<p>I once made the decision between Berkeley and Harvey Mudd, ending up at Berkeley. </p>
<p>I went to a private school from preschool through high school, and honestly it shouldn’t be a huge issue to transition over. The key to Berkeley is that while it’s a big school, you’re only “just a student” to the whole SCHOOL. Not to those you interact with. Generally, you’ll end up forming a small, close collection of people you end up having class with, and you’ll run into the same students over and over again. For instance, there are honors courses for physics and math at Berkeley, and generally the same people take all of those. </p>
<p>Your <em>dorm</em> does not have to have a lower percentage of girls. That said, there aren’t a ton of girls in engineering <em>classes</em>. The typical dorm engineers go to is called Foothill - reputed to be quieter and better for study. I don’t like dorm life that much on average just in general, and ended up moving out by the end of the first year. </p>
<p>I’m not sure about student to teacher ratio - it varies greatly by size. Engineering classes are often big. 100 student classes are not uncommon…but classes grow smaller as you grow more specialized. I’d not worry too much about the large classes though, because you’re broken into sections where you will receive a more personal instruction. Treat Berkeley not as a big school, but as this big land full of smaller sub-schools! Where you can interact among the sub-schools. </p>
<p>By the way, as a math student, I know in some of the upper level classes I’ve had 11 students, 6 students, 15 students, and such small numbers. You just have to look to find smaller classes. And for those which are big due to demand or whatever, there are sections. </p>
<p>All said though…it isn’t at all easy to get a good GPA in Berkeley engineering. It’s quite, quite challenging if you actually take hard classes. The main difference between Berkeley and Mudd academics to me is that Mudd’s average student is going to learn much more and be much stronger, and work with the benefits a small school naturally provides. Plus, the teachers will be very committed, especially so; at Berkeley, professors are taken for their research credentials…though you can end up with great professors if you go looking; just not as consistently as in a small school.</p>
<p>The advantage to Berkeley, however, is in its biggest disadvantage, which is its size - you have an incomparably huge number of classes + resources, you have access to faculty + grad students at a top tier program, and opportunities for research. And, lastly, you have <em>freedom</em> – at Mudd, everyone goes through an intensive Core for roughly 2 years, then chooses among upper level courses. At Berkeley, you can practically do whatever you want. And, being a public school, they are lax with letting you transfer credits from AP, etc. Now, you may want to be careful that you’re at the <em>level</em> to actually skip out of classes you do, but if you are, which many, many are, it’s great to have the freedom you do at Berkeley to pick a schedule of choice among top departments.</p>
<p>You’ll get a great education at both schools, but they have different philosophies. All the best, and let me know if I can say anything more on the subject.</p>