Calling all UC Berkeley Fans

[Kurt Rahn]

LOL...you're right. SC is full of nutters.

[David Avard]

One of our friends was in the first class at Cal Poly SLO in Computer Engineering. Nice campus and town, although the prices for houses and rent have gone nuts in the last 15 years or so (like 3-4x more). But on-campus housing looks to be plentiful (they've done a lot of building in the last 10 years).

If you are on a budget and have a nice CC near you, take all your general ed and lower level classes there, and it becomes much easier to get in (at least 20 years ago ). One+ year of transfer credits was worth more back then than a 4.0.

[Mari Clements]

Thanks for all the helpful comments and advice! (Shortly after posting, we went out of town, but Matt read the early replies, and it gave him enough steam to finish the Berkeley app.)

He decided not to add any more schools--he's not even sure he wants to apply to 8, but 6 of the applications are already in and the other two are due in January.

To answer--or not really answer as the case may be--some of the questions that came up in the thread:

I'm not sure why not Stanford, but he was adamant on that one. Not Georgia Tech because of where it is located--he does not want to live in the south, not even for four or five years. UIUC he ruled out after exploring their web info on the program and the school, but he didn't say specifically what he didn't like. RPI he didn't think was as good a match for what he wants to do, although clearly an excellent engineering school.

If he went to CalPoly SLO, living in San Luis Obispo would actually be free--he would live on his grandparents horse ranch in exchange for helping his grandfather with the farm.

He's got scholarship applications out that are probably being evaluated even as I type, so your well wishes, happy thoughts, and/or prayers are all welcomed.

He'd really like to go to MIT, and his second choice is Caltech. But, as several folks pointed out, he can't really go wrong with any of the schools on the list.

I'll let you know how it all works out.

[Bill Schenker]

Wishing him all the best!!!!!

[Roman Krajewski]

The EECS program at West Point is good

Outside of that, my second choice was SLO and still hear good things about that place. Looking back, I wish I had just gone there in the first place.

Ask the major engineering firms where they hire from, that should give you a good idea of what you're looking for. around 10 years ago, one of the big wigs at JPL told me they hire from Northridge and Poly Pomona for Computer Science, but that info is dated. PM Pete Loney and Steve Collins and see what they think coming from Raytheon and JPL respectively. Wait, doesn't Christine Berry work there (Raytheon) too?

[Mari Clements]

The EECS program at West Point is good

Actually, he started an application at West Point, and then decided not to pursue it.

Jonathan's first choice remains the Air Force Academy. He wants to be an aerospace engineer.

[Steve Ekstrand]

I have a friend that hated the Air Force Academy so much that he got in a fight with a superior officer just so he could get booted out.

Friend wasn't exactly the military officer material his father and brothers were. Brilliant, but......

[Mari Clements]

Yeah, Matt and I had a brief but frank talk about the military and chain of command and discipline.

[Giovanni Jaramillo]

Mari, I forgot about 1 more place that is in NYC but couldn't remember it until now. Very small school, but HIGHLY regarded as it's purely an engineering only type of school..........Cooper Union http://www.cooper.edu/engineering/Welcome.html

[Mari Clements]

Whew. Matthew probably won't be sitting in the study playing computer games next fall. He will be either at Carnegie Mellon or UCBerkeley, in all likelihood. He heard from both of them today, and will probably relinquish his spot at CalPolySLO and Kettering tomorrow. He is also waitlisted at Caltech.

[Bob Beamesderfer]

WOW! That's one smart kid!

[Mike Simanyi]

WOW! That's one smart kid!

Good genes, great parenting.

[Mari Clements]

WOW! That's one smart kid!

Good genes, great parenting.

Thanks and double thanks. Matt is truly a neat young man, and I am lucky to have him as a son.