Best School of Engineering in the CA UC system

The son of a friend of mine is a senior in high school.
He is in the top 4% ( I believe in the state) and is interested in engineering.
He has been told he as pretty much open acceptance in California's UC system, but he and his mother want to know which of the Ca UC schools have the best engineering programs.

I told her this forum is rather heavily laden with engineers and maybe somebody could help with some information. So far he is interested in engineering, but is not sure what type.

Any information you all can give would be greatly appreciated.

Take Care,
mtbkndad :wave:

I would say Berkeley with San Diego at a close second.

A word of caution though, Berkeley's science departments work the students like dogs and expect a lot of reality checks. That's what happened to me...

mtbkndad said:

So far he is interested in engineering, but is not sure what type.

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I can't give any advice on which school to choose since I'm not familiar with CA colleges but I would suggest he make sure that there are jobs in whatever field he chooses in the area he wishes to live. I made the mistake of not doing that. I studied electrical engineering. I had neither the desire nor the means to move out of New York City. Unfortunately, there were/are few jobs in my field, and even fewer which would have hired someone fresh out of college when I graduated. I sent well over 100 resumes to anything which looked even remotely in my field and didn't even get a single interview. As a result I've been underemployed and/or freelanced my entire adult life. I'm not sure if any other field of engineering would have interested me enough to pursue it but if I had been aware of the employment situation I might spared myself the expense and time of going to college entirely. The main fields were one might earn a decent living in NYC seemed to be finance and law. I had zero interest in either. I may have done OK with civil engineering, but again it really didn't interest me enough. I try to advise others now not to make the mistake I made.

One piece of advice I can give is to forget any semblance of a social life during the school year. Unlike BA students who might have time to party depending upon their major most engineering students don't. For me 4 hours sleep a night during the week was the rule. I did catch up on sleep on weekends but just enough to recharge my batteries for the following week. By summers I was always burnt out and really needed the two months off until the following year. In short, don't pursue an engineering degree unless you're serious about it. And leave any ego behind. I was used to getting close to perfect scores on most things in high school (and this was one of the hardest high schools in the city). First semester in college I ended up with a couple of Bs, an A-, and a C. It was a humbling experience, and one which made me feel utterly worthless.

270 is right. Cal (UC Berkeley) is your best bet for engineering in the UC system. I have quite a few engineering friends. But again, be warned, Cal will work you like a dog.

UC Berkeley is with out a doubt the top tier engineering school in the UC system.

Berkeley is tops in the UC system at both graduate and undergrad levels. UCLA (my opinion) is second - and good at both levels with UC San Diego a strong third.

I go to UCSD and I can vouch for its great engineering program. For engineering as a whole, UCSD ranks right next to Berkeley in terms of graduate school. I have friends who went to Berkeley and they did complain that they worked them like dogs, which you would think is a good thing, but they didn't like it at all and some quit engineering or left the school. UCSD is a beautiful school in a fantastic location. I've been heavily involved in the off roading club, which uses TONS of flashlights when you're out in the dark desert =), and other school functions.

I went to undegrad here and now I'm doing graduate school because I loved it so much. I also studied abroad in the UK for a year as an engineer. Again, good thing to do.

check out the rankings.

http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/about/index.html


and check out the ride club.

www.rideclubsd.com

--Andy

Thank you for all of the replies, I will print this thread and give the printout to them tomorrow.

Thanks again and Take Care,
mtbkndad :wave:

mtbkndad said:

Thank you for all of the replies, I will print this thread and give the printout to them tomorrow.

Thanks again and Take Care,
mtbkndad :wave:

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To those of you that replied to this thread I appologize for not updating sooner.

My friend's son chose Berkley and will be starting in the Fall which is coming up real quick.
Thanks again for your help.

Take Care,
mtbkndad :wave:

There's a story that during the riots of the 60's at Berkeley the Engineering side of the campus (Northside) didn't even take notice.