Which would be harder to get a high grade point average in? I’ve heard stories of the grade deflation at both schools, but which one would be tougher?
I plan on going to graduate school, so I’d prefer to maintain a 3.6-3.8 grade point average at both. I’d also like to know how good recruiting at Vandy is for CS students compared to those at Berkeley. I want to work in California after graduation, but I heard companies like Google recruit at Vanderbilt as well.
CS at both schools would be hard. I’d imagine Berkeley would be harder, although some Vandy CS classes are known as being very difficult. It would be a challenge to get a 3.6 at both.
Berkeley’s CS program is among the best in the country, whereas Vandy’s is only average. This would mean both the quality and quantity of research opportunities at Berkeley would be superior to those at Vandy. Grad schools in CS do care about prestige and research.
Some California companies do recruit at Vandy. What I heard was that Google did have an event on campus, although they weren’t present at the career fairs. Obviously as Berkeley is in California and has a more prestigious CS program, there will be many more companies from California there.
If you really want to do CS go to Berkeley, especially if you can get instate tuition. Vandy has its strengths, but unfortunately CS isn’t one of them. This isn’t to say that some Vandy CS majors don’t go to top grad schools or get jobs at FB, Amazon, Microsoft, etc. However, Berkeley is clearly the better option for CS.
Thanks. Is it safe to say that the same goes for the engineering departments at both schools?
I’d say the same goes for the engineering schools at both places. As a whole Vandy’s School of Engineering is significantly stronger than its CS department though.