Hello,
I have been admitted to Cal as an in-state regents candidate. Considering I have fulfilled lower division and GE requirements with community college credits at Cal, would it be wise for me to still go to Cal or go to top tier out of state schools?
Thanks!
Cal is one of the world’s highest ranked universities. If you’re in, why bother with anything else?
Unless you have very compelling reasons (e.g. much much less expensive for a 4 yr. degree) to go to an OOS school.
Plus, if you get Regents, you get priority registration and guaranteed housing for 4 years (granted what you wind up with may not be ideal, but it’s something). I don’t know why you want to go OOS unless you don’t want to be in California. For the $$, UCB is great bang for your buck.
@Pentaprism @Undercrackers Thanks for your responses.
I am low income so I would be given generous aid. I guess I should have specified the college, MIT or Cal. Going to Cal, I would be able to graduate a year earlier. Is there really no difference in undergraduate education at MIT or Cal? I just feel I would be missing out if I did not go to MIT.
Thanks!
Be aware that MIT general education requirements are quite heavy, so if you consider it advantageous to have already fulfilled them at UCB, then you may find them to be burdensome at MIT.
@ucbalumnus
1)
MIT: about 4 thousand
Cal: 10 thousand a year (waiting on regents decision though)
To be thorough, you should look at the complete “cost of ownership” - beyond straight tuition: room and board, general cost of living (how much does stuff like food and books, etc. cost on each coast), cost to travel to/from East coast, etc. Also, the cost of having to spend an extra year at MIT: all of the above PLUS the opportunity cost of NOT being out in the work world for that year. If you’re going to be pragmatic, you really need to think about all of this. If you do, and the extra aid you wind up getting from MIT makes it a better bargain or a wash, why not MIT? Otherwise, Cal is a very, very good school for many STEM-related fields.
Also, I’m confused - are you saying you took community college courses in CA or at Cal? You are using the state and the school interchangeably, which is confusing.
If you get a Regents’ scholarship, your net price at UCB will probably drop from $10k to $2k, since the general tendency is to replace student loan and work expectation with scholarship/grant.
What division/major were you admitted to at UCB? Be aware that changing majors within the UCB CoE can be difficult, and changing to a CoE major from L&S is even more difficult. Also, if you are in L&S, entering the L&S CS major needs a 3.3 GPA in the specified CS courses. MIT’s main advantage is the relative ease of declaring or changing major, assuming you pass the courses needed for the major.
I’d take MIT for 4k over UC Berkeley for 10k or even equal price. MIT shines in terms of undergraduate experience and opportunities. Mit is in a class of its own (Berkeley would be in the same class for graduate degrees btw. )
@Undercrackers I will earn 56 community college units by the time I graduate. Sorry for the confusion. Thanks for the response and I will definitely think about that
@ucbalumnus I plan to double major in ME and CS (or maybe try for just CS). If CS does not work out I am thinking of the new data science major or mathematics.
@MYOS1634 Thanks for the response! There is also graduate school, which I often forget about.
How much do you value graduating early? What would you be graduating too? If you are getting enough aid to make all 4 years affordable, you may want to take the extra time on campus to broaden your education not only in your major but just in general. Plus, with more time in your schedule, you may be able to study abroad or double major or take on a cool internship.
Cal and MIT are great schools. What speaks to you? Who is going to give you the best college experience as a whole?
@turtletime Thanks! Yeah I think Cal will really hit home. It is going to be a new environment for me regardless and I do not think I would stand the cold. I think it will really come down to getting Regents or not this March 29.
I guess I have really been stuck on the idea of prestige (although MIT might have more undergraduate support, it is what you make out of college). When in reality, both are equally good in their own ways.
The resources you’ll have at MIT, as a private universities, simply can’t compare with what you’ll find at Cal for undergrad. For instance, MIT has this program where they pay you to go abroad and live at a school where you get to demonstrate your research and a hands-on project of your own design. If you want an internship, they will help you in every possible way, and the interns’ salaries are pretty sweet. You can switch majors easily, or double major, or create your own. If there are too many students for a class they just open a new one instead of making you wait a semester more till you can take it. There are labs where you collaborate with industry projects or are provided material to invent stuff (you can apply and not only is your material paid for but you get a stipend). In terms of prestige they may be equivalent but prestige should be the least important criterion; in terms of experience a wealthy private school is very unlike a public university no matter how good the public university is. There are resources and programs there you won’t even know exist if you don’t attend.
So, my recommendation is MIT for undergrad and Cal for grad school (funded).
Are you admitted as an ME major in the College of Engineering at UCB?
MIT is better and more prestigious, go to MIT.
I’d pick Berkeley, specially if you got Regents.
It’s more fun to go to a school as well-rounded and diverse as Berkeley. Berkeley has everything MIT has. MIT is still predominantly a STEM school full of (sorry to say this) unattractive geeks and nerds.
Also, the general conception these days is Berkeley engineering is as prestigious and respected as MIT. It’s now just as exclusive, too, both having below 8% admit rate. And, Berkeley has close connections to SV. If you’re eyeing to become a startup founder, go no further. Berkeley is now ranked number one in terms of having the most number of successful startups and startup founders. Stanford fell to number two, and Harvard is again ranked number three.
MYOS1634,
Many if not most of the good stuff you said about MIT are also available to Berkeley College of Engineering undergrad students. I even heard from a friend that one undergrad EECS student is making 25k/mo as an intern in Silicon Valley. The guy broke a record!
I think you exaggerated it a bit for MIT.
Berkeley, MIT and Stanford – these three – are peer schools for STEM. Among them, neither is much better than the other.
I’d like to add what I gathered from a respectable source that in the past couple of years, Berkeley COE has been improving its fight against both MIT and Stanford in the cross-admit battle.
If i remember it correctly, Berkeley got 17 students for every 100 Berkeley-Stanford cross-admtted Students. And, 20 or 22 for every 100 Berkeley-MIT cross-admitted students. Drastic improvement from the years before 2016. But almost all of those who chose to matriculate in Cal did it for Cal’s EECS and M.E.T. programs.