<p>I am asking this in two places on the CC forum because my son wants to double major in Chemical Engineering & Business and I want to get input from both degree perspectives....</p>
<p>These are the colleges my son was accepted to....
U of Calif - Berkeley
U of Southern California (Pgm for HS Juniors graduating early, 1/2 tuition)
U of Texas - Austin (Offered in-state tuition if he attends)
Washington University - St. Louis
U of Virginia
U of Michigan - Ann Arbor
U of Florida (In-state student, admitted to honors program, basically free ride)</p>
<p>Money is a factor....but it is the 3rd factor we are considering....The quality of the respective programs would be our most important factor....The social scene/college atmosphere is our secondary consideration....Which 2 colleges would be your top 2 choices....and why?....</p>
<p>Thank you in advance for any thoughts that you share....</p>
<p>isnt WashU more known for liberal arts? UVA has a nice eng program but it didnt ever strike me as "WOW come here for engineering!!" (but i live an hour away and hate the area so maybe thats a part of it)</p>
<p>i would say of the rest tho, they are all fairly well known and there is no reason to really say "this program is obviously better than this one!" at that point its like comparing harvard to yale and say pick the better one...it's not worth the wasted effort. all the schools have good reputations and i'm sure he'll do fine in any of them, dont make reputation more important than comfort tho...if you hate the school even tho it has a really good name, its a waste of your 4 years i'd think....</p>
<p>I would try to see what ChemE's typically make at all the schools your S is considering. My S found that ChemE's make the same amount at virtually all the schools he considered. Some schools had a better reputation than others and he considered that also.</p>
<p>I don't have any knowledge of the reputation of the programs you are considering. If he wants to graduate and work, I'd pick the cheapest best option. I know that UT-Austin has a good engineering rep, I don't know anything about UF, but the price is tempting!</p>
<p>If your S is interested in graduate school, the undergrad is a little more important but is it worth the price. I don't know, and if he wanted to go to grad school and had the grades, I suspect that he could get into many fine graduate schools. (none of which I would suspect that he would have to pay for, I never heard of engineering grad school that doesn't come with $)</p>
<p>I guess that I'm saying that he should go with the school that he feels most comfortable with. He has great options and I don't think that he can make a bad choice.</p>
<p>sorry, i should have said i was assuming he'd go onto grad work with my first post</p>
<p>for something like ChemE tho, where you go for undergrad isnt that important. for other undergrad things (Med, Law, etc) the reputation of the school is very important but all in all, its not impossible to go from no-name-college to UVA, UW, UCwhatever, etc..its all about the grades...(dont get me wrong, prestige will help but its not as important as some make it to be)</p>