<p>My S was accepted as an engineering major at UCLA - Freshman 2009. He applied to Berkeley as an engineering major and was rejected. He's convinced that his life is over and that nobody will hire a UCLA engineering grad over a Berkeley engineering grad. Is there any merit to his stubborn belief?</p>
<p>I thought your question would be which to choose with acceptances to both; my answer would be that they are both prestigious so choose the one with better fit. I guess UCLA wants him so that sounds like a good fit!</p>
<p>Your son is not incorrect in that Berkeley has the world class engineering program between the two. But assure him that engineering is probably the field in which school matters least. And he can always pick up a masters at Cal which will matter more.</p>
<p>Also, my nephew did engineering at that university of ill-repute Chico State; he got a job in the Bay area right out of college and is doing great, has passed all the required exams on first try, so it is not just the school, it is what you make of the opportunity</p>
<p>That's awesome, somemom!!</p>
<p>UCLA has a very highly ranked engineering department. My D turned down CAL engineering to go to UCLA. (Her reason for UCLA rather than CAL had nothing to do with the engineering dept - she just liked UCLA better).</p>
<p>Your S needs to educate himself about UCLA and the UCLA engineering department. </p>
<p>Here's a link to some of the companies who participated in the engineering career fair -
UCLA</a> Career Center</p>
<p>Three years ago, S was accepted to both Cal and UCLA Engineering. We visited both, and were not particularly impressed by Cal. Other than Cal Day (an open house for the public, scheduled in late April, which IMO was too late to be of any help to S's decision), Cal had no special programs for admitted or engineering students, aside from the general 2 hour tour of the campus that is conducted almost daily. In contrast, UCLA organized a day-long open house specifically for admitted Engineering students. The support and resources available to undergraduate engineers as described at that event were very impressive. One topic of discussion at the open house was career placement, and the students on the panel spoke proudly about their internships with various defense, aerospace and entertainment companies in the Southern California area. Though Cal engineering may also offer undergraduates resources comparable to UCLA, that certainly was not evident to us. If UCLA is doing another open house for this year's admitted engineers, I strongly recommend that you and your S attend. If not, you can always email the Engineering department with your concerns.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, for S UCLA was way too close to home, and he is now studying engineering out of state. </p>
<p>Disclaimer: both H and I are loyal UCLA alums, as shown in my screen name.</p>
<p>A friend of ours is a venture capitalist specializing in emerging technologies. He is very bullish on UCLA.</p>
<p>My son was accepted to UCB engineering but not to UCLA engineering. What gives? I guess it's holistic admissions.</p>
<p>My son is glad he chose UCLA engineering over Cal. His professors really opened doors for him as far as getting him into internships and research opportunities. He turned down several job offers before he even graduated, and now that he has almost completed his engineering master's degree, the offers are coming in on a weekly basis. He'll turn those jobs down as well, because this summer he's staying at UCLA to start on his PhD. :)</p>
<p>^^ Congrats to your son UCLA Band Mom. That's quite an accomplishment.</p>