<p>I need to choose a first choice university for my own reasons. I intend to double major computer science and mechanical engineering. So far I can't decide between these:
-Duke
-Cornell
-UC Berkley
-Georgia Tech</p>
<p>What do you think and why? Do you have any better suggestions (other than MIT, Stanford, or Caltech)?</p>
<p>CS and ME majors have a lot of non-overlapping requirements that may be difficult to fit into an eight semester schedule.</p>
<p>Important factors in checking what schools are realistic are your cost constraints, financial aid situation, and (for the state schools) state of residency.</p>
<p>Cornell is definitely a good choice, they have the prestige and rankings desired in a first choice college. I would also recommend Carnegie Mellon as an option since they are know to be quite good.</p>
<p>Choose the one YOU like best. They are all excellent schools. If I were choosing I would pick Cornell or UC Berkley, then GT, then Duke.
It depends on what you are looking in a college beyond the academics. These schools are in wildly different locations and have different “personalities”.</p>
<p>I know they’re all excellent schools. The question is, why would you pick A over B over C? @BeanTownGirl, you picked Cornell then UCB, why?</p>
<p>Since each of those majors has many of its own req’ts, you will not likely have the space in your schedule to complete the req’ts in four years.</p>
<p>If you’re expecting financial aid, then you may run out of aid after the 4th year and have NO degree.</p>
<p>Even at schools that will grant you a lot of AP credits (probably not the ones on your list), it would be difficult to complete both majors. </p>
<p>At schools that give lots of AP credits, you might be able to complete a MechE major and a CS minor.</p>
<p>Money is not problem (full scholarship). And besides, I’m not asking about double major, as I’ve already made that decision. I’m asking about universities.</p>
<p>Go to each school’s web site and look up the majors to see if it is feasable to actually complete the proposed double major at each school. If you are set on doing the proposed double major, then you need to go to a school where you can actually complete both majors.</p>
<p>Cornell is Ivy league AND we visited the campus with my son and we all loved it. Beautiful campus, incredible engineering facilities…However if you don’t like the country, the UCal Berkeley would be a better choice. In the engineering world both of those (and GT are highly respected). I would put GT after those because I wouldn’t like the climate.
And Duke is not as good an <em>engineering</em> school as the others on your list. It’s very good and if you chose it for other reasons, such as the liberal arts offerings or whatever, it’s certainly a fine choice. It’s also big into the sports scene and frats, which I dislike.
So those are my reasons and as you can see they are highly subjective. So they may have no relevance to you 
You might get more responses by posting your questions in the individual college’s forums on CC.</p>
<p>Money is not problem (full scholarship).</p>
<p>Who is giving you a full scholarship?</p>
<p>And if the scholarship is for FOUR years only, then how will you pay for the 5th year to complete the second major?</p>
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<p>You could try Carnegie Mellon, although it would be difficult to double major in computer science and mechanical engineering and still graduate in 4 years. In fact, I suspect that would be hard also in the schools you listed above.</p>