<p>Hey guys, really needed your help in finalizing my university. I'm planning to do Computer Sciences but the problem is that I got through CMU CIT and got waitlisted at SCS CMU. Also I got through UC Berkeley for Computer Sciences.
So should I go in for CMU CIT ( and then transfer to SCS later) or should I go to UC Berkeley ?</p>
<p>Thanks :)</p>
<p>Are you me? Holy ****, our situations are EXACTLY THE SAME! Except, I got into Berkeley EECS (not CS).</p>
<p>Even I got through EECS :P</p>
<p>I’m in a similar situation 
I am choosing between Penn SEAS (Computer Science) and Berkeley (EECS).
But I am leaning a lot towards Penn at the moment.</p>
<p>Man!..What kinda profiles did u guys have?</p>
<p>^^But why would that be so, v?</p>
<p>Engineering at Berkeley >>> Engg at Penn.
And name wise, they’re pretty equal, except in job market for engineers, Berkeley’s name > Penn’s.</p>
<p>I hope you make the right decision. :)</p>
<p>I agree with Pixie actually. Unless you’re strongly leaning towards management at Wharton. Even so you’ll only get a BBA which isnt nearly as useful as an MBA which you’ll have to do anyway. For an MBA you need a few years work experience so it’ll be like reapplying to Wharton again. Assuming that you wanna go into management, you’ll still have to work in your own field of eng for a few years in which case Berkeley>Penn. Simple :)</p>
<p>PS: Fantastic on your college results pixie you totally deserve it :D</p>
<p>Thanks gohan! What did you end up choosing?</p>
<p>Haha well its a vacillating between Cambridge, Caltech, Cornell and Mellon, but most likely Ill attend Caltech. If only the core were a little easier…>.<</p>
<p>^Good decision!
I dunno much about strength of Cambridge’s program, but Cornell’s definitely out (same argument as for Penn), and CalTech’s a little more prestigious than CMU. Weather wise it’s a winner too! And like someone told me long ago, it’s not far from Pomona. ;)</p>
<p>Don’t worry about everyone being a genius there. Most people are just hard workers. Treat being in the midst of similarly (you got accepted too, don’t forget) talented and intellectual people as a treat/honor rather than something to be scared of. (that’s not to say that you should regularly put your foot in your mouth;))
Remember that you too were deemed good enough for the institute to want you enough to accept you. You might be surprised at how many people will enter CalTech thinking along the same lines as you, that they’re the anomaly. It’s going to be an overwhelmingly intelligent bunch where everyone’s as good or better than you are, but I feel that’s a humbling experience that one should go through.</p>
<p>PS: And worrying about the core is pointless. If you think it’s hard then it obviously will be once you’re there. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>Wow that was pretty wise advice. Yeah dont worry being a little apprehensive keeps me on my toes Yep so going to H after all? Or is P exerting some sway? ;)</p>
<p>^I’m hopelessly confused. But unless something really big comes up to sway me, I believe that it’s going to be Harvard in the end…all my preparations sure seem to be keeping H in mind, but I wish there was something that made me absolutely, positively, 100% sure of my decision.</p>
<p>I think it’s difficult to like one single factor at H because everything’s so perfect! Which is good, but it’s making things hard for me, as in, I’m finding it difficult to find something specific to cling onto, it’s almost monotonously perfect! ;)</p>
<p>Haha yeah Harvard tends to have that effect on people 
What are you planning to study? I guess P’s a bit more science oriented than H which is probably better for the others. But seriously, you’re privileged to be in this position. There is no wrong choice, either way well it couldnt get much better Unless you go to Caltech of course (taking a page from your book ani )</p>
<p>Nah, the last reason I want to choose harvard is for its name. I’m comparing actual factors and getting quite sick of most people telling me, "well (perfectpixie), let’s be honest, in the end, Harvard is Harvard. :rolleyes:
I’ve elucidated my reasons in the other thread, and I’m leaning toward Govt and Public Policy/Pre-Law (both of which yes, I know, H is best at), but I am pretty much undecided with regards to my major.</p>
<p>Anyway, we’re hijacking this thread, the original poster’s going to be let down with all the replies.
Apologies Wolverine!</p>
<p>You’re right we’ve all been terrible to Wolverine; no one has really answered their question. Ok thing is that CMU’s CS course is among the best in the country no doubt but Berkeley’s is no slouch either. Obviously if you’re 100% hellbent on only doing CS, trying to transfer to SCS which i heard is nigh impossible would be imprudent. You sure as hell wont go wrong with Berkeley. If you’re willing to look at other things like say ECE: if im not wrong, there is no native ECE programme in Berkeley. Its either EE or CS while CMU has a specific ECE course. Now the difference between ECE and EE is not really that much. In fact many see ECE as EE with some CS courses. So yeah, in the end as you can see im leaning towards Berkeley. In any case dont worry either way you’ll be cool </p>
<p>Pix: Yeah i mean Harvard is Harvard But yeah take your time, but if you do go to Cambridge, tell the other pretenders in town who the real techies are ;)</p>
<p>^I think CMU will be a much better choice seeing the current economy in California. From what I hear, due to budget cuts, etc., it is almost impossible to graduate from Berkeley within the four years, and sometimes people have to stretch it to as much as six years to be able to complete required credits. Apparently courses fill up very soon, with upperclassmen getting priority over lower level courses that they were not able to complete, so the first years when reach soph year, they not only have freshman level courses to complete, they also have their own regular courses to complete…it becomes a vicious cycle. I feel that this itself would have made me bump off Berkeley from my list pretty early was I interested in engineering.</p>
<p>I fully agree with Pixie. They’ve apparently been over-admitting students and thus not everyone can take the courses that they need to take. People mostly graduate in around 4.5 years if they were fully capable of graduating in 4 years at another university. 6 years is a bit too much I guess. Mein toh kangaal ho jata bhai. 
</p>
<p>And also, I’ve been asking around (fam friend who’s a post-doc and asst prof at cmu, sister’s colleagues, etc etc and they told me that transferring from ECE to CS is relatively simple since the major requirements are the same in the first year and I won’t have to do any extra courses whatsoever. That being said, its not like CS is my be all and end all. After looking at the syllabus of the courses for both majors, I’ve been kinda tilting towards ECE anyway. But then again, being a CS grad from CMU == the ultimate so let’s see and why the hell am I ranting so much? :\ <em>back to gymming</em></p>
<p>^
OK, This is totally random, I really don’t know why … but I always kinda link/associate CMU CS with Microsoft and Stanford CS with Apple … :)</p>
<p>That’s because Bill Gates had given job offers to every SCS student one year+theyre the largest recruiting company at Mellon and Stanford is in the Silicon Valley and Apple is there as well! Stanford is near Cupertino.</p>
<p>^ Yeah the location factor.</p>
<p>Stanford is frequently visited by apple engineers who teach certain courses there. It even has some iphone/cocoa/os x development classes for undergrads … kinda Apple oriented. When apple started afresh in late 1990s, it donated all of it’s old paperwork, machines and the * museum * of hardware/software to stanford …</p>
<p>I don’t know about CMU though … Just that I’ve seen bill gates speak there very often, donates to that school, recruits heavily as you pointed out and CMU even has a CS building after him(?) …</p>