Columbia Fu, Duke, Berkeley, or JHU. What do I do?!

Applying to College
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<p>Hi all, I'm a male from California who got accepted to (no financial aid anywhere):</p>

<p>Columbia Fu Foundation - Biomedical engineering
Duke - Biomedical Engineering
Johns Hopkins - Biomedical Engineering
UC Berkeley - Regent's scholarship, EECS</p>

<p>I'll be concise - I have no idea where to go. I like engineering, and will probably switch to an electrical engineering major. Berkeley seems like the obvious choice: it's close to my house, has one of the top EE programs in the nation, and is twice as cheap as any of the privates. </p>

<p>The thing is, I want to potentially go into business/management or ibanking, but I don't know whether I will like it. It seems that a combination of Haas and EECS would be ideal for me, but don't the Columbia and Duke names carry more weight in the business/managment world, regardless of the fact that their EE programs are ranked worse than Berkeleys'? Also, are Columbia and Duke engineering looked down upon by top engineering and banking firms?</p>

<p>I'm really confused, can anyone offer me some advice? Thanks.</p>

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<p>jhu biomed. best in the country</p>

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<p>JHU biomedical engineering. Best in the country. (just quoting beefs but he's right)</p>

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<p>beefs and arctic16, the OP said he'll probably switch to EE anyway.
berkeley eecs. people say second best after mit but i don't think it makes that big of a difference. plus it should cost almost nothing compared to this privates since you're CA resident + regents.
i wouldn't think that columbia and duke engineers are looked down upon, it's just that berkeley engineers would be taken with higher regard.</p>

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<p>well, as a Duke engineer, I can tell you that Duke BME is #2 and all their programs are in the top 20 (they just aren't that big and therefore not that well known). Duke has been steadily getting more and more press, and the EE field has gotten a lot of great press this year.</p>

<p>Anyway, I also want to go into banking. While GPA is the number one factor for getting an interview, engineering will always look better than nearly every other degree (with the exception of your pure B-school degrees). With engineering, they know you are a critically thinker with good math schools. Im not sure why you think Duke and Columbia engineering would be looked down upon, both are excellent schools and would likely look very good for you. </p>

<p>I would tend to believe that Duke, Berkeley (Haas), and Columbia are the best recruiting for ibanking. </p>

<p>all that being said, i would probably go to Berkeley, especially if you think that is ideal.</p>

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<p>honestly...considering you even got into jhu biomed, you should probably reconsider your major change...they have a totally separate admissions council for that one major and doing well there would probably put you up to some of the best med schools in the country.</p>

<p>just my 10 cents</p>

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<p>uhhhhhh changing your major should NEVER be a matter of prestige.</p>

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<p>If you are on the path of BS/MBA then the best combination will be EE&CS from UCB followed by MBA from a good school including HAAS.</p>

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<p>Thanks for all the advice guys. I decided not to choose JHU because I don't think I am completely devoted to BME, and would like the option to change majors in college. It just seems that Columbia and Duke are soooo nice, and I feel bad choosing Berkeley over them. </p>

<p>Two questions:
1) Do ibanks recruit from Berkeley EECS?
2) Is the undergrad life at Columbia and Duke superior/more intellectual/happier than at Berkeley?</p>

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<p>If you want to join the Wall Street/Banks/Stock Analysis companies, then go to Columbia and do a math/cs/MBA.</p>

<p>Starting salary will be > $100,000.</p>

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<p>for #1, i'm sure they do but i think they would prefer econ/business students because they naturally know more about banking and whatnot than electrical engineers. of course you can take related courses and up your stock.
for #2, i don't think anyone can answer unless the person attended all 3 schools as an undergrad</p>

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<p>Just to let you know there are Banks/Related Companies/WallStreet that recruits solely from the top 10 Universities, So goto to Columbia.</p>

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<p>But Columbia engineering isn't top 10, and I'm not POSITIVE at this point in my life that I want to go into the financial world, I just want to have that option.</p>

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<p>It is not the top 10 enginerring universities that these iBANK recurites but the top 10 US National universities.
Among your options the best shot you will have at the Investment Banking is from Columbia.</p>

<p>Try to get a double major as Statistics/Computer Science followed by MBA.</p>

<p>Some of the highest paying software development jobs fetching > 300K are in that domain, starting salaries touches $150K.</p>

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<p>Fu has some of the best recruiting (behind Wharton and Harvard of course) to top financial firms in New York. You are a Columbia student majoring in Engineering and it actually helps you get jobs over other Columbia students because engineering shows that you are a hard worker who can think critically. It also shows you are willing to do lots of work for long hours and get little sleep (basically an IBanker).</p>

<p>Ivy engineering is generally not for pure engineers who want PhDs (except maybe Cornell), but a great place for future ibankers, consultants, lawyers, doctors, and other preprofessionals. I'm pretty sure a similar case can be made for Duke. Going to Duke or Columbia will give you the most options upon graduation. One problem real engineers have with Ivy engineering is that many of the students do not go on to pursue higher level engineering, but go on to other endeavors (I think Fu's numbers are like 1/3 business, 1/3 law/med, 1/3 actual engineering). However, Duke is #2 in BME and Fu isn't too far behind (I think, I don't remember the BME rankings perfectly) so if you do choose to go onto becoming a biomedical engineer, you can probably find a good job from Duke or Columbia.</p>

<p>So where to go:
If money becomes and issue, stick with Berkeley and you will be fine academically, financially, and have great options upon graduation. If money is not an option, visit all of these colleges. If you decide an urban feel is for you, Columbia is great. Personally, I wouldn't want to go to Hopkins, but you may decide differently. If you want a less urban feel, maybe more southern, Duke is a great place to be. If you decide the East Coast isn't for you, you can go to Berkeley for much less and be happy.</p>

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<p>In my opinion UCB doesn't cut in the Investment Banking World.
If it was silicon valley and getting into the Google's and Intel's UCB should have been your top choice but if you want to make a mark in the investment or into marketing anywhere else Columbia will give you a much better exposure than UCB.</p>

<p>Another point is that UCB asian rich student body in the EE&CS is great for deep engineering skills or R&D jobs but not a very healthy environment for other carreer as your exposure will be limited. A Venkat pointed that at Columbia you will get different flavours some interested in pursuing engineering other buisness and some even meds.</p>

<p>So it will be much healthier for you to choose Columbia if you are not serious about Engineering R&