Need help with decision.
USC - Electrical and Computer Engineering - private/no aid or scholarship/costly
UMich - Computer Science - out-of-state fee (~80k)
UC Davis - Computer Science and Engineering - in-state
UC SB - Computer Engineering - in-state
Thanks
Amount you and your parents can afford?
Your preferences in a school?
~40k/year.
Preferences: Job/internship opportunities, alumni network, safe campus etc.,
Our daughter and her friends absolutely loved Davis!
You have 40,000 bikes on campus.
Wherever you walk on campus, you’ll notice that everyone is smiling. Tutoring is free and the professors really want you to succeed so they’ll spend extra time with you and their tutors.
The big deal about Davis, is that it’s a collaborative environment. The school encourages collaboration with your peers. So everyone works together to learn and get good grades.
It’s in the middle of farmland so you kinda have to get used to the cows on campus and the Vineyard on the outside of campus. The tractor driving course is a very impacted class. So is the beer making class. The school has a sense of humor.
Edited to add. They have a double Decker bus service that is completely managed and run by the students. They had “band-Uh!” Which may not be coming back but it’s a really funny band.
If your budget is $40K, pick a UC, and be happy with your amazing options! Even without a budget, I’d lean toward a UC - paying twice as much for a similarly-sized and similar quality public doesn’t make a ton of sense to me. You might get more attention and guidance at a private school, which could be worthwhile to some - but not if you can’t afford it. I personally would vote Davis over Santa Barbara, but both are excellent.
So, you have two schools that are within budget; and they’re every bit as good for CS/CE as your unaffordable schools.
Between UCD CSE and UCSB CE, which program do you prefer?
Between Davis and Santa Barbara, which campus and surrounding area do you prefer?
For most people, either the curricular differences or the geographic and “vibe” differences would settle the decision fairly easily. Do you have conflicting pros and cons, between the two UC’s?
social life and surrounding areas are very different in davis and santa barbara. visit both and the decision will come to you. major differences might be minor as both seem to have a hardware component.
Edit: congrats. getting into both these UCs(and USC/UMich) where the school of engineering enrollment is small is quite an accomplishment. For reference, S25 applied into all 4 and was 1 out of 4.
That means that if USC is at list price, and Michigan is at out-of-state list price, they are not realistic options. Meaning, your choices are UCD and UCSB.
Very good university. Only 2 1/2 times your budget in cost.
Very good university. Only twice your budget. Frigid winters (I admittedly only visited once for a week – it never got up to zero when I was there but this was a cold snap).
Very good university. Very good CS program. Attractive location. Affordable.
Very good university. Very good CS program. Attractive location. Affordable.
I think that you are comparing four very good universities. You will get a very good education at any of them. You will have good internship opportunities at any of them. Two of them are in-budget, two are not. With these options I do not see any reason to run up debt for your bachelor’s degree, and you would not be allowed to borrow enough without a co-signer.
Choosing from between your two very good in-state public options to me is tough. I have no idea which I would choose.
For one daughter this would have sealed the deal if we had been in-state!
You need to visit Davis and Santa Barbara. The campuses are really different. The vibe is very different.
The town of Davis is kind of attached to the school, next to it, but it has everything that you could want. Very walkable and accessible. The major form of transportation is by bike.
You can choose to go to Sacramento, or to San Francisco, or to Silicon Valley near Davis. The train station is right in the center of town.
Santa Barbara has a tiny airport. If you’re going to drive in from LA County, it’s on the coast, and it’s beautiful, but traffic can be a nightmare at certain times of the day. It’s a very good school and you can’t go wrong with Santa Barbara either but the drive from San Diego was long.
Our daughter would fly from San Diego to the Sacramento airport which, ironically, is closer to Davis than Sacramento. Via Southwest, the in-air flight time was ~one hour.
If you’re planning to work in any of the big corporations in the Bay Area, then Davis might be closer for internships.
My daughter’s best friend studied electrical engineering at Davis and ended up being hired by the University.
Go visit your schools. You will immediately feel it or you won’t. Our kids knew immediately where they belonged.
I am a UCSB alum and have children who went to Davis and USC. I have a relative currently at UCSB.
I’m not sure what you are looking for in a college, but I can describe a bit about the culture of the different campuses.
UCSB and Davis are similar in that they both have college towns adjacent to campus. The primary mode of transportation at both campuses is a bicycle. UCSB is more beachy and Davis as a bit more bohemian. UCSB has more of a party culture, but there are plenty of events and activities on weekends at Davis as well.
