<p>i was recently accepted to Berkeley (EECS) and Caltech for CS. both have really high computer science rankings, but i'm not sure which one i should go for.</p>
<p>there are a couple of factors i'm worried about:</p>
<p>1) i kind of want to have a life.. and caltech has an infamous reputation for time consumption, leaving students socially deprived. however, i have also heard that EECS has an incredibly competitive program that takes up a lot of time as well, so maybe it might not be that much better at berkeley.</p>
<p>2) the student and faculty ratio scares the heck out of me. will finding research opportunities be a problem at berkeley?</p>
<p>The main difference is that Caltech, I think, requires you to do a lot more than Berkeley does. If you load your schedule with EECS courses, then Berkeley will end up being as hard, but you don’t have to take 5 CS courses if you don’t want to here. You also won’t be required to take as many introductory “core” technical requirements outside of your major. </p>
<p>You can find research for sure if you’re one of the better students here, which I’d hope you would be if you were accepted to Caltech. If you’re a really stellar CS mind, remember that Berkeley is especially known for theoretical CS for instance, and you could do things that most undergrads wouldn’t, and milk Berkeley for all it’s worth. </p>
<p>Basically my feeling is that Caltech will force you to do more, but if you’re really set on CS and want a great social life, then Berkeley is the better choice for you. If you’re not really set on CS and/or you prefer that almost everyone around you is extremely hardcore, then Caltech seems a better place. </p>
<p>However, obviously people manage to have social lives at every school, so judge Caltech how you will.</p>
<p>I’ve heard Cal as being great and all for computer science. It shares this prestige with Stanford and both are slightly ahead/higher than MIT’s and Harvard’s. CMU come right next to these four schools for CS. Caltech does not have a strong reputation for CS though I’ve heard it’s a fantastic school for grad and postgrad education. </p>
<p>Having said that, go for Berkeley for your undergrad CS. If it would turn out that you’re not happy at Berkeley CS, you can transfer to Caltech for your postgrad education.</p>
<p>^^ In theory, I think I wouldn’t worry so much about international reputation for the undergraduate stage, given Caltech is just overall a very prestigious school, but on the other hand, if you really want to get down to which is more of a hotspot for CS in particular, I think Berkeley does, as RML states, win over almost any other school, both in terms of international reputation and otherwise. </p>
<p>The thing, though, is you don’t have to become an expert at CS in your undergrad years. You can take 4 years to do really rigorous work in almost any school, and then specialize as you get closer to graduate school.</p>
<p>I was in a similar situation a while ago (applied to Cal’s EECS and Caltech as CS), but I was not so sure if I was going to stay with CS. In fact, biotech was becoming quite hot, so I was already considering that I would not actually major in EE or CS. If you go to Caltech, it’s much easier for you to switch around (in fact, you declare at the end of your frosh year and get a faculty adviser at that point). If you are absolutely positive you want to do CS, Berkeley does have a stronger program. At the UG level, the differences in program strength are probably smaller than other factors such as your attitude towards Caltech’s core and the school atmospheres. Do you want to be a member of a 220-person class that lives and breathes science/math/engineering? Do you want to learn QM and stat mech?</p>
<p>I’m not as familiar as UG research opps at Berkeley CS, but Caltech has a nice summer program called SURF that pays $6000 per summer to do research. Almost all of this money comes from rich donors (ie, not the profs), although many profs are established enough to have grant money to pay for UG researchers anyways.</p>
<p>Yeah definitely read and reread what webhappy wrote about it being easier to switch majors at Caltech. I mean, of course I’ll say that it’s easy enough to switch majors here if you have the grades. And I again hope that a Caltech admit will be able to do very well here, better than the bottom half of the engineers for sure, so that it’ll be easy enough to switch around.</p>
<p>But frankly, a private school, and at that a small one, has its strengths undeniably. I’d decide based on environment + academic fit, unless you’re a CS fiend like no other.</p>
<p>but yeah… mathboy98: private school opportunities sure are tempting huh… plus… the fact that berkeley is such a large public diploma factory seems to make it not as prestigious as caltech. but i really do want get out there and meet people in an environment greater than 200 people per class. i guess visiting both campuses during their prefrosh days will be the deciding factor…</p>
plus… the fact that berkeley is such a large public diploma factory seems to make it not as prestigious as caltech. but i really do want get out there and meet people in an environment greater than 200 people per class. i guess visiting both campuses during their prefrosh days will be the deciding factor…</p>