It’s not even a good environment as a graduate school. (And I say this having LOVED going to MIT as an undergrad, so I’m plenty nerdy.)
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Yes - but Sheldon picked it for its weather 
as we learned on “Young Sheldon”. Which is actually pretty reasonable, particularly if you visit colleges in March!
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He transferred to ASU because they had an online program where he could complete the bachelors degree in CS without having to physically attend the school. (He was already being head-hunted while Caltech.)
He had formed a small research group, in an area of CS/electrical engineering with his buddies, from HS, who were at a number of well regarded colleges. (His sister is a graduate of EECS at University of Buffalo; she originally was premed -hence the Buffalo choice- and received admissions to T10’s.) He consulted with his sister, often, since she has just flown up the ranks of advancement in CS and EE as a manager and consultant in Cybersecurity.
He was already experiencing independently studying at Caltech, which is not what he signed up for, so he figured he could just continue with it at ASU (without the Caltech pressure) and complete his degree “on the side”. He does have friends from Caltech and continues to keep in contact with them. The school just wasn’t a good fit for him because he thrives and creates his ideas in a network of colleagues. He is working for industry right now.
It worked out for him, but it was a very expensive lesson for us.
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If paying 90k, I’d go with Penn 
- more personal attention, top-notch facilities and peers, lots of interesting research and programs (NETS or ARIN, for instance), access to VC - unless you’re really into Caltech’s specific vibe, intensity, and environment.
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Lacking answers to my questions above, I will at least give my opinion.
Personally I do not think that I would attend any of these three schools if I were starting a bachelor’s degree in computer science in September (and if I were starting university in September it very likely would be in either math or CS).
Caltech is small and very intense. You have to want to work very, very, very hard for a full four years with no let up. The desire to do this needs to come from inside yourself. I will admit that I did not attend Caltech, but I did get my bachelor’s degree from MIT which is similar in this regard (although MIT is a bit bigger). Some students love the pressure. Some hate it. Some love it part of the time and hate it part of the time. Some love it and hate it at the same time. Caltech and MIT are “fit” schools. Just being a very strong student is not enough. It needs to be a good fit for you and you need to want to do it.
UC Berkeley is also academically very challenging. It is also very big. I would most likely want to attend a smaller university for a bachelor’s degree.
U.Penn is not particularly known for computer science, although it is a very good university.
So if it were me I would probably either go with U.Penn for a bachelor’s degree or go somewhere else. However it is not me. You need to think about which school will be a good fit for you.
Please do not be driven by rankings. There are a lot of very good universities. Instead think about which university will be a good fit for you. This is more difficult to figure out.
And avoid debt, and if a master’s degree is likely in the future then try to save some money to pay for it.
UPenn is the home of the ENIAC, the world’s first general purpose computer, and it is most certainly known for CS in academia as well as the startup world. Access to interdisciplinary classes and professors/departments as well as a campus culture of both research and venture capital/industry interests make Penn a perfect place for CS. Undergraduates have smaller classes other than some intro-CS that are 200. Most classes will be less than 30. CS (CIS) is in the Engineering school, which has 425 students per incoming class, making it function as a smaller school within a mid-sized undergrad population of 9900, while still allowing for plenty of interaction in and outside of class with students in the College or Wharton. The undergrad experience is that of other top private/ivies: generous funding for undergrad research and learning assistant positions, startup connections and funding “prizes”, top STEM phD placement, abroad opportunities during semesters and breaks, peers with a wide variety of interests and a campus with a wide variety of arts, culture, athletics at many levels, in addition to a social life typical of academically challenging majors at other top unis.
Plus, majors are not declared/decided in Engineering until after the first year, and second majors/minors can be easily added even across schools in many situations: CS as the only major may not be a great idea in the current market or the OP may hate it: Penn allows more versatility.
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It WAS very big. With the changes in CS enrollment, Berkeley is expected to confer between 500-600 CS/EECS CS undergrad degrees in the upcoming years. To give you a comparison, Stanford conferred about 350 CS undergrad degrees. The change to direct admit to CS/EECS has substantially addressed overcrowding.
Is this new? Looking at the following for Fall 2024:
2024 Fall
COMPSCI 61B 001 -LEC 001
[Wheeler 150
Total Open Seats: 84
Enrolled: 866
Waitlisted: 0
Capacity: 950
Waitlist Max: 500
Looks like on Reddit it indicates that they did cut the number of seats by 1000 for Fall 2025. Although it appears that CS classes will be smaller, how will the current students be able to enroll in their upper div classes? It seems like more students may be going 5 years?
The drop in class size is intentional because most pathways to declare CS and EECS have been closed off outside of the direct admit process. People who were under the old regime are juniors and by now they’ve all been able to declare CS if they were able to meet the GPA requirements. My son is a junior and he is already done with all 5 of his upper div EECS requirements and he feels he has barely scratched the surface of the course offerings.
No one admitted to EECS or CS should have any worries about class enrollment.
Also OP is a SEED scholar and they have priority class enrollment so this should be a non issue.
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Sounds like my info is old. D24 and I were speaking to an EECS major last spring who just graduated in 2024 who said he was still taking classes with 500-1000 in his classes and half the class would simply skip the lectures. Good to know.
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Thanks for sharing your son’s story. He seemed to be very independent and knew exactly what he wanted. Congrats!
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Thank you, this is super helpful. My parents are willing to pay for my college, but I am also mindful of the COA and want to make a smart choice. I have other schools , but all of them are about the same COA.
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