<p>I'm a first year Cambridge undergraduate, trying to decide 1. if I want to go on exchange in my third year and 2. which college to consider. Since I'm already in the UK, and I'm from Singapore, I figured I'd head to another continent famous for their engineering as well: US. As some may know, there's the Cambridge MIT exchange. But I don't really want to go to MIT, although I've met people here on exchange from other universities. So I figured I'd just explore my options first.</p>
<p>Any ideas as to which would be the most suitable university?</p>
<p>1 California Institute of Technology United States
2 Massachusetts Institute of Technology United States<br>
3 Stanford University United States<br>
4 Princeton University United States<br>
5 University of California Berkeley United States<br>
10 Georgia Institute of Technology United States<br>
11 Carnegie Mellon University United States
12 Cornell University United States
14 University of Michigan United States<br>
15 University of Illinois - Urbana</p>
<p>Well, I’m not a big fan of schools with only sciences…Which was my rationale for picking Cambridge over ICL. </p>
<p>By the way, which schools would you guys prefer? In terms of academia (Cambridge, for example, is famous for our supervisions which is a maximum of 3 students to 1 professor in each slot thus being incredibly focused on the individual), student life, the dorms…etcetc.</p>
<p>geejay, unlike Caltech or Georgia Tech, MIT is not a sciences-only school. MIT excels in Business (top 5), Economics (#1), Linguistics ((top 5), Philosophy (top 10), Political Science (top 10) and Psychology (top 10). MIT does not have Law or Medicine, but those are graduate programs in the US, so it does not impact undergraduate students. The only fields in which MIT does not excel in are the Humanities.</p>
<p>geejay91, I went to Girton College myself and majored in CS. I’d recommend UC Berkeley to you. It would surely be a different experience for someone who go to / have gone to Cambridge. Berkeley would offer you an entirely different ambiance; superb science, engineering, business and IT education; California, sun (lol), prestige, people, and environment as a whole. You would enjoy it there and learned from the best people in the field. And it is in California – arguably the best US State.</p>
<p>Stanford would be your best choice of the list provided by onecircuit. It’s strong in many subjects, including humanities, and will give you more personal attention than a school like Cal. Plus, it’s near many great engineering companies - terrific for job searches and internships. Cal Tech would give you great personal attention, but is not particularly strong in humanities (less than MIT, for example). For a school with the nicest dorms and lowest ratio of students to professors, consider Rice. It’s a small school and has a beautiful campus and the weather is reasonable in the winter.</p>
<p>Have to agree. While Rice is a great school, it’s not in the league of Cambridge; also, Huston is not the best place on earth - especially since 2005…</p>
<p>If you want to go to a completely different place, and Boston (I know, I know, Harvard and MIT is in the “other” Cambridge, but it’s just a part of Boston. Not the worst part, have to add.) is not appealing, then go to Stanford or Berkeley. It will be not that “easy” that going to MIT, as the connections between Cam and those institutions are much weaker, but not impossible. Also, as I presume upon graduation you want to return to Singapore (of doing an MPhil and/or a PhD, and returning after that), and then a years spend in Berkeley or Stanford will be a great addition to your CV, much more, than MIT - it’s true to all Asia, I think.</p>
<p>Stanford does sound like the best choice at this point. I’ll do abit more research, I think. Am getting my friends in Berkeley to check out the place, and waiting for the briefing about the Cambridge-MIT exchange. This is quite exciting. (: I’ve about another year to go before then though.</p>