<p>I got accepted to MIT and also got the Regents Scholarship for UC Berkeley for chemical engineering. I realize that the Regents perks (priority enrollment and housing, faculty advisor, networking) is, for the most part, available for all MIT students because it's a private school. MIT's financial package is affordable but still more expensive than instate tuition at Cal plus the minor Regents monetary award. I suppose my main concern is academic rigor. Is it harder to get a GPA high enough for grad school admission at Berkeley (with its bell curves and cutthroat competition) or at MIT (when surrounded by the top STEM students in the world)? I'm posting this on the MIT forum too to help me make my decision.</p>
<p>Hmm… I would argue that if you’re looking strictly at GPA, it would be easier to get a higher GPA at Berkeley than MIT. I would just say that because at Berkeley, even though you’re looking at harsh bell curves, you’re compared against students who are not SUPERSTAR engineers - as in, many, if not most Berkeley students did not get into MIT or Caltech (because if they had, they probably would not be at Berkeley). Of course, I’m sure there there are exceptions, but’s that the POINT - there are relatively few superstar engineers compared to MIT. I’m not trying to put Berkeley students down or anything - they’re still TOP students - but the average academic achievement of these students is probably lower than those at MIT. At MIT, you have valedictorians, students who took differential calculus in 9th grade, Intel, Siemens, and Google Science Fair winners. </p>
<p>That being said, however, the academic rigor itself is probably very similar at Berkeley and MIT - you can check out the open online courses for each school yourself. It’s just the environment you’ll be in that’s different.</p>
<p>For grad school, however, I think both colleges would probably be equivalent. You could argue, though, that since Berkeley is in Silicon Valley, there might be more internship opportunities. But Boston isn’t too shabby either.</p>
<p>Congrats on your great choices, btw. You can’t go wrong with either one. I would personally just choose the college with the culture that fits you.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>MIT selects its frosh from applicants pressed up against the maximum for academic credentials. However, it appears that Berkeley College of Chemistry and College of Engineering are getting to that point this year (I was surprised by the results in the admittedly small sample from student posting – see the summary in <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-berkeley/1632018-berkeley-frosh-class-of-2018-decision-summary.html#latest”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-berkeley/1632018-berkeley-frosh-class-of-2018-decision-summary.html#latest</a> ). Also, not all of the superstars of the type you mention get into MIT and the like; some end up at state universities, including Berkeley. So do not assume that Berkeley CoC or CoE will be a cake-walk in terms of grading curves.</p>
<p>In terms of course and curriculum rigor, MIT does accelerate what is normally a year of frosh calculus into a semester (although AP credit is allowed to skip part or all of that first semester). MIT does have extensive General Institute Requirements that are heavier than the general education requirements at most other schools, including Berkeley CoC.</p>
<p>Also, what do you mean by “grad school”? MD and JD programs are mainly GPA and test score (MCAT and LSAT) based for admissions, but PhD programs are holistic, looking at your undergraduate research experience, recommendations, and courses and grades in your major. If your “grad school” goal is a PhD program, it is likely that both Berkeley and MIT are well known enough that grade inflation or lack thereof will be known and considered in context when you apply to PhD programs.</p>
<p>In reference to grad school, I want at least a masters. I may try to get a PhD and become a researcher. It’s more easy and fun to do research with an engineering mindset, which is why I’m pursuing a ChemE major.</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses everyone! Keep them coming! I want to get a sense of the academic rigor at both schools before I visit both campuses so I can ask questions for staff and students and then make my decision.</p>
<p>Bump</p>
<p>Bump</p>
<p>Bump</p>
<p>Bump</p>
<p>Not sure why you’re bumping, you’ve gotten pretty good answers.
I think MIT is more rigorous if not the same level of rigor as Berkeley. So it may be more difficult to maintain a high gpa there but I certainly don’t think the reason would be because of a “higher caliber” of students there. However, a slightly lower gpa in MIT will probably get you into loads of grad schools regardless. </p>
<p>Just want to get as many viewpoints as possible before visiting the schools so I can ask the appropriate questions. I don’t know, I thought it was safe to assume that the students at MIT are of a higher caliber. I don’t know how high I would be, as a Regents Scholar, in a ChemE class at Cal, though.</p>
<p>I think one thing that hasn’t been discussed, is that besides GPA concerns is that, you need to remember Berkeley is a university where all kinds of subjects are explored in addition to science, like business, political science, philosophy, art, music, English, History, while MIT is focused majorly in a school of technical and engineering disciplines, and thus you will get more techy/nerdy hardcore types of people.</p>
<p>All i am saying is, you should go where would give you the best opportunities, and make you happy. </p>
<p>^I guess that’s a pretty safe assumption in the general (all majors and colleges), but I meant I don’t think that’s why it’s more rigorous there. I think the classes at MIT might just be more difficult, but obviously I didn’t go to MIT so I wouldn’t really know. </p>
<p>Class rigor will be similar, and though you may be competing against less superstar chemical engineers at Cal, you will face a harsher grade distribution. I think it’s down to which school environment you prefer, where you would like to work after graduation, and other miscellaneous concerns. Having Regents will make your life at Berkeley easier, as priority registration does tend to help, and you will be surrounded by similarly high-achieving students as yourself. </p>
<p>Can anyone tell me about the grade distribution in most engineering and chemistry classes at Cal?</p>
<p>Grade distribution info can be found on Schedule Builder:</p>
<p><a href=“https://schedulebuilder.berkeley.edu”>https://schedulebuilder.berkeley.edu</a></p>
<p>Click on “courses” at the top left, then navigate to the class in which you are interested.</p>
<p>@LVKris, great info. </p>
<p>@coolbeans123 and @dina4119,</p>
<p>Looks like there is a misconception that MIT caliber way higher than CAL COE. If one makes the decision based on that misconception one is going to be surprised.
Here is the comparison of CAL COE vs. MIT (2009). The difference is not much at all. </p>
<p>25% MIT 650 660 720 2030
CAL COE 620 630 710 1960</p>
<p>75% MIT 760 760 800 2320
CAL COE 740 730 780 2250</p>
<p>For source of this info please refer to.
(<a href=“Academic Rigor at MIT vs. UC Berkeley - #91 by PiperXP - Massachusetts Institute of Technology - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/massachusetts-institute-technology/1633917-academic-rigor-at-mit-vs-uc-berkeley-p7.html</a>) </p>
<p>Cosmogony you must go to MIT. I think you will definitely enjoy it. Don’t worry about rigor!! Both are seriously rigorous! If you got into these schools, that means they think you can handle it! Berkeley is awesome but MIT is the best and the culture fosters success in STEM fields like no other. MIT is once in a lifetime. Just my opinion though, not like I’ve attended these schools.</p>