<p>Got into both. which one should i choose?
berkeley has better reputation than HMC (even though either of them is not like HYPSM)... no?</p>
<p>What about FA?</p>
<p>Did you get into Berkeley Engineering? It is one of the top engineering schools in the country. Harvey Mudd is the #1 among engineering schools that do not award graduate degrees. </p>
<p>I think you need to make a decision based on visiting both of them? Do you like a smaller school? What type of reserach interests do you have? In other words forget about reputation, both are great choices, go with where you feel a better fit.</p>
<p>At this point if there really is a question in your mind which has a stronger undergraduate engineering/physics/chemistry/mathematics/compsci program, please just don’t go to Mudd.</p>
<p>People who go to Mudd should be passionate about the school and know about it. They shouldn’t care about popular name recognition but done enough research to know that Mudd has (per capita) some of the most successful alumni for any school. </p>
<p>…But I am tired conveying basic information to people. Let people who really know/love it get the spot.</p>
<p>I think name recognition shouldn’t be a criterion as Mudd and Berkeley both have excellent reputations among employers and graduate schools. However, the two schools are very different and you should decide based on which environment you prefer.</p>
<p>for berkeley vs HMC, money may be a big consideration</p>
<p>if ur an in-state applicant, tuition will be significantly cheaper than HMC’s</p>
<p>As for HMC not being like HYPSM… people get waitlisted/ rejected from mudd and get into Caltech, MIT, Stanford, etc… I’ve heard this several times from friends, including admitted students and current students (this happened to their friends). </p>
<p>HMC is different. It’s smaller, so not as much big name recognition/bragging rights. </p>
<p>It’s a very specific type of school. You need to decide whether you will be happy/ successful here.</p>
<p>Also, as maruhan mentioned, cost should be taken into consideration if you are an instate applicant.</p>
<p>thanks for all your inputs… very helpful.</p>
<p>if i win the PSP scholarship, i will be attending HMC.
if not, you will see me at berkeley.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I’m a little tired too these days :D</p>
<p>But here’s my rundown. Berkeley is a large school. This does not imply larger class sizes necessarily – it depends on your major and which classes you take. Berkeley offers many more things to switch into if you’re finding maths/science/engineering curriculum not for you. </p>
<p>HMC is on average more rigorous, and the average student body is unquestionably more academically qualified than that at Berkeley. However, Berkeley is a huge school and the higher rungs are very intelligent and, like HMC students, will attend great graduate programs and do brilliant work in the future. </p>
<p>Berkeley’s curriculum is far less rigid in general, although certain dual engineering programs give you a program that has things set in stone for you (example: EECS/Materials Science). Mudd has a core that is important for its engineering programs, and so is certainly not incredibly flexible, but students like rocketDA have said the material is actually used in their upper engineering coursework.</p>
<p>Small school vs. big school – one doesn’t feel entirely like a school, more like a city where work is conducted in random buildings – if you can’t figure out which I’m referring to, don’t go to either, you’re dumb, and rethink your life…though you’d be so dumb you cannot even think in the first place, yikes! :D</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>False in general, but true in some senses, which may or may not be useful to you. Berkeley is internationally (a lot in Asia) acclaimed, but that isn’t necessarily for its undergraduate training, more as a site for world class research. Which, by the way, HMC graduates may well be contributing to as either members of its graduate programs or the faculty. Which, by the way, is full of crazy Russians and the like who were born academic freaks. Picture created: Berkeley is acclaimed for things other than the training it gives you. However, these wonderful things <em>can</em> be part of the training it gives you if you work really hard. </p>
<p>Also, HYPM have some great programs, but to someone who has done the real research and knows the inner workings and specifics of academics, there are things other schools better, and things other schools do worse. I could give you a highly detailed rundown of what the mathematics faculty at these schools are like, and how they contrast in strengths (interests included). But chances are, this wouldn’t help you much as it’s superspecialized. What you should take away is that there’s a LOT you don’t know about the actual strengths of these schools, and need to be doing your homework. Also understand HMC and Berkeley both can train you great, and it shouldn’t be that hard to realize which fits better for you, given they are really pretty different systems.</p>
<p>@ OP: What major(s) are you considering and how sure are you? If we knew, we could post department-specific info…</p>
<p>Electrical engineering and computer science. Thanks.
