<p>I was lucky enough to get accepted to Berkeley as Regents Scholar and UPenn.
After thinking about majoring in engineering and possibly minoring in business, I'm having trouble deciding between the two schools. Here are the pros and cons that I've been considering:</p>
<p>Berkeley -<br>
Pros: Regents Scholar (full ride, priority classes, housing), top in the nation in engineering, closer to home, nice weather.
Cons: Extremely competitive, grade deflation, large classrooms, likely to ruin chances for better graduate school.</p>
<p>UPenn -
Pros: Full ride, top in the nation in business, very good engineering program, not as competitive as Berkeley, new experience in different part of country.
Cons: Very far away, not as good as Berkeley in engineering, traveling costs.</p>
<p>I need honest opinions. Please, please help?</p>
<p>Full Ride at Penn vs. full ride at Berkeley?? Come on man, is this even a question? UPenn. Plus if your planning to go to grad school, then def. go to Penn. If your still doubtful, visit both, and then make a decision.
Source: Common Sense</p>
<p>In your case, I would choose UPenn over Berkeley. Less students at UPenn lead to greater accessibility of internships and research opportunities, and UPenn’s business and engineering programs are both very good.</p>
<p>The fact that UPenn has less grade deflation than UC Berkeley is an added bonus.</p>
<p>Berkeley average GPA was 3.24 in 2005, 3.27 in 2006.
Pennsylvania average GPA was 3.44 in 2004.</p>
<p>But Pennsylvania is more selective in admissions (based on freshmen admit profile of SAT, ACT, and GPA), so it is not obvious that the same student would necessarily get a higher GPA at Pennsylvania than at Berkeley.</p>
<p>Definitely Berkeley if you want to go to graduate school or work in an engineering field. Yes, Berkeley engineering is grade deflated but this is heavily considered by graduate admissions. Cal engineers place very well into HYPSMCB grad schools. </p>
<p>If you want to do anything else, especially a professional school, stay the heck away from Berkeley.</p>
<p>Pennsylvania is not the most grade inflated Ivy (compare Harvard and Brown, for example).</p>
<p>Also, engineering in general is not as grade inflated as humanities at universities in general (i.e. this is not Berkeley-specific).</p>
<p>So it is not as obvious that the same student would automatically get a better GPA at Pennsylvania engineering compared to Berkeley engineering.</p>