I’ve narrowed it down to those top four choices and I can’t seem to decide. I love the campus of Georgia Tech and location in Atlanta, plus the weather is nice and it is the cheapest. I like Berkeley’s location near Silicon Valley which is great for internship opportunities, and they have the highest ranked engineering program, but when I visited the campus last summer I remember not liking the area around the campus a lot. I’m worried that because CMU doesn’t have a vibrant enough social life and their sports programs aren’t large. I feel this is due to the size of their school. I’m hesitant to pick Cornell because of the weather and the location but it has a nice balance of social life and academics, plus it has a large alumni network.
What are the cost differences for you? All of these are excellent choices, so you really truly can choose the cheapest of the bunch and then use that information as your answer if anyone asks why.
Georgia Tech is the cheapest. Cornell and Carnegie Mellon are both the most expensive, and Berkeley is right in the middle. I’m worried that by going to Georgia Tech I’m passing up opportunities to go to schools that are more “prestigious”, which I know is silly. I feel that if the decision is really this hard to make that cost could be a clear deciding factor though.
@student203 I 100% agree with your evaluation of your choices. Which engineering are you planning on studying? At Berkeley, the ChemE is in the School of Chemistry, and there are only +/-125 first year students. Whereas for EE, there are over 300 students. The relative class size could affect your decision.
Also, I believe Cornell has worked toward having roughly an even number of women in their incoming engineering classes. Gender percentages may also be another thing to consider.
It sounds like Georgia Tech is where you want to be and is the best value. Certainly, any engineer will be impressed with a Tech degree.
Is there a specific kind of engineering, or are you undecided? If you may change major within engineering, consider…
GT: one free change of major during before 60 credits, not guaranteed afterward https://advising.gatech.edu/change-major-glance
UCB: https://engineering.berkeley.edu/academics/majors-and-minors/change-of-major/ (note: for chemical engineering, https://chemistry.berkeley.edu/ugrad/prospective-students/change-of-college )
CMU: first year engineering program; no apparent barriers to declaring majors https://engineering.cmu.edu/education/undergraduate-programs/student-life/first-year-experience.html
Cornell: first year engineering program; each major sets a GPA threshold to declare (currently 2.0 to 2.5) http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/engineering-majors/2174743-first-year-engineering-programs-secondary-admission-to-major-criteria.html (follow link to handbook to find GPA for each major)
I don’t have one specific kind of engineering I am set on yet, but I am leaning towards computer engineering or electrical engineering. I’m also interested in computer science. I was admitted into EECS at Berkeley and Computer Engineering at Georgia Tech. I do like the flexibility of Cornell and CMU’s engineering programs. Although I got into my areas of interest at Berkeley and Georgia Tech.
You have done an amazing job in HS.to have these choices- which says that you can shine at any of these schools. The result of all that hard work is that you have your pick of four super schools- and there is no meaningful prestige difference between them.
So, if there is debt, choose the one with the least debt- future you will appreciate not having to pay them off.
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If there is no debt, or comparable debt, trust you gut: where do you feel most at home? your gut (and you) have earned that trust!
Sounds like GATech is your preference and the most affordable option. Go for it!
EECS is one of the few majors at Cal that is worth OOS fees to me. Top-ranked major in the #3 engineering school (after MIT and Stanford). That would be my recommendation.
you could get an amazing education at any of these schools! but it does sound like you feel like GT could be a better home to you better so i would go for GT. an engineering degree from GT is just as valuable if not more
OP has not been on CC since early May and would have had to make a choice before now. Closing thread.