Yes, Cal and all UC and CSU schools were expensive so our kids didn’t apply. For what it’s worth, our S got his degree in EE and is doing robotics, wearable tech and project management at his job with the fed govt in DC. He couldn’t decide on a major so H suggested EE as the most flexible and it seems to be working well for him.
I really would encourage your D to talk to the young female engineering students and female engineering faculty in each program to get a feel for support (or lack of it) for female undergrads in engineering. It’s important for your D to know what she’s getting into.
@Jpgranier, the EECE degree at UT Austin with a Software Engineering concentration is the most popular option in the EECE department currently, from what we understand, and that is what my daughter is planning on pursuing if she goes to UT. It does look like a good program…but not so strong on the robotics side, unfortunately… @HImom, your son’s job sounds awesome!!
Yes, S is very happy with his job and has gotten a transfer and promotion since he started, at the urging of his colleagues. They suggest you should go for a promotion and transfer every 2-3 years, which he has followed so far.
He got solid skills and has gotten some on the job training. His internships–working with an engineering prof one summer and NASA another summer counted as years of experience by interviewers and the fed govt when he was looking for his full time job.
I think it can be useful not to over-specialize – EE is broad enough to give S lots of options. He is good at coding but doesn’t want to be stuck only doing that. He also likes robotics but likes variety. The project management flies him to sites in cities he likes. Oh yea, he also flies drones as part of his job too. He loves that as well.
If she loves CS and robotics, I don’t see how you could do better than CMU, literally. We are going to Cal on the 21 and CMU on the 28. Celebrating in Thailand this week! Let us know what you choose. Might we meet at CMU?
Congratulations on your daughter’s admissions! All 3 are excellent choices, and I hope you enjoy the upcoming visit to CMU.
Berkeley classes do get impacted and some of them will be very large (>400), and you won’t always get into the discussion/lab section you want, but overall there shouldn’t be much problem graduating in time, or even a semester early if she can handle a few extra classes every other semester.
Here are what I personally found to be important:
Industry you want to work in & location: Even though most people would associate with the Bay Area for the tech companies, it is also thriving in Pittsburgh and Austin. It is easier to get a job nearby where you graduated, so it is important to check out which industries she would like to enter and thus which school can provide the best opportunity to enter that industry. I think the work culture is very different between the 3 regions too, so thinking about what job factors are important (high salary, stability, work-life balance, etc.) would be important.
School spirit: Not everyone becomes attached to their school after graduating, but I do notice a positive feedback cycle with a school that cares for students, the students love the school, and have stronger alumni network and general support for school for rest of the life. I think having excellent Division I sports program (football, basketball) is crucial to bring people together on weekends for students to cheer for their team and take a break from studying. I notice CMU only offers Division III sports which I suppose there are no tailgate partying on the weekends, and this can be further noticed by less endowment amount from the alumni.
I would say attend UT Austin for the free scholarship.
I attended Berkeley and took engineering physics and math and then transferred to UT Austin and studied ECE/CS.
I can say the classes at Berkeley are harder to ace because the students are on average brighter and competitive so the academic stress at Berkeley is higher. Better GPA at UT would help.
Also Berkeley is more crowded and housing much more expensive. Austin much more affordable, though has many bugs.
UT ECE building should be new and opening soon I hope. The CS building was quite new, funded by Bill Gates and Dell.
Many computer companies are in Austin- Apple, Facebook, Samsung, Dell (headquarter in Austin) and many companies visit to recruit there, so I don’t think being in Austin and not Berkeley would be a disadvantage. Also facebook held hackathons in their Austin office, so doing well in hackathons and getting noticed are not difficult at UT. Largest Texas hackathon is held at UT too.
But either way, UT or UCB either is a great choice.
I have not had an issue with getting into classes at EECS or with class sizes. I’ve seen a lot of people complain about class sizes at Berkeley, but Berkeley only has large classes at the lower level courses. However, the difference between a small lecture class and a big lecture class really isn’t that different. The professors are available in office hours either way and the only difference in the class is that there are more people sitting around you.
However, I would still go with UT Austin. I’ve found that its better to go with the cheap option for undergrad and then go to a top school for graduate school. If she likes Robotics, then she would probably be interested in a graduate degree. Going to a school like Berkeley or CMU for undergrad wanting to do Robotics is sort of going about it backwards, because the real robotics happens at the graduate level at those schools. The education she receives as an undergraduate will be relatively similar at UT, Berkeley and CMU. Also, if she wants to do robotics, a ECE degree would be more applicable than a CS degree. Therefore, I’d say go to UT Austin, get the money and go do some great robotics at one of those schools in the future.
