<p>Before I ask my question, here’s some background: I have been interested in Computer Science for the better part of a decade so I plan to major in the field in college. I’m a Brown admit as well as a Regent Scholar admit to UC Berkeley’s EECS program. Thanks to financial aid and scholarships, cost is not an issue. Both schools seem like they have great CS programs, so I’m having a really hard time deciding which one I want to invest the next 4 years of my life in. I’m a SoCal student, so it would be cool to experience the East Coast but at the same time Berkeley is still far enough from home (~330 miles) that it too feels really different yet I retain the option to visit friends/family over breaks without an expensive plane ticket.</p>
<p>My question is this: what are your thoughts on the quality of each school’s CS program as well as their overarching education? Also, which school do you think I would be happier at? From what I’ve heard students at both schools work hard but Berkeley is more competitive while Brown is more collaborative. Thanks in advance for your advice.</p>
<p>You won’t go wrong at either school from a course-content perspective, but Berkeley is 4 times the size of Brown – that makes for an entirely different feel. Also, isn’t it often tough to get the classes you need to graduate in 4 years at Berkeley? The 4-year graduation rate at Brown is somewhere around 92-95%.</p>
<p>Both schools are amazing for CS so you can’t go wrong there. I’m not sure about Berkeley but what I love about Brown is how many classes I can take outside of CS. So far, about half my classes have been non-CS. While the number of classes outside of CS will go down in the future, I will still be able to take at least one non-CS class each semester. For me, this is great because I am interested in many different areas.</p>
<p>I don’t know if this will help, but Berkeley is in the Bay Area, so you have a big pool of job prospects with SF and the Silicon Valley being right there. However, Brown is an ivy and has the ivy connections. You should visit both campuses if you can to see how you like the feel of each campus.</p>
<p>PM me if you want a connection with a fairly recent (<10 yrs) grad in CS (ScB/MA 5 yr) from Brown who has been working in the No. Cal. area for the past years and likely has some perspective from “out on the other side”.</p>
<p>Most people don’t really know how good Brown’s CS department is. It’s amazing quite really. You might say, sure Berkeley has one of the best CS departments, right? However, you might’ve not known that Google and Microsoft recruit here at Brown BI-WEEKLY. Facebook too. Oh, Znyga as well. And LOADS of startups. Dropbox? Yelp? Check and check.</p>
<p>You will get amazing opportunities, now the question lies: where will you do better? In the tough, weeding-out, competitive atmosphere of Berkeley or the general collaborative atmosphere of Brown? </p>
<p>A PM on my decision I figured might as well be public:</p>
<p>I ended up picking Berkeley and I haven’t regretted my decision once. I love it here. The EECS/CS program is amazing. Tons of opportunities. Also, lots of stuff to do outside of engineering work. It’s a lot of work, but I also have a lot of fun. And California weather is great Today I was appreciating walking through some of the beautiful redwoods on campus while enjoying the sun. Even without Regent’s, you will be fine. Definitely happy I picked Berkeley over Brown.</p>
<p>Appreciate you checking back in. Yes, it seems most students are happy with their choices, even though it is difficult for some to choose. Berkeley is hard to pass up if you are EECS. My daughter did pick Brown over Berkeley but started out undecided so I don’t know that she would have found her way to CS without following her own path at Brown.</p>
<p>It would make sense to pick Brown over Berkeley for social sciences and humanities programs. But for CS and engineering, Berkeley is hands down the superior choice. It is consistently ranked within the top 3 in the nation.</p>
<p>Since he is not going to the grad school, I don’t think it really matters what that is ranked. He also was accepted to CMU but decided to rule that out because of personal preference and their grad school is also ranked in the top 3 and everyone knows it is great for CS undergrad.</p>
<p>While it looks like Truust picked Brown, then reversed himself and picked Berkeley, lol. I just want to add for future: student aiming for tippy top grad programs like MIT need to realize that it is all about you and your application, your grades & GRE, your research especially and LORs and your personal statement, not quite so much about your college, although coming from a strong college is CS weights your gpa a bit.</p>
<p>Yeah a lot of companies come to Brown to recruit. Its a running joke on campus that it isn’t even worth going to the career fairs unless you’re a CS major because that is what most of them are looking for. </p>
Today I was appreciating walking through some of the beautiful redwoods on campus while enjoying the sun. Even without Regent’s, you will be fine. Definitely happy I picked Berkeley over Brown.</p>