<p>I'm currently a high school senior from Southern California who was recently very lucky enough to receive admissions from Yale University as well as the Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego. The Jacobs School, however, is offering me a scholarship that covers full tuition and includes benefits such as priority course enrollment, a faculty mentor program, opportunities to conduct research right when I begin enrollment, and a whole load of professional development benefits.</p>
<p>I applied as a bioengineering major to both universities, but I'm actually quite undecided as to what I really want to study in college. For a long time, I've always planned on going to medical school, but I've recently been considering a lot of other potential careers in areas like finance, computer science, and biomedical engineering. As of now, I personally want to keep my options open but I also understand the importance of committing to a certain field as early as possible. </p>
<p>My purpose for this post was to ask any current Yale students who may have been in a similar situation as me in the past. What led you to ultimately choose Yale? I know that the overall engineering/science programs at Yale aren't ranked as high as some other universities, but is this really the case in terms of overall research/educational quality?</p>
<p>I haven't visited either campus yet (even though I am a Connecticut native, but I haven't been back in over 10 years), but I do think that this will play a big part in my decision. For now, however, I would GREATLY appreciate any insight that you all may have. Thank you so much!</p>
<p>I am a current Yale Freshman (Electrical Engineering). I was choosing between here and a fullride to USC Viterbi. Come to Yale. Every undergrad is given a faculty advisor, if you want a specific faculty member to look after you just e-mail them, they are seriously the nicest people ever. Any undergrad is welcome to do research here you just e-mail a few labs and they will find something for you. Once you visit the two campuses though it will be a no brainer. UCSD can’t even compare. For bioengineering Yale is tough to beat.</p>
<p>Basically–Yale will give you everything that UCSD gives you, they just give it to everyone here. Unless you need the beach, go to Yale.</p>
<p>One of my friends chose UCSD Jacobs over Yale and Columbia engineering. Ivy League engineering with the exception of Cornell and Princeton is awful. Yale is ranked somewhere in the 30s or 40s on US News (for the third oldest university this is pretty embarrassing) for undergraduate engineering. It’s not even ranked in other rankings for engineering. I’d take the free education in a good engineering school over Yale.</p>
<p>The issues with Yale/Harvard/… engineering are generally caused by their small sizes. If you look at individual faculty, however, it is very hard to find someone who is not among the absolute top people in his/her field. </p>
<p>If money is not an issue, and if you know that your interests are covered by Yale faculty, go to New Haven. Otherwise, UCSD is a great school, particularly its bioengineering.</p>