Yale vs. UCSD Jacobs Scholarship. Help!

Sweeger
Sat, 06 Apr 2013 04:02:18 +0000

Hey everyone!

I’m currently a high school senior who was recently very lucky enough to receive admissions from Yale University as well as the Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego. The Jacobs School, however, is offering me a scholarship that covers full tuition and includes benefits such as priority course enrollment, a faculty mentor program, opportunities to conduct research right when I begin enrollment, and a whole load of professional development benefits.

I applied as a bioengineering major to both universities, but I’m actually quite undecided as to what I really want to study in college. For a long time, I’ve always planned on going to medical school, but I’ve recently been considering a lot of other potential careers in areas like finance, computer science, and biotechnology. As of now, I personally want to keep my options open and have not committed myself to any particular field. However, I think it’s safe to assume that I’ll most likely pursue something in the math/sciences, but what I value most at this point is a high quality undergraduate experience in terms of academics, research opportunities, and personal development.

My purpose for this post was to ask you all for your advice and suggestions. What are the benefits of an Ivy League education over a school like UCSD, but at the same time, what could a program like the Jacobs Scholarship offer me that a school like Yale can’t? I know that the overall engineering/science programs at Yale aren’t ranked as high as some other universities (according to U.S. News and some other sources), but is this really the case in terms of overall research/educational quality?

I haven’t visited either campus yet (even though I am a Connecticut native, but I haven’t been back in over 10 years), but I do think that this will play a big part in my decision. For now, however, I would GREATLY appreciate any insight that you all may have. Thank you so much!