Wow. They must’ve gotten accepted to HYPS or the like, it’s hard to imagine turning down MIT.
Our S applied and toured both Cal and MIT. His thoughts were that both offered great academics but had very “different” environments, as articulated by the OP:
Money was not an issue, but because of the environment he would have opted for MIT (was not accepted there though).
On the jobs front. FAANG hires broadly, and increasingly so do east coast financials. However, SV startups hire heavily from area colleges.
But since you’re looking for opinions, mine would be to go Cal. Why?
- Academics are same
- You’re OK with “gritty”
- Save money (maybe grad school?)
- SV ecosystem unmatched - in the world
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Or the price compared to other options may cause them to hesitate.
@penguin2, why? For many reasons, it is not the right school for everyone. As I’ve mentioned previously, my son had the stats to be competitive and didn’t even apply after we visited. He didn’t see it as a fit for him. He didn’t apply to a single Ivy either. We visited those too. He was underwhelmed. You need to move beyond reputation to learn more about what YOU want your day in and day out experience to be.
Places like MIT/Caltech are actually more cooperative, perhaps contrary to some common misconceptions.
@Rivet2000 Thank you for being so helpful! Did you son go to either MIT or Cal?
I’m sorry if it seems that my only rebuttal to all your points is "It’s MIT! I’ve been brought up thinking that MIT is the Holy Grail of engineering colleges, and it’s a huge thing for me to consider turning it down. Based on what you know of my preferences from my original choices, price aside, could you tell me what you advise?
He currently attends Stanford. He was accepted to Cal (CMU and others) but really liked Stanford above all his other acceptances.
OP, none of us can tell what to do. Especially how you will like/fit at a school. No matter what you choose, some people will say that was the wrong choice. If you decide on Cal, you will not be the first. My niece did it 20 years ago (OOS). Whatever you choose, confirmation bias will set in and you will be determined that you made the right choice.
If price is not an issue, perhaps a side-by-side comparison might help. Map out course selections for the first few years of undergrad at both schools. Then search online to see if there are any videos of lectures from the classes. Also, search out research labs at both schools and see if they are actively recruiting undergrads. Research housing options.
In the end you probably can’t make a bad decision academically, but the two campus cultures are quite different (from what I remember 3+ years ago).
Yup, I agree with your rebuttal. It IS MIT.
A majority of my family attended Cal. I didn’t. My older D now attends Michigan. One relative graduated Cal recently. The relative that graduated recently was a recruited athlete and played 4 years there. He had a GPA of 3.8 or so. Pac-12 All Academic team. He had problems getting classes. And had wanted to change majors, but was denied. A 4-year varsity starter with a 3.8 GPA and Pac-12 All Academic team?
Cal is definitely gritty and it’s very dog-eat-dog. A Cal parent recently posted here in CC with a litany of issues: freshman dorms, sophomore housing, access to advisors, class sizes, access to professors, protests, crime, etc.
I’d spend the extra money and send my kid to MIT.
What @sushiritto just listed are all good issues to consider. Housing at Cal is challenging (not sure how MIT is), getting into your desired classes (and size). The rest protests, crime, etc is the “grittiness” factor.
Among super accomplished CS college graduates whom I know, a FAANG job out of college is really a low bar. If a FAANG software engineer is what one is after, then a San Jose State degree will do and it can save you even more money.
A senior engineer at Apple recently told me that he typically saw a dozen Cal graduates for an entry level position at his group every year but had not seen a single resume from MIT in the last five years.
I think for subjects like math and CS, undergraduate curriculum do not vary a lot, and quality of instruction is probably close to being the same. Ultimately, it boils down to what you want to do with your CS degree. Is it software engineering or business startups or grad/prof schools?
It seems people on this forum always want to recommend cheaper options. But if your family can afford it, the intangible benefit of college experience and school prestige may be hard to quantify but probably well worth it.
What major was that student trying to get into? Only CoE or CoC majors (from outside the division) or maybe business would be that difficult, unless the student tried to change at a late stage without enough previous course work for the new major.
Depending on what the OP wants to do post-college, I would not dismiss FAANG as a low bar. Take Google for instance. I doubt anyone would categorize Deep Mind or Google Brain as a low bar and while few undergrads land there, the research-type positions at Google are many and the resources available (scale) are immense. Not all positions in FAANG are the same 
.
I can’t honestly say it any better than Eyeore123.
I can tell you that my dad is a MIT alum and my sister turned it down for a state school I’m sure you’ve never heard of. Neil Armstrong turned down MIT for Purdue.
I can also tell you, and you need to take this to heart, for undergraduate, there is no Holy Grail. Each and every program has strengths and weakness. Cost, is one of many. Engineering and CS are VERY egalitarian.
Want proof. The top 5 employers of MIT CS grads are Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Apple and IBM. The top 5 employers for CS grads from Michigan Tech, another school I guarantee you’ve never heard of, let alone applying to, are IBM, Ford, Google, Amazon and Microsoft.
Want more proof. Pull the CV’s of the non-business/HR appointees to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s (JPL) Executive Council and look up where each did their undergraduate work. The list: Texas, AF Academy, Colorado, Purdue, Caltech, Princeton, Texas A&M, Cal Poly, Cal Poly Pomona, UCLA, and MIT. This is not a slight to any school represented, but a statement of fact that what they did AFTER was what got them on the Executive Council, not the school they attended. If it was the latter, they’d all be MIT grads.
Go where you feel best, but know, because you’ve already stated it, this will create a financial strain on your family. This is not an “all costs the same” analysis.
@eyemgh . . . Stanford’s intro CS course is huge also, but they consider it to be good because there’s open access to it, and it’s enabling those who might not have had an interest in the course.
With respect to actual class sizes, a college can open up five sections at different day and time for an intro course that would take, say, a total of 400 students at ~ 65-100 for each, but there still wouldn’t be a difference between these and the one with 400 students because there will still have to be heavy TA involvement. So many colleges would rather have the one with 400 students. But this does show that faculty/student ratio isn’t always indicative of class size at a college.
For @fifty . . . Here’s a link, https://publicuniversityhonors.com/2015/10/20/estimated-class-sizes-more-than-90-national-universities/ with a set of calculations by the site. I don’t know how credible this is, but MIT at its site clearly states that the 3:1 ratio is for undergraduates, but it doesn’t appear to be necessarily reflective in class sizes, by this link. The site itself does pose that it’s hard to figure out what an average class size would be at any university, because simply, “What denotes being a class?”
MIT housing is all but guaranteed for those four years, and Cal is just freshman year. MIT’s research options are better and more available for undergrads.
In terms of AP credits, Cal seems to have better options. At MIT, I’d skip Calc, Physics, and the English prereqs, and have 54 elective credits. I don’t know where those elective credits come into play, other than that I need 48 to graduate so I guess I have those already?
At Cal, I’d skip bio, chem, a CS course, english, 2 humanities courses, calc and physics. As for interesting courses, thanks to the courses that are cleared by AP credits, I’d think I could take more at Cal.
@penguin20 . . . by interesting courses, do you mean in your major or outside of your concentration? Because I thought the idea of piling up AP credits would be to free room for more CS courses, or to graduate early.
Edit: And yes, the one year guarantee is problematic for housing at Cal. But it sounds like you could at worst take BART from near home.
I was going for outside my concentration, but powering through more CS courses to graduate early makes sense. Better to get the undergrad over with and have more time later to travel or explore jobs than to waste a quarter taking theater and American history.
I really don’t want to live with my parents for three more years, but I can rent out an apartment with a roommate or two and bus it to classes.