<p>If you're to advise an affluent (rich) International Student who (assuming) got into Duke engineering as well as Berkeley engineering, Cornell engineering and CMU engineering, which school would you recommend?</p>
<p>the one that he likes the best excluding berkeley, public schools are ****ed.</p>
<p>Cornell offers all of the educational strength of CMU plus all of the social benefits of Duke. Plus, unlike CMU, if you decide you want to major in something else, Cornell is your oyster.</p>
<p>All have strengths, all have negatives. Cornell is bleeding cold and in the middle of nowhere. CMU is in … Pittsburgh whoopee … Duke isn’t that well-known internationally compared to the others. Berkeley is too big.</p>
<p>I haven’t kept up, but I imagine all of these programs are good enough to get him where he wants to go afterwards, if he does well. I didn’t hear much about Duke’s program in my era, but a very sharp colleague of mine wound up going there for CS, so it can’t be too shabby. The other three programs have always been very strong so far as I know.</p>
<p>So leaving that aspect aside, I think it might revolve around what else he wants to study, where and with whom. Cornell certainly has many other wealthy international students for him to keep company with, I’ll say that. And it has very strong programs in liberal arts and other academic areas; the variety of areas he can pursue using his free electives is humongous there. The university is fully coed, 50-50, which I don’t think CMU can claim. And it is a campus-centered experience in a collegetown, which is probably a very different college environment/experience than Berkeley. Cornell is in the Northeast, Duke is in the South. Etc.</p>
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<p>Current temperature in Ithaca: 12</p>
<p>Current temperature in Durham: 22</p>
<p>Whopdeefreakingdo.</p>
<p>The kid will graduate from an extremely competitive special science high school in his country and he will graduate in the top 10. He does have any particular liking or preference at this point in time. He does not care about the size of the school. What he cares about is the academics and the strength of the engineering program. He has impressive stats, excellent ECs, football varsity, math club president, and his parents are very wealthy.</p>
<p>If ever he’ll get into Berkeley and enroll, he will be the first from his high school in the last 10 years. Historically, their top students attend MIT or Harvard. (There are probably about 20 from his high school at MIT now and the same number of students at Harvard.) This is like the first time in 10 years or so that a kid who belong to the very top of the graduating batch, and who can afford US university fees without the need for financial support from the school, is very interested in Berkeley. I’m biased to Berkeley that’s why I’m not giving him a personal advice.</p>
<p>I strongly advise against berkeley. It is an amazing school now, but who knows where it will be in four years; california has some huge budget deficit and they are lowering the funding they are putting into schools bigtime to cut their budget.</p>
<p>As someone who has friends at all 4 (and friends in comp eng at 3), here’s my take:</p>
<p>As far as the strength of program goes, pick any but Duke. </p>
<p>For a social scene, pick any but CMU. </p>
<p>For weather, Cal will be un-matched in this contest. </p>
<p>For research, Cornell or CMU (current friends at Cal UG have told me it’s INCREDIBLY hard to get research opportunities as an undergrad). </p>
<p>From a purely objective standpoint, I’d say Cal or Cornell. Based on my research (I got into both schools, attend one, have spent about 2 weeks in total time at the other and have about 15 good friends that go there; my school is a semi-feeder for Cal), I would personally say Cornell would offer the best opportunities, but that’s just me. It’s not really a decision you can go wrong with.</p>
<p>Berkeley, CMU and Cornell will all be great choices. Berkeley’s ECE program is under EECS so more cs type classes will be needed to graduate (a good or bad thing depending on the student). This will differ with Cornell and CMU where ECE and CS are seperate. All 3 will prepare one well for grad school and for employment I will give Cornell the edge to better recruiting if one doesn’t want to work in the studied field.</p>
<p>"Current temperature in Ithaca: 12</p>
<p>Current temperature in Durham: 22</p>
<p>Whopdeefreakingdo."</p>
<p>I wasn’t thinking of temperature, I was thinking more of cultural mores/values of the surrounding populace/ environment (eg red state/blue state). But that’s just me, the locations of the schools can pull other people’s strings in various personal ways.</p>
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<p>No worries. Although it is fair to say that North Carolina is a blue state now. Thank god.</p>
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Says the dude who goes to an Ivy that’s part public. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>the engineering school isn’t, i fail to see your point.</p>
<p>Best Colleges Specialty Rankings: Undergraduate Engineering Specialties: Computer
Ranked in 2009
1 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, MA
2 University of California–Berkeley Berkeley, CA
3 University of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign Champaign, IL
4 Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA
5 Stanford University Stanford, CA
