<p>I got into UC Berkeley, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, and University of Maryland College Park.</p>
<p>UMCP Would be the cheapest at 20k, UIUC at 35k and UCB at 50k</p>
<p>Which would be the best to go for engineering?</p>
<p>It depends a little on the exact field and the kind of school you want to attend. </p>
<p>Berkeley is an extremely strong school overall, but its engineering department is less diverse than it should be (when I looked, they didn’t have ANY professors in my areas of interest) and it has a rather unique campus environment that will not suit everyone. It is a very difficult but very prestigious program, and will suit you well whether or not you want to actually be an engineer when you are done.</p>
<p>UIUC is just barely below Berkeley in engineering prestige, but lacks the overall reputation and has a very different environment - basically out in the middle of some fields, with a town only a couple of times larger than the school itself. Still very rigorous but not as bad as Berkeley even though you get a very similar quality of education. It is very diverse in engineering, but if you leave engineering the name will not get you as far.</p>
<p>UMCP is very strong in engineering, just not quite in the same league as UIUC and UCB - you will not have any problem getting a quality job or getting into a good grad school from UMCP. The environment is pretty urban, being located so close to both DC and Baltimore, so you have to like that sort of setting - lots of nightlife, lots of crime.</p>
<p>Not knowing anything specific about your aspirations or interests, I would lean towards UMCP just based on cost - as I said, they are all good engineering schools, and $60k extra over 4 years to go to UIUC (or $120k extra for UCB!) is probably not worth it unless your family can call that “walking around money”. The educational advantage of the other schools just are not worth the cost for most people.</p>
<p>If I were you, I would probably go to UMCP. You can apply to Berkeley for graduate school, maybe.</p>
<p>I’d like to do Computer Engineering. </p>
<p>And you didn’t mention that UMCP is rigorous? Does it still have a good curriculum? And what GPA should I expect to get at UMCP in order to get into a good grad school?</p>
<p>
Compared to 80% of programs out there, UMCP is rigorous, but it is still less rigorous than UCB or UIUC. Rigor is not a black and white thing.</p>
<p>
Yes, which is part of why I said it was “strong”. If it did not, I would hardly have recommended it as your best choice.</p>
<p>
The best answer I can give you is that with a 3.5 GPA you should have a shot any grad school… depending on your research qualifications and letters of recommendation. Higher is always better, unless it comes at the expense of the research and letters of recommendation.</p>
<p>As a note, UCB is (if I recall correctly) is one of the top-top-top schools for Computer Engineering… still too expensive for undergrad, but you might want to aim that way for grad school, if you can.</p>
<p>Thanks for your advice! </p>
<p>One more question:
I was considering taking a physics (Mechanics) course over the summer at a local Community college. Is this okay, if I’m going to take Physics II freshman first semester?</p>