As a non-Californian who now lives in the Bay Area, can I ask what might be considered a dumb question (yes, I’ve done research on rankings)?
Are UCs (all of them) considered the crème of the crop and should be a fairly easy “yes” if your child gets accepted? I realize major is a factor, but I’m speaking in general terms.
Thanks!
For someone out of state, I would say absolutely not. They don’t give much if any aid to out of state students which makes the cost of attendance very high (based both on out of state tuition and cost of living in most places in California). I don’t think they are a very good value for out of state students.
For in state, they are an excellent value in most cases. The tuition is reasonable for the level of education you get.
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Agree about the cost, I believe that is why they are so desirable. However, they are getting very expensive and DD received a couple of out of state offers from private schools that would have come in at less than UCs. However, she has been waitlisted at one, denied at the rest. Fortunately, she has great CSU options too. As far which UCs are the creme of the crop, it really depends on what course of study you are choosing. I think they all have strengths, but some just have more brand appeal.
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CSUs are becoming the best in state value, in my opinion. And many of them are quite academically strong while still be relatively accessible - both in terms of admission and cost - to most state residents.
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Thanks. I should’ve mentioned and have now edited my post that I do live in California now.
my daughter has been excepted to one UC so far but also an out of state which of course is twice as expensive but she really wants to go there so I’m torn.
Yes, the price is often right when it comes to UC (compared to private schools, whether in or out of state). And the education is excellent - certainly comparable and sometimes better than more expensive options.
Fit is important, though - so if she feels more at home in the out of state option, it is worth considering…IF you can afford it without too much struggle or debt.
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I understand the dilemma! My son has some great UC acceptances but he also really likes UW… which would be a lot more $$$ for us coming from CA. He also has some OOS acceptances that offered substantial merit to make them as affordable as a UC, but of course does not like them as much as UW 
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As someone who moved to CA after college…I remember being surprised by how highly considered the UC system is here. I’ve now been here 25 years and this is my third child doing college admissions and believe that these are excellent schools. And some of them are a bargain (of sorts) for CA residents.
That said, my two older chose to go OOS.
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UW for some reason gets a lot of love from bay area kids. I think its a combo of the location + the campus. If only UW had direct admit for engineering majors or perhaps a more straight forward major declaration process, I think their yield will go up sigificantly from CA kids wanting a “nicer” UC experience.
The OOS pricing is also a bit much but still cheaper than the UC tuition for OOS students but obviously not a great bargain for CA parents.
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My son is actually very happy with the way UW does it, since he is open to a variety of engineering majors, but is not especially interested in the highly impacted ones. Entering as ENGRUD is a bonus for him, compared to the UCs that required him to choose an engineering major up front, and then have all kinds of barriers to switching majors if he changes his mind.
He received the purple & gold scholarship but it is a drop in the bucket compared to the UW price premium 
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Not every UC though. Since I know you are interested in Cal, they let you switch majors in COE quite freely - even for EECS. You just need to hit GPA thresholds which are quite high for EECS but pretty nominal for other majors.
That said, my son was enamored by UW too but we didn’t apply because of the major uncertainty since he had specific goals.
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People complain about impacted / capped / competitive majors at UCs and some CSUs, but Washington has the same problem with lots of majors: http://www.washington.edu/uaa/advising/degree-overview/majors/list-of-undergraduate-majors/
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That’s great info for Cal, thanks! The other thing we noticed about Cal is that the unit requirements for each major seemed to be lower than the same majors at the other UCs we compared (and they are generous with AP credit), so it seems like there is relatively more flexibility for exploring interdisciplinary interests or going deeper into a specialty area. Of course first one must be admitted to Cal and to the COE 
What major did he end up applying? I am optimistic for you given the obvious effort he has put into the apps 
I will PM you, so as not to derail this venting thread!
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Change of major - Berkeley Engineering does not make that entirely obvious. However, engineering undeclared students are a special case, with free choice of single majors within the CoE: Undeclared - Berkeley Engineering
Assuming you did translate semester system at UCB and UCM (120 semester units to graduate) and quarter system at other UCs (180 quarter units to graduate) based on 1 semester unit = 1.5 quarter unit, right?
UCB CoE AP credit policy is listed at Exams - Berkeley Engineering .
That is true. My info is based on direct insight provided by my son’s advisor and the experience of this friends within COE. You can actually see this play out in the data provided in Cal’s major “migration dashboards”. In the example below, 9 out of 48 switched from IEOR to EECS.
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This is why we didn’t even let our daughter apply to UW this year, though it feels like half her friends applied and were accepted. We knew it would be significantly more than a UC, and for the most part we only allowed her to apply to UCs and CSUs plus schools that at least potentially give a lot of merit aid. That’s definitely part of “why pick a UC” for us. Cost-wise, they are a good value for full-pay families like ours.
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Yes, we have an unbelievably detailed spreadsheet comparing each school’s curriculum, and yes, it takes into account semester vs quarter system. On a percentage basis, his preferred engineering major would have quite a bit more free units at UCB than the same (or similar) major at the other UCs we compared. UCLA was at the extreme other end of the spectrum, with the least room in the schedule for free electives.
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Many in state think so (short of UCR, UCM, and sometimes UCSC) and many OOS think the two biggies are.
I would argue nationally outside the two biggies they are less known. Like an Emory, WUSTL, or to give credence to another solid but underwhelming name - Binghamton.
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