6 Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, GA
7 University of Michigan–Ann Arbor Ann Arbor, MI
8 University of Texas–Austin Austin, TX
9 California Institute of Technology Pasadena, CA
10 Cornell University Ithaca, NY</p>
<p>Best Colleges Specialty Rankings: Undergraduate Engineering Specialties: Electrical / Electronic / Communications
Ranked in 2009
1 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, MA
2 Stanford University Stanford, CA
2 University of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign Champaign, IL
4 University of California–Berkeley Berkeley, CA
5 Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, GA
6 University of Michigan–Ann Arbor Ann Arbor, MI
7 California Institute of Technology Pasadena, CA
8 Cornell University Ithaca, NY
9 Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA
10 Purdue University–West Lafayette West Lafayette, IN</p>
<p>IF that’s US News, when I looked at that before a lot of their undergrad rankings seemed to be derivative of graduate rankings, research productivity (per faculty) was heavily involved. that’s why schools like Harvard and Yale, with few courses, few faculty and far from comprehensive offerings, managed to show up above some “real” engineering schools.</p>
<p>But my point would be, for engineering undergrad all these schools are probably good enough to facilitate your getting to the highest level you are capable of, afterwards. The undergrads in my cohort who deserved it went to MIT, Stanford, U Illinois, etc, for grad school, or got jobs with the 'best" companies of the day. There’s nothing more you can ask, IMO. Even the guy I know who went to Duke went on to a great CS grad program afterwards. </p>
<p>Therefore, though department strength is not irrelevant, my opinion is that at least three of these schools, probably all of them, are plenty strong enough to get you where you want to go, in these fields.</p>
<p>Providing you even stick with them that is, many engineers of my acquaintance decided to switch majors, sub-fields, or even colleges, once they knew more about what was out there.(Q: is switching fields within engineering easy to do at Berkeley? someplace I read maybe not. It is easy at Cornell, one isn’t bound to a major till junior year).</p>
<p>Consequently I personally would be inclined to also consider the totality of the offerings, college and life experience each school offers, as these might possibly impact me. Someone might reasonably pick any of these schools, based on their individual preferences.</p>
<p>YMMV.</p>
<p>
Within engineering and going into engineering is tougher than switching out of engineering to College of Letters and Science.</p>
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Absolutely. Berkeley offers top programs in nearly the entire academic spectrum.</p>
<p>
Very true. Cost is a major consideration. The environments are quite different: idyllic up-state New York or the dynamic San Francisco Bay Area?</p>
<p>If you prefer Berkeley’s package, in total, go to Berkeley, no problem here.</p>
<p>[UC</a> regents president betray California students](<a href=“http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/12/20/INFQ1ATDSL.DTL]UC”>http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/12/20/INFQ1ATDSL.DTL)
an increase in fees to help counteract the fact that the schools are loosing tons of funding</p>
<p>[UC</a> regents president betray California students](<a href=“http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/12/20/INFQ1ATDSL.DTL]UC”>http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/12/20/INFQ1ATDSL.DTL)
University of california budget slashed by 20 percent</p>
<p>[Berkeley</a> thuggery / Assault on chancellor?s home is outrageous - SignOnSanDiego.com](<a href=“http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2009/dec/19/berkeley-thuggery-assault-chancellors-home-outrage/]Berkeley”>http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2009/dec/19/berkeley-thuggery-assault-chancellors-home-outrage/)
angry students vandalize berkeley chancellor’s home</p>
<p>I am not arguing that cal is a bad school. Cal is a great school, but in this current climate, if I had the money to send my kid to private school instead of a public I would in a heartbeat. Hell, I am from Illinois, and if my (hypothetical) child had to choose between UIUC and a private engineering school I would strongly strongly urge him to go to the private because the UIUC budget is being ravaged by the state. Public university in Illinois, and in most states will become down right miserable because the states do not have the money to fund the schools.</p>
<p>^ Even with the ballyhooed 32% increase, the in-state tuition for Berkeley will still be several thousand dollars less expensive than other public universities such as Illinois and Penn State for their residents. Out-of-state costs are in line with other schools.</p>
<p>Yeah, no doubt UC and California are having some problems. The few students who rioted at the Chancellors home were thugs with different agendas…I hope they’re prosecuted and punished severely.</p>
<p>But some other anecdotal information shows impact to EECS undergrads are less affected: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1063891956-post20.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1063891956-post20.html</a>
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<p>Berkeley’s EECS program will continue to be among the world’s best despite current university budget issues.</p>