From my experience, students and professors at Davis are much more collaborative and friendly than either USC or UCSB. There is very much a culture of “we’re all going to succeed together.” That’s not to say that USC or UCSB are cutthroat or mean, it is just that Davis stands out above the others with respect to students supporting each other and faculty supporting students.
USC does not have a local college town like UCSB and UCD. It is similar to UCSB in that it has a decent party culture. At USC, many students participate in the Greek system. Lots of students enjoy USC football and basketball. Some students don’t pay attention to sports at all. USC is a very urban campus. You need to be street smart and pay attention to your surroundings more than you would need to at UCSB or UCD.
Viterbi (USC) students tend to hang out with each other as almost all of your classes are together. You will meet people in the dorms and maybe in GEs but, in general, Viterbi is a close knit school.
This. You can’t afford to attend your other two options (Michigan or USC).
well, I can go for a student loan but I am not sure if that is wise.
The max you can get in your name only is the $5500 federally funded direct loan. Anything above that amount will either need to be taken out by your parents or cosigned by them. Are they on board with taking on that amount in loans?
Michigan at $80,000 a year would be $320,000 for undergrad…do you think that is wise as a loan amount….
You have great engineering choices. Pick the best fit for yourself of the two affordable options you have. My son graduated from Michigan in engineering and yes it was great. But paying double for it when you will end up in the same /similar job market is silly and not financially responsible. Many of his friend’s with loan payments looking back our hamstrung while he is putting away money for his future, easily. His cohorts in the US students come from various universities. Some top notch and some considered “lessor”. But yet, they all were equals.
You will get a great education from all of your acceptances. Congratulations on that.
You can only take $5500 your first year. That’s the max.
Visit all of your schools.
You’ll know.
If you’re doing insane loans to attend either USC or Michigan, then you don’t really understand how your loans will impact your future. Buying a car or property will be impacted because you’ll have this loan for years to pay off.
You seem to be gravitating toward USC. My sister attended USC, on a full athletic scholarship. She had a good experience. She has a good alumni network.
She did, have some non academic issues.
USC is known as the University of Spoiled Children for a reason. Many of her roommates, throughout the first two years were really “different” economically.
During freshman year, she could no longer tolerate the first set, and at the break, she moved out.
Although my sister kept her area, bed, and desk clean, the other two roommates didn’t. They also didn’t respect her (scholarship student), her area, or her study habits.
Both were from wealthy families, and both were accustomed to having housekeepers. They were also accustomed to staying out late. My sister was a serious student, athlete, and she grew up with chores and responsibilities at home. She took pictures of the messes.
They tried to resolve their issues with the RAs. The RAs sided with my sister. After my sister moved out, she heard that the two got into a fight with the RA and were kicked out of the dorms.
I’m not saying that this will happen to you but there are a lot of students there who don’t need loans to attend.
I agree with the above advice. Just pick a good in-state school and be happy. There’s no benefit paying out the nose for an out of state or private school for a degree that gives you virtually identical results.
To be fair, there’s more to choosing where you’ll spend four formative years of your life, than just what subsequent results the degree will give you. Families pay more for a different experience all the time, and there are all sorts of reasons that they find value-added that they’re willing to pay for. That is fine, and it’s fine for the OP to prefer their private/OOS acceptances and to be sad to have to turn them down.
(It’s also fine for others to believe that the incremental cost isn’t worth it even if you have the money. That’s why some people who can afford a Lexus fail to understand the point of spending more over a Toyota that serves exactly the same transportation function, and yet Lexus still stays in business. People value what they value, and spend accordingly.)
However, when choosing those options means debt that will substantially impact their life and choices after college (if in fact they can even borrow enough to finish) then the more expensive choices would be extremely foolish and absolutely not worth it. To the previous analogy, taking out a car loan which will then throw you into housing insecurity, just to have a Lexus vs. a Toyota, is simply dumb. People have done it, but serious regrets are the usual result.
As many have already stated, OP is fortunate that their affordable choices are not tangibly inferior to the unaffordable ones. That doesn’t mean their feelings about the unattainable intangibles are invalid. But then again, they are likely failing to appreciate the quite-attractive intangibles that the affordable choices have to offer. UCD vs. UCSB, without debt, is an enviable choice to have. And allowing unattainbility to make the “Lexus” options feel like they would have made life shiny and perfect is a pitfall to avoid. Many a student has overstretched financially and still ended up unhappy. There’s no evidence that the UCD/UCSB experience will really be worse; mourning what cannot be, for a limited period of time, is fine; but dwelling on it will only sour an otherwise-sweet opportunity.
Thanks everyone for your thoughtful responses. I will weigh the pros and cons and update here when I make the decision 