<p>I was accepted to both. UCSD is ranked #4 while Cal is ranked #14. However, Cal has the prestige.</p>
<p>Where to go?</p>
<p>UCSD. It has the prestige when it comes to bioeng.</p>
<p>I would go to the school you want to go to. Playing a numbers game like that is silly. Look at the totality of the school and what you want and make a decision. What if the rankings come out in two years and Cal is #8 and UCSD is #9?</p>
<p>It doesn't really matter. Bioengineering is almost useless for an undergraduate degree. Ask around, employers prefer MechE, EE, and ChemE college graduates over BioE graduates anyday.</p>
<p>If you truly want to pursue BioE and have decent job prospects, then go for a PhD in BioE.</p>
<p>I agree with Kenf1234. Rankings are tentative for the most part...you should check out the major in each school and make an informed decision. :)</p>
<p>if you're going to turn down berkeley for sd, you better be darn sure that bioE is absolutely what you want to do for the next 4 years. if you have any doubts, it's not worth the risk of going to sd, finding out that bioE isn't what you want to major in, and having to settle for a sd degree in some other major that's not so good. but if you transfer out of bioE at berkeley, there will be a lot more options for you, both in and out of college.</p>
<p>i'm trying to choose between cal bionengineering and ucsd bioengineering: biotech. both are impacted majors. i'm not sure if i want to go to med school or not (a definite possibility for me). also, i heard that switching majors at berkeley is hard, so if i don't like bioeng, then i'm stuck at a competitive school, not liking what i'm doing. but it's still cal...</p>
<p>what should i do?</p>
<p>Here's what I think: Choose bioengineering at UCSD only if you want to do Bioengineering. Otherwise, just go to Berkeley.
I personally would choose SD regardless of the fact that I want to do Bioengineering, but that's just cuz I like SD a lot for a variety of reasons. (I turned down SD for Cal last week). However, most people would definitely choose to go to Cal. How many people on this earth get the opportunity to attend the #1 public university?? Either choice, you'll get a top notch education. :)</p>
<p>This is not graduate school. Department rankings should be an extemely minor factor (ie tiebreaker) when it comes to choosing a college. You go to college for the overall experience, since most of what you learn in class will be irrelevant for work, and your employers will pay little attention to US news department rankings (as opposed to their unreferenced belief as to which is a better school) when hiring you. What if you change your mind and decide to go into the financial industry (eg i-banking). Berkeley would then be clearly your top choice.</p>
<p>Why did you choose BioE? What are you planning to do with your degree? See my post here: <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/engineering-majors/222845-avoid-bioengineering-if-you-can.html%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/engineering-majors/222845-avoid-bioengineering-if-you-can.html</a></p>
<p>aggupta: Switching out of BioE at Berkeley is not hard. Switching into an impacted major (eg EECS) requires a certain GPA. Otherwise, for most non-engineering majors, it is just a matter of paperwork. If you want med school, you really want to be choosing a major that you're interested in. If you want to become a bioengineer, perhaps you should choose a major that is more employable than BioE.</p>