<p>Hi everyone! So I got into Berkeley EECS and Columbia SEAS and am torn as to which to attend. Ideally, Id like to get an electrical engineering Bachelors degree and eventually get a J.D. at some top-flight grad school. However, Im not totally set about my plans and want to keep my options open for the future. So, what would you guys do? Any advice?</p>
<p>my friend was in the same situation as you last year. have you ever visited berkeley/columbia? he eventually went to columbia just to try the new setting, and while it is definitely more cramped than berk, he loves it. (personally, i would go to columbia had i applied and gotten in…tsk) Congrats on both though!</p>
<p>Did you say EECS? If so, then Berkeley. If it was a different major, Columbia.</p>
<p>^ i’d say keep in mind though, you might not like engineering after all…
(the said friend found engineering more intense than he bargained for, but although he is still going with it, he’s also starting to lean towards business/econ.) As read in other posts, it’s difficult to switch out of colleges at Berkeley, especially with something like engineering. Dunno about columbia though…</p>
<p>Columbia regardless. Many more opportunities at Columbia, simply so much fun in the city, plus Berkeley and the entire UC system is facing a budget cut.</p>
<p>berkeley eecs pwns.</p>
<p>visit both.</p>
<p>Visit both … since you say you are considering a future JD or other option you will get an experience at Columbia that includes their "Core’ curriculum requirement which could be a big plus for you. If you know you want to be a working EE on graduation, than CAL would be better as it is more focused EE program ( and likely stronger) than Columbia’s.</p>
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<p>Why would you entertain that kind of negative attitude at the very first day in college? If you’re wishy-washy on your major the first day, you would hardly succeed. But the OP even said, he wants to do a doctorate on it. It’s clear then that he wants to become an engineer. And to be quite frank about this, there are very, very few schools on earth that offer engineering --especially EECS-- better than Cal and Columbia is obviously not one of those extremely few. I’d say Berkeley EECS hands down.</p>
<p>Yeah, I mean if one is uncertain about EECS, not a good idea to choose Berkeley, but the OP does sound pretty certain. If so, then I would also go with Berkeley hands down.</p>
<p>If you’re certain about doing EECS and are also certain that you can do well here, then definitely attend Berkeley.</p>
<p>If you’re not sure, then go to Columbia. The Columbia name sure carries you further in the law school admissions game.</p>
<p>if the OP is certain about Grad school, but not certain if it would be Law or EE ( or maybe even something else) – then I would say Columbia for sure. </p>
<p>Reality check: you can’t go wrong with either – visit both - go with your gut.</p>
<p>I think you should go to Berkeley</p>
<p>Columbia. Bad time to come to Berkeley with the budget cuts et al.</p>
<p>^ I agree… times infinity.</p>
<p>I was right all along.</p>
<p>yeah there are budget cuts, but i still like it here…</p>
<p>^That’s not the question though, is it?</p>
<p>^ you were right about what?</p>
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<p>Perhaps I missed something, but where exactly did the OP say that he wants to complete a doctorate in engineering? I see that the OP said that he is considering completing a J.D., but I don’t see any mention about an engineering doctorate, or an engineering graduate degree of any kind.</p>
<p>I also don’t see what’s so terrible about being unsure about one’s major. Let’s face it: the vast majority of incoming college students do not know exactly what they’re going to major in. That’s the whole point of allowing people to shop around and try on different majors before having to declare, which is incidentally why the CoE ought to stop locking incoming students into specific majors from the very start, with only limited opportunities to switch later. Even a highly engineering-centric school such as MIT does not require students to declare majors until the end of the 2nd year. </p>
<p>Furthermore, even the mere act of completing an engineering degree doesn’t necessarily mean that you want to work as an engineer. I’ve discussed the mass exodus of engineering students from top programs to consulting and banking on other threads. But the world of academia is also replete with examples of former engineers achieving great success in other fields. Benjamin Lee Whorf, one of the most influential linguists in history, investigated the influence of language on cognition and culture, such that those who speak different languages actually begin to perceive the world differently, described as the principle of linguistic relativity. Whorf’s undergraduate degree was not in linguistics or other social science, but in chemical engineering (from MIT). Vernon Smith earned a BSEE from Caltech, then later earned a PhD in economics from Harvard and won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics in 2002 for his groundbreaking work on behavioral economics. What behavioral economics has to do with electrical engineering, I do not know. </p>
<p>The point is, people’s interests change all the time. What may interest you at age 17 may no longer interest you at age 21. Plenty of people end up majoring in something or working in a field post graduation that is different from what they thought they would when they started college.</p>