Berkeley vs Michigan Engineering

College Majors Engineering Majors
21

<p>and one girl, who originally didn’t know where I transferred from treated me neutrally during the beginning of orientation, but after lunchtime when I had a chance to talk to her, I told her I transferred from Berkeley and she was in awe and said wow. She also asked, surprisingly, why would you want to transfer, and I told her, Michigan was way cheaper and she understood.</p>

<p>Then, in the afternoon session, she all of a sudden gave me more respect, etc,</p>

<p>so I want to know whether or not this is the case in the real world and whether or not this prestige would give people an initial good impression.</p>

22

<p>Answer these questions then:

  1. Where are you academically right now(grade level)?
  2. How strong of a student are you?
  3. What type of work do you plan to go into?
  4. Are you going to get a graduate degree?</p>
23

<p>I’m going to be a junior. I have slightly more credits at Berkeley than Umich because of AP/transfer credits</p>

<p>I’m an okay student. Not the strongest but not the weakest. I tend to do around average/slightly above average at Berkeley during my first 2 years, but I’m not the guy who sets the curves, but I’m not failing.</p>

<p>I am actually unsure of what kind of work I plan to go into. IOE is broad and I’d like to do supply chain work, which basically could get me into any industry I want to.</p>

<p>Maybe I’ll get a master’s, but probably not a phd.</p>

24

<p>A few things to keep in mind:

  1. There’s pretty much three levels of GPA that matter: 3.0+ makes you a good enough candidate to be taken seriously by most, 3.5+ makes you a top candidate, and a 4.0 is great with the most exclusive positions but probably harmful for anything that weaker engineers would be able to do successfully (not to mention extremely hard to get for absolutely anyone).
  2. Top universities do nothing for bad students.
  3. If you so desire, after getting a graduate degree, you can make an undergraduate degree disappear. If you start at Random State University and go to Stanford, your Random State University degree can cease to matter.
  4. Pedigree is important for anything involving trust (most notably, business or large-scale projects). If someone from a top university vouches for your trustworthiness, people will trust you more. For standard jobs in industry, experience matters much more than your degree.
  5. Consider the added value of a Berkeley degree over a Michigan one and whether or not it’s worth the extra cost. Their educational value is comparable, but Berkeley edges it out in prestige and therefore job opportunities. But if you save something like $60,000 by switching to UMich, it’s not worth it, especially if you get into a top tier grad school.</p>
25

<p>I think Berkeley is better. The undrergrad program as a whole at Michigan might be close, but engineering is Boiklee’s bread and butta. I know several students who turned down Ivy schools to go to Berkeley, but would not have done so if they didn’t major in engineering.</p>

<p>Of course, this is all throwing stones. This stuff doesn’t matter in the real world, really, not too much at least, but in a fictional world where the name on your degree bumps you from middle to upper class, sure … Berkeley…</p>