UW Madison vs UCSC (Engineering)

[surreal skiff]

Schools: UW Madison and UCSC
Intended major: UW Madison: Mechanical Engineering ; UCSC: Robotics Engineering
Similarities: Both are ranked pretty well for engineering

UW Madison
School 1 Pros:
Way higher ranked probably around top 25 for engineering.
Better robotics opportunities in terms of research and robotics teams (thats what I think at least, correct me if I am wrong)

School 1 Cons:
Cold as shit and I come from Cali
More expensive than UCSC by about 20K
Far away from Silicon Valley
Diversity is almost non existent

UCSC
School 2 Pros:
Close to Silicon Valley
Weather is sunny / next to the beach / nature
Cheaper

School 2 Cons:
Worse education / rank comparatively
Seemed to be worse robotics research and robotics team opportunities.

Tiebreaking considerations:
Does the proximity to silicon valley really help that much?
Is UCSC's robotics engineering program good ?
Should I care so much about the rank /education difference?

[chrome marten]

have u visited ucsc? their campus is like a campsite 😭

[surreal skiff]

yeah i visited, i dont really like the campus tbh LMFAO

the nature scene isnt for me , i like the city college vibes better

[chrome marten]

uw madison has that small college town vibe

most of my classmates (bay area) are choosing uw madison over ucsc

but they are cs

[surreal skiff]

im trying to do mechanical engineering and computer science double major probably

[lapis pollen]

i'm choosing between the same two schools lol

but for cs though

only concern is that since i'm doing cs i might not get the major because you aren't admitted directly to cs and classes fill up fast apparently

[surreal skiff]

did you make any progress in ur decision

i cannot choose for my life

[lapis pollen]

yea i chose wm

tipping point was the number of credits from ap's

https://registrar.wisc.edu/credit-by-exam/

[surreal skiff]

oh same i also chose uwmad