Carnegie Mellon vs Berkeley?

I’m instate for Berkeley but I got enough aid at CMU that it’s basically the same tuition. I would pursue a CS major at Berkeley and a stats/ml major at CMU. I visited both campuses and while I was drawn to Berkeley’s larger and nicer campus (Cal Day was just full of activities while CMU’s tours were kind of meh). However, I find myself being unable to ignore the benefits of a private school and the smaller class sizes, especially since the tuition is the same. Anyone have any input?

I would say Berkeley because it is a CS major instead of stat major.

IMO, you shouldn’t get really specific with your major during undergrad. That sounds like something to save for grad school. I think CS at Berkeley would be more beneficial than stats/ml at CMU. If you’re studying cs at CMU, this is a totally different question, but I would go to Berkeley. Also, you are not guaranteed that financial aid package every year at CMU and that is something to think about.

I’d pick a private over a public if they are similarly ranked and if costs are similar. Ex. Umiami vs UFlorida. Especially since your costs are roughly the same, I would pick CMU.
CMU has one of the best CS programs.

@AimingTop50 I believe OP got into CMU Dietrich School of Humanities and Social Sciences for a statistics major.
At CMU a student cannot automatically transfer to Mellon College of Science to study mathematics or The College of Computing for a CS degree. The internal transfer process at CMU is arduous and mostly students will not succeed in transferring to the College of Computing, although a few manage to do it. The College of Computing added about 20 seats this year, but its very small. Also, CMU’s math program gives full rides to Math Olympian Mathematicians. Not that Berkeley will be slouchy for math either, but the OP may not be able to transfer at CMU into math either, depends on his math skills and desire to take classes with that level of mathematically skilled students.

@theonthe @AimingTop50 If you want to transfer from any other college at CMU to the School of Computer Science, a student must take the six classes listed here, in freshman year and achieve a GPA of 3.6. See this form:

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/usr/cathyf/www/scsinternaltransferform.pdf

@Coloradomama

I wouldn’t count on it. I heard transferring into SCS is basically impossible now.

@idkName that is what I have heard too, that its impossible to transfer, see my post just above the one where i posted the rules on transfer. I do not even think a student in Dietrich can get into Mellon College of Science, let alone SCS. SCS is oversubcribed. There are a few double majors at CMU ECE and SCS. It would be a killer combination for most of us. That is the one downside to CMU, that each college has strict admissions quotas.