Hey I am currently a cs major at Michigan. I have been on leave of absence for a couple of years working as a computer vision researcher and was accepted to the two schools.
I enjoy doing research and in the near term, would like to pursue a master’s and most likely a PhD. Also I am interested in tech startups and have been following YC for a while. I would like to be surrounded by like-minded people interested in state-of-the-art tech and startups and would not hesitate to take a chance on a startup myself if the opportunity arises at any time during my studies for undergrad or graduate school.
I applied as a physics major because I think physics will give me great fundamental understanding in technical reasoning and problem solving to become a better researcher. I am also planning on participating in the ICPC and the Putnam during my undergraduate studies. And I have made one publication so I am not too concerned about my career in deep learning by majoring in physics, if anything I think it will give me a unique edge over most other cs majors and deep learning majors by having a broader understanding in science and will be able to translate the concepts I learn from physics to other domains such as electrical engineering (signal processing), mechanical engineering where I might be interested in pursuing sometime in the future.
Cost is about the same for me considering oos tuition and the fa from the schools respectively.
Honestly I am leaning more towards Berkeley as it will be my gateway to the silicon valley community and the leading figures in technology (I have previously been invited to selective hackathons hosted by Scale AI, OpenAI but was not able to attend due to the location being in SF, which will be accessible if I go to Berkeley)
On the other hand there are too many kids transferring from california community colleges that I don’t think are that smart and it is harder to get lab internships and high GPAs at Berkeley.
New York also has some notable AI startups and an Ivy League degree and connections could go a long way(?) Also would be fun to live in NY and go to a smaller school for once. Excited to meet people from different backgrounds at GS as well!
Please let me know what you think I would really appreciate it!
If you are a non-resident in California, then your transfer funding is probably limited because funding is largely acquired via California taxpayers. There isn’t much.
Wow, insulting the State’s residents is not a good way to begin a school career. It’s uncool of you and shows that you are really naive and have no idea about the State’s students/residents preparation for the UC’s.
See if you can follow this rational line of thinking:
There are a finite number of seats at the UC’s.
Berkeley has to reject thousands of students who qualify per SAT scores and perfect GPAs because there just isn’t the room for all the hundreds of thousands of students who want to attend from all over the world.
Berkeley has waitlists and often, they may not take anyone off of the waitlist. So, you end up with a bunch of students who decide “all or none” and attend a local CC to try to get into Berkeley for their last 2 years.
Additionally, the cost of living in California is very expensive and many middle class students’ families cannot afford to pay housing or BAY AREA rents near Berkeley, so their students attend CC for two years and then save money by attending Berkeley for the last two years. (It’s now about $3500 per month x 12 months.)
Our son attended Caltech. During the summer, he took courses at the local community college (California). He met kids from Stanford, UCLA, Berkeley, Pomona, Harvey Mudd, etc. who were on break but wanted to get ahead of the general education requirements at their respective schools.
Your comment is immature. Attending Berkeley, with those narrow-minded thoughts will make you a very lonely person since you seem to believe that you will be better than everyone else there. Husband (Stanford) hires EECS students from Berkeley. He’ll sniff out the “holier than thou” attitude. They play “nice” in the real working world in California.
Do you mean that those community college transfer students whom you “don’t think are that smart” will outcompete you for lab internships and grades in curved classes?
ETA: As others have pointed out, that attitude about transfers is absolutely the wrong tack. It will serve you poorly, and won’t be welcome at Cal. If that’s how you’re thinking about things, don’t go to Berkeley.
Yeah my bad I was being insensitive. Just from an oos perspective instate cc students seemed to have a drastic structural advantage admission wise but I’m sure there are many cc transfers at Berkeley that are smart and successful.
Don’t forget Steve Wozniak was not too concerned about juco transfers as he could have gone anywhere, but chose to return to Cal to complete his degree.
btw: as a non-trad, you may be able to gain residency for in-state tuition after one year (assuming you are financially self-supporting, including health insurance).
Since Berkeley is a public institution supported by California tax payers I get the reasoning behind increasing the accessibility of UCs to residents and cc students. I was just venting as an oos student cause I just went to my local school without knowing that option don’t take my initial comment too seriously.