Ask HN: Where to go for the cheapest EE degree in the U.S.? In the World?

Time value of money is a serious issue.

There's a nice private engineering-focused school near me that costs $5424 for 8 credits per semester as a "part timer" or $13013 for 12 or more credits per semester. So 50% more credits graduates you 50% sooner but costs a mere 139% more money.

Of course you need to factor in the cost of living to come up with a total cost of taking 8 years vs 4 years.

The math can get extremely weird if you can do scholarships; you might run a moderately large net profit if you join the military in a support role (commo tech?) and take some classes during your enlistment and some CLEP tests, then collect the GI Bill afterward leaving the military while in school if you have some financial self discipline. Or a ROTC scholarship, etc. Reserves will get you less money but go quicker. National Guard service, depending on state, may result in $0 tuition at a state school.

I would recommend against ROTC scholarship in that the military will assign your branch based on stack ranking GPA, and engineering school GPAs tend to be pretty low compared to anything else, not that there's anything inherently wrong with chem corps or air defense. Also officer life is management not technical so if you have an EE degree you're unlikely to get branched commo or cyber you're statistically more likely to manage 50 truck drivers because in the military management is interchangeable cogs. Still, if you're willing to do work unrelated to EE for a couple years the military would provide a negative cost AKA net profit if you want a "cheap degree".

There are quite a few good technical universities in Germany. In no particular order (although ranked roughly by prestige):

- TUM Technical University Munich: Pros: Lots of interesting tech companies in the Munich Area (such as Intel, Siemens, BMW etc.), TUM has a good reputation, Munich is a very nice city to live in Cons: Munich is very expensive

- KIT Karlsruhe: Pros: Relatively cheap cost of living, lots of interesting computer science / electrical engineering professors

- TU Dresden: Pros: Cheap cost of living, nice city, Global Foundries lab is located there, allegedly good EE department

- TU Berlin: Pros: It's Berlin.

- TU Darmstadt: Pros: Nice Fraunhofer institutes, but bigger focus on compsci and mechanical engineering

10 years but the 4 years of studying there are included in the 10 years. Most continue with a PhD (at least 3 years in France). And then it is allowed to do research abroad, not for the French governement, for instance in an US university. Working for a private company entails to have to give back just part of the money.

And there are 4 ENS (écoles normales supérieures) in France so even more opportunities!

For the US, it looks like community college and the different military approaches are covered well. As are some foreign options (minus details of getting in from outside the country). You can also take your time, co-op a bunch, and end up with little out of pocket.

If you are still a high school student, and have a knack for tests, then the PSAT might still the most important test you'll ever take.

20 years ago I was a national merit scholar as a result of the PSAT, and that provided me multiple full-ride scholarship options for engineering.

And yes, it is ridiculous that a computer test you take at 17 can have such a disproportionate outcome, but that was the case, and very well may still be.

I spent a few months in Darmstadt. Agree about all the positives you mentioned. One negative I want to add is that relatively few people speak English.