I just entered college for Computer Engineering. I applied to University of Illinois, UCLA, Berkeley, and Carnegie Mellon. I've got a lot of friends that have gone to UCLA and Berkeley and have done the same major as me (I'm from California myself so the in-state schools are very popular). Ultimately, I went with Carnegie Mellon.
My reasons werethat I didn't want any of the horror stories from my UC system buddies who said their classes were getting super packed, professors didn't care too much about their innumerrable students, and they were just generally broke. Illinois also accepted me, and I would have rather gone there (I was a little turned off by the fact it was in farm country though), but even with my extremely low expected contribution, they couldn't give me much money.
That leaves Carnegie. At carnegie Mellon, every freshman engineer is required to take atleast 2 engineering courses their freshman year! My girlfriend's brother who is an Electrical Engineer at UCLA is taking 5 years to complete his B.S., and didn't even start taking engineering courses till his junior year. The required general elective courses are few and far between at Carnegie, unlike most schools, so you know a lot more in four years than most people from other schools. Also, they're huge on double majoring. I'm planning on doubling in Business Administration and it's only going to take me 4 years. Now they're also doing a 5 year integrated masters of business administration degree for some of the strongest engineering majors. An MBA from the Wall Street Journal's #3 business school in the country, along with their awesome Computer Engineering program in 5 years is unbeatable.
Finally let me get to the money. I come from a 2 sibling, single parent family, and had very good academic credentials. I was able to go to the UC's for a very good price with the cal grants and everything else. University of Illinois was very disappointing with what they offered though, and I can only assume thats because their state is having a tough time financially. However, Carnegie Mellon is loaded. They gave me a great starting offer, then I sent them copies of my offers from all my other schools, and they made their several thousand cheaper than even my former cheapest school (University of California Santa Barbara) less than 2 hours after I faxed them the info. Beyond that, once I was admitted they flew me (as well as several hundred other students) out to stay for half a week, gave us food, board, and would cover my parents and my travel expenses up to $700. They really know how to wine and dine their students. In conclusion, Carnegie Mellon was the best for me. DOn't leave them out. My advice is to apply to all of them, see who offers the most, and if it's the money thats holding you back, write to them, send them your other offers, because a lot of schools will negotiate and try to beat others.
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I just entered college for Computer Engineering. I applied to University of Illinois, UCLA, Berkeley, and Carnegie Mellon. I've got a lot of friends that have gone to UCLA and Berkeley and have done the same major as me (I'm from California myself so the in-state schools are very popular). Ultimately, I went with Carnegie Mellon.
My reasons werethat I didn't want any of the horror stories from my UC system buddies who said their classes were getting super packed, professors didn't care too much about their innumerrable students, and they were just generally broke. Illinois also accepted me, and I would have rather gone there (I was a little turned off by the fact it was in farm country though), but even with my extremely low expected contribution, they couldn't give me much money.
That leaves Carnegie. At carnegie Mellon, every freshman engineer is required to take atleast 2 engineering courses their freshman year! My girlfriend's brother who is an Electrical Engineer at UCLA is taking 5 years to complete his B.S., and didn't even start taking engineering courses till his junior year. The required general elective courses are few and far between at Carnegie, unlike most schools, so you know a lot more in four years than most people from other schools. Also, they're huge on double majoring. I'm planning on doubling in Business Administration and it's only going to take me 4 years. Now they're also doing a 5 year integrated masters of business administration degree for some of the strongest engineering majors. An MBA from the Wall Street Journal's #3 business school in the country, along with their awesome Computer Engineering program in 5 years is unbeatable.
Finally let me get to the money. I come from a 2 sibling, single parent family, and had very good academic credentials. I was able to go to the UC's for a very good price with the cal grants and everything else. University of Illinois was very disappointing with what they offered though, and I can only assume thats because their state is having a tough time financially. However, Carnegie Mellon is loaded. They gave me a great starting offer, then I sent them copies of my offers from all my other schools, and they made their several thousand cheaper than even my former cheapest school (University of California Santa Barbara) less than 2 hours after I faxed them the info. Beyond that, once I was admitted they flew me (as well as several hundred other students) out to stay for half a week, gave us food, board, and would cover my parents and my travel expenses up to $700. They really know how to wine and dine their students. In conclusion, Carnegie Mellon was the best for me. DOn't leave them out. My advice is to apply to all of them, see who offers the most, and if it's the money thats holding you back, write to them, send them your other offers, because a lot of schools will negotiate and try to beat others.