Vice versa. West coast goes to East coast. East coast comes to West coast.
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Of course yes.
If my duaghter can make it to Berkeley EECS then i would be thrilled.
However, it is still lower ranking than stanford, cmu and mit in my opinion.
One more thing to consider. Recently, UCs tend to reject overqualified students to avoid crazy waitlist issue. Thus, you should pay attention to it.
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My thinking regarding high schools and college is this:
The most important preparation is high school because it determines what colleges you get admittance to and how much you can get in merit scholarships. If you don’t focus on high-performance in high school, you can’t get into either Berkeley or MIT or possibly any of the UCs/Cals nor can you get a full-ride at a second-tier school.
The importance of college is networking and degree. Networking stays for life. Degree seems to be less important after you land the job.
It seems to me that Ivy status is way more valuable to a 45 year old SAHM reentering the workforce than a 45 year old man whose been employed straight from college.
So unless college significantly determines whether or not you get an internship and later a job, for a male, it seems like the best focus is simply on having choices and scholarships after high school and making sure they get internships during the summer.
So is UCB vs. MIT really important for him?
I certainly agree that it would be important for my daughter to have a top-tier education if she wants to get married and have kids and reenter the workforce.
Sorry if that’s sexist, but…
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How do you know this?
It’s been in the news.
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Also other factors for college choice should be ease of adding on a Master’s (ie 5 year BS/MEng program–I have no idea if Berkeley has this), and ability to challenge classes and transfer college credits taken in high school. MIT does to some extent take APs and allow you to challenge classes, but my understanding (am I wrong?) is that Berkeley is obliged to give him transfer credit for any classes he takes through Canada college’s program.
If he can graduate a year early, that’s like an extra $100K right there.
I would choose the best school (MIT>Berkeley, Berkeley > mediocre private college) as long as he does not have to live at home. Living at home in my opinion is such a huge negative that it outweighs the quality and reputation of the school. If students are living off-campus and he’s able to have a similar experience to them off-campus, that’s fine too. I think you’re suggesting that you’d buy a home for him to rent with buddies and not live at home, which sounds fine if most students are off campus anyway.
If you don’t mind me saying, you remind me of my parents in some ways in that they were quite conservative about goals for me, and really I didn’t need to be worried about my career at all. I was a really good student and an all-round force to be reckoned with. Yet I always felt that finding a good job after graduation wasn’t guaranteed, it felt like something to aspire to instead of expect - because that is how my parents felt and they transmitted that to me. So I used to save money in all kinds of small and weird ways instead of getting a bigger loan and taking more advantage of the elite school I was at. I would work up to 20 hours a week for example. My college roommate was in a similar financial situation and she just maxed out her loan - her dad told her college only happens once. On the other hand, one time I felt the textbooks for the class were too expensive and I gave them back, instead buying older versions from amazon (not the same textbook as other students!) When my bike got stolen, i didn’t buy another one bc of the cost, so it would take me longer to get to class. My laptop was barely functional some of the time!
Your kid is likely to be so successful that 10K or 20K/year here or there won’t mean much when he or she has graduated. I mean, I guess I’m glad in some ways that I have this mentality but I wasn’t necessarily saving money in wise ways. Looking back I would have preferred to spend some of that time/money doing unique things you can only do in college. The money’s just sitting there for me now but you can’t relive the education.
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Ok. I think you guys are right on this. I don’t know that we’d have a down payment, but at least it’s something I’d consider since we could get the money back later when needed.
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My boss actually just bought for his medical school son a condo back east so that he would have more privacy and less riff-raff to bother him. So, his son is sharing this 2 bedroom condo with a 2nd year med student buddy.
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Wow, impressive!!!
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Could affirmative action be playing a role here?
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Wish his SAT scoring was disclosed so that at least some sort of standardized testing calibration could be done. Still, 4.68 GPA is nothing to sneeze at with all that extra curricular activity and he did get accepted everywhere he applied…
Ok, 1540 out of 1600 (found online)…
Definitely. Every college wants a top-notch African American student like him hence the full-ride scholarships he was offered. But given his GPA and SAT scores, his admission is fully in-line with the rest of the students admitted to them.
The only difference between him and his white counterpart is that the latter will not get offered a full-ride, especially not to Harvard or Stanford.
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@Terri, I understand you are concerned about your son but I think you worry way too much. Just apply to the schools and see where he gets in and what kind of packages he gets. Don’t make the decision for him worrying about financial aid (or the lack of). That $200 (or whatever it is these days) you invest in the application fee will be worth it. Nobody says you have to make the decision right then and there.
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She’s a concerned mother 
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Totally agree. But the possibility of UCB at $15K/yr makes it very attractive to stay in the Bay Area until the kiddos are through college. Also the question of dorm vs. home affects whether or not to buy a duplex/triplex and whether or not to consider a move to East Bay/Oakland area (reduces the commute to Berkeley). Both significantly affect the house-buying/job decisions that we’ll be making this spring/summer.
36%? That doesn’t sound right.
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That avocado toast is expensive. They probably skip 5 meals to afford that one.
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I posted this awhile ago…