<p>I've gotten in to Berkeley's EECS program with the Regent's and Chancellor's Scholarship and to CMU's School of Computer Science. I know that both Cal and CMU are amazing schools, but I'm having trouble deciding between the two. Can you guys help me compare both of them by considering the factors below?</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Workload - Judging by some of the threads on the Berkeley forum, EECS majors don't seem to be the happiest people.</p></li>
<li><p>Public School vs. Private School - Class sizes and facilities/buildings are factors here. I've heard that students don't interact with professors often at Cal (this may be due to the difference in class sizes; from what I know, intro courses at Cal are ~500 students compared to ~200 at CMU). Also, CMU just recently built the Gates Center for CS, so the facilities will be new.</p></li>
<li><p>Cost - I'm projecting that CMU will be ~15k more per year than Berkeley. Is a private school worth 60k more than a state school?</p></li>
<li><p>Research Opportunities - Is it easy to get research at CMU? Since Berkeley EECS is such a large major, is getting research more difficult? Will being a Regent's Scholar mitigate this disparity?</p></li>
<li><p>Internships/Job Placement - According to the placement reports/surveys at Berkeley EECS (<a href="https://career.berkeley.edu/Major/EECS.stm%5B/url%5D">https://career.berkeley.edu/Major/EECS.stm</a>) and at CMU SCS (<a href="http://www.studentaffairs.cmu.edu/career/Students/gps1/explore/survey/pdf/scs.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.studentaffairs.cmu.edu/career/Students/gps1/explore/survey/pdf/scs.pdf</a>), the salaries and companies are slightly better at CMU than at Berkeley. Is this an accurate representation?</p></li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li>You’re right. We’re not THE happiest people.</li>
<li>Class sizes are not bad at all. But facilities are old, especially Cory hall (for EE majors).</li>
<li>Yeah, money that matters.</li>
<li>most of us find a research position without difficulties. You just need to take competitive courses and get a good GPA. But being a regent scholar has nothing to do with it.</li>
<li>the placement reports/surveys at Berkeley EECS are not accurate. As far as I know the salaries and companies are slightly better at Berkeley than at CMU… or very similar (hired by same employers for same positions). But Berkeley is located in the SF bay area where all the major employers are also located, which means PLENTY OF INTERNSHIP and JOB OPPORTUNITIES. And a lot of Berkeley EECS graduates attend top graduate schools such as MIT and Stanford.</li>
</ol>
<p>BTW I’m a sophomore majoring in EE.
(and a regent scholar)</p>
<p>I doubt you’ll be able to find people who have attended both Cal and CMU and are really able to compare the workload I’ll tell you my experiences at Berkeley though. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>True, but that’s not a sole product of the workload. Certainly EECS as a higher workload than many other majors at Cal, but it’s <em>very</em> manageable if you schedule your classes right. That’s what it comes down to. If you don’t schedule them right, well, you’ll go to hell.</p></li>
<li><p>Classes sizes and professor interactions are not bad at all. I have never had problems meeting professors 1-on-1 and once you get to upper-div the class sizes tend to get smaller, at least after the first couple of weeks when people finished dropping classes. Most of my upper div classes probably had ~30 students in them. I’ve had some with 60+ and some with 10-15. Not bad at all. Could you be more specific what you mean by “facilities”? If you mean research-wise, well, Cal is amongst the top of the world, that should answer your question. If you mean stuff like on-campus computers, yes, they SUCK (except for a few labs), but who uses them anyway?</p></li>
<li><p>Depends on the school and your goals. I would’ve been willing to pay 60k more for my dream school. If I was in your situation I probably wouldn’t though.</p></li>
<li><p>It’s not that difficult to get involved with research, but you do need to be proactive about it. You need to get out there, talk to professor and convince them. Nobody will come to you and offer you a research position just because you get an A in a class. </p></li>
<li><p>No idea, I wouldn’t really put much weight on that personally.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Honestly, intro courses aren’t where you’ll get the most valuable interaction either way, at least usually. The upper level courses are where you really get into something specific and get to know someone who is excited to teach that specific stuff and hopefully show potential. Thomas_ is right in highlighting the upper division courses.</p>
<p>Thanks a lot for the responses BearFacts, Thomas, and mathboy. One other question. How would I go about getting research my freshman year? I already have some research experience, so I want to get a head start on it in college. Should I just approach a professor during office hours and ask if any positions are open in their lab?</p>
It will be difficult to get research in your freshman year. Not impossible, but difficult. Before you ask a professor for research it’s a good idea to have taken his class (and done well), or at least be taking it and doing well. </p>
<p>Also, some of the professors who teach lower division CS courses (which you’ll be taking in your freshman year) are not actually researchers, but hired as “lecturers”. They do nothing but teach. Thus, they can’t actually help you to find research except by talking to colleagues about you. </p>
<p>If you have already done research your biggest chance is to build on that. Find a professor that does research in the field you do have experience with, visit him, explain what you’ve done, and hope he’ll be impressed and give you a position. </p>
<p>
No, I was totally CS, EE40 is all the EE I know ;)</p>
I’ll tell you my experiences at Berkeley though. </p>