Dilemma: Alabama or UC Davis?

ricketyricky
Tue, 09 Apr 2013 11:53:39 +0000

A prospective mechanical engineering major here,

As an international student (China, though I’ve already been in the US for a while now), I’ll have to pay OOS tuition for UCD for the entire span of my undergrad. However, the scholarship I got from UCD brings down the cost to about 37k/yr. If I were to go to UC Davis, it’d cost my parents all their current savings.

On the other hand, UA will only cost a fraction of that amount if I choose to go there. I received a full tuition scholarship from University of Alabama. So I’ll only be paying for the bits and bobs, i.e. housing, meal plan, etc (about 15k/yr). On top of that, I’ll also be getting an additional stipend of $2,500 every year from the school of engineering at UA.

I plan to land a job as an engineer and get settled here in the States after college. UC Davis seems to be more prestigious especially in terms of mechanical engineering or just engineering in general and the school definitely has many advantages location-wise. I went to Cali two years ago on a road trip and I was totally loving it! In comparison, my experience in Alabama was just a meh. Then again, graduating debt-free with spare money in the bank seems just as much tempting to me because I don’t want to put a burden on my parents.

Right now my parents are leaving the decision-making to me. I’m sure they want me to do as I please.

Please let me know what ya think!