them. Personally, I wouldn’t go into debt to go out of state. You should be able to find a great choice for not much more than 80K (total for 4 years) at a public university in-state.
Berkeley is a great university. However, it has been said many times here on CC that the various Universities of California give very little aid to students from out of state, which makes sense since it is California taxpayers that are footing the bill. As such, I don’t see the point of being full pay at Berkeley when you can get an excellent affordable education in-state at a great public university.
Whether you will be able to get strong financial aid at private universities I have no idea. I would say definitely apply to the best in-state public schools in Texas, and anything else is something that you apply to just to see if you get a pleasant surprise.
What can your family afford?
Definitely apply to UT Austin and A&M .
You would want to apply to places you could get merit aid.
I agree that Berkeley would not give out of state merit aid.
What about Rice?
What makes you think Berkeley is ‘better’ anyway? You haven’t listed a single criterion that is important to YOU. Weather? Location? Size? Where you want to live after you graduate? Class size? Number of TAs? Support for your hobbies? Who knows…UT, A&M and UCB could all be great options. They could equally be terrible options. For all intents and purposes, they are the same, large, research institution, with the goods and the bads that will come along with said classification.
Are you auto admit for engineering at UT? I assume maybe not with your GPA? If you have UT on a lock, I wouldn’t even consider UCB. 80K means that half, at least, goes to room and board at an OOS school over 4 years. That leaves you with 10K a year or less to pay for OOS tuition. UCB would not be worth the application. To get needed merit for OOS schools, you need to be the top of the stats pile.