<p>UC Berkeley vs CMU
So I've narrowed it down to these two but I still don't know know what to choose. Feel free to add your own input!</p>
<p>Cal
PROS
- I'm undecided right now so it'll be easier for me to go into CS
- closer to home, nicer weather, better food
- parents want me to go here</p>
<p>CONS
- the surrounding neighborhood
- huge class sizes/school
- cutthroat
- not that great rep students wise - ie drugs, always protesting</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon
PROS
- if I get into CS, it's one of the top in the nation
- I already got into Tepper (business) so if I find I don't like CS after a few classes, I can stay in business
- smaller school - easier access to professors, smaller class sizes, get to know advisers better</p>
<p>CONS
- I got into Tepper but I'm not sure if I want to do business. I want to do CS more but I don't think it's easy to transfer into CS
- farther away, cold/erratic weather, apparently the food is not that great
- I want to work in California after graduating
- no school spirit
- when I went to visit, all people talked about was studying and that's it - so less of the college experience</p>
<p>Pretty much the deal breaker for me. But honestly, you can’t go wrong with either. If cost is not a concern, I would personally choose CMU (unless CS is something you are very interested in).</p>
<p>I myself was accepted to CMU for CS, and got a Regent’s scholarship at Cal as an EECS major. I chose Cal for the following reasons:</p>
<ol>
<li>Regent’s Scholarship = priority registration at cal so I dont have to worry about huge classes, also w/ scholarship, Cal was much, much cheaper than CMU</li>
<li>classes at cal are only bigger in fresh/soph year, and only in those classes that are basic and req. for major. for ex., a class like physics would be taught to 500 people at once, but a class on a specific part of electrical engineering that focuses on one aspect might have much, much, less students. apparently the professors in cal are very accessible, just that people dont <em>access</em> them.</li>
<li>cal provides as many opportunities as privates, just that they dont hand-feed it to you (heard this from a lot of alumni/other people)</li>
<li>cal’s surroundings, while not awesome, isn’t like that of schools like upenn or usc…its moderate. and it has a cultural feeling to it, its not dead</li>
<li>cal’s CS program and CMU’s CS program are ranked nearly the same</li>
<li>cal is great academically not just in CS but in other fields too, so if I want to try another field, I still have access to the world’s best science programs (and Haas business in cal is pretty famous too). CMU is known mainly for music and CS, so if I want to switch im a little limited</li>
<li>cal and CMU are both known for CS, but cal is a more internationally recognized brand of school</li>
<li>grade deflation in cal, but since I’m going to cal with a regents scholarship, i should be (hopefully) able to stay above the curve</li>
</ol>
<p>overall, for me, it just came down to quality of education (not that much different, just I have to look for opportunities in cal) vs money (about twice as much!) </p>
<p>As for your situation, if you wanted to do CS, it would be risky of you to go to CMU and then hope that they let you transfer into CS, since that is hard.</p>