Oh and, my ultimate goal is going to graduate school for my Ph.D in EE or EECS.</p>
<p>Berkeley may be more well known broadly, and in that sense have a better reputation, but I think there is no better place than Mudd for a great science/math educaiton and it is extremly well respect by those who matter. If you look at average SAT scores and the like, Mudd has Berkely beat in terms of the brain power of the kids that attend accross the board (which is not to say taht there aren’t lots of amazingly smart people at Berkely, just not as uniformily so). </p>
<p>The size is the main difference to me. The personal experience you get with Mudd is just quite different from a huge public university. It is also hard to get classes and graduate in 4 years from public univerisites right now with all the budget cuts, not to mention hard to get into impacted majors like engineering. If you are a CA resident, the cost difference is compelling, but for those out of state, I think it may actually cost more because of the extra year you might need. </p>
<p>You really can’t go wrong at either place, both are very strong in the areasw you are intrested in, but they are quite different.</p>
<p>
Disagree. I think it definitely takes a special kind of person to enjoy Mudd, and if you find out that you’re not actually that kind of person, or think you might be at risk of not being the right kind of person, then you can definitely go wrong with choosing Mudd.</p>
<p>“Special type of person”? I wouldn’t go so far as to say that – it conveys some sort of exclusivity. Mudd is an engineering/technical school, Berkeley is a large university with many areas of excellence – Don’t go to Mudd if you’re not sure about science. Mudd is a small school, Berkeley is large, this impacts social life although the impact is mitigated by the 5Cs. </p>
<p>Both schools will prepare you well for grad school ambitions.</p>
<p>The “special kind of person” it takes is someone who is (very) good at and likes doing math, science, and engineering and is able to withstand the constantly ridiculous work load without having a break down. I recommend a very good work ethic and a passion for your field as well as a like for all branches of science, as you’ll be forced to study all of them in the core. You should also be prepared to be bad at somethings and get low grades, because it will happen. Also note you have to go through this for 4 years. Though it does make graduation all the more sweeter =).</p>
<p>@Life: I should say right off the bat that a CS-Engineering Double Major is basically impossible in 4 years. The revised Core will be around 40 credit hours, Hum classes are 36 hours, the CS major is 42 hours, and engineering is 48 hours, which makes 166 hours. 128 hours are required to graduate, and getting more than 144 hours in 4 years would require extraordinary masochism.</p>
<p>Luckily, the CS major can be tailored towards a computer engineering concentration. After doing all the programming/theory classes in the CS major, you’re allowed to take computer-related engineering electives. That would mean you’d have room for 7 or so computer engineering electives.</p>
<p>Alternately, you could do engineering. This would only make sense if you’re fine learning thermo/continuum mechanics etc., plus doing the professional practice classes (intro to design, experimental engineering). </p>
<p>You really can’t go wrong in either department. Prof. David “Money” Harris is amazing for the digital electronics and VLSI classes. He also coordinates a student fellowship in VLSI design: <a href=“http://www4.hmc.edu:8001/Engineering/ClayWolkin/[/url]”>http://www4.hmc.edu:8001/Engineering/ClayWolkin/</a>
It’s really competitive, but if you get in, you’d be set for grad school.</p>
<p>If you’re already planning to go to grad school, don’t decide your undergrad on prestige. People care most about where you got your graduate degree, not your undergrad.</p>
<p>I was not talking about a EE & CS double major, but either EECS at Berkeley or EE at HMC. Thanks for your input though.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Actually, this simply doesn’t apply to the Berkeley engineers I know. They have no trouble getting their classes, and the only thing preventing them from taking everything early in general is the classes are very hard. But I certainly have two acquaintances who finished basically all their requirements early. And none of them is having any trouble graduating in 4 years. This OP is aiming for EECS – remember that Berkeley is not the same school for everyone, it’s very major-specific. I’ve been enjoying very small classes for my major, always sub-30, relatively often sub-15, and even sub-10. The EECS classes in the upper levels are also small enough that one really has no problem communicating with someone for help. </p>
<p>Engineering is selective – that means they are explicitly monitoring that their student body won’t be too large for its own good, and this is definitely true of the EECS program.</p>
<p>So again, for fields like mathematics, engineering – Berkeley is not scary at all in terms of the logistics of getting classes, having people to talk to, etc. People don’t seem that competitive either, they seem more driven to figuring things out, because the material is by nature hard. Competitive people belong with a big “PREMED” sticker pasted across their faces. ;)</p>
<p>The one thing which may be nice to some but unappetizing to others is that the faculty here are primarily here to research, although by nature, serious professionals don’t give easy courses. But some of them run poor courses certainly. However, this is easily avoided if one selects the very good professors. And by nature, at Berkeley, you really have to be good about selecting your own individual path, because by default, a big school means lots of variation in offerings, although usually once one selects a path, there will be people who consistently want to tread the same one, and they become good companions, both academically and socially.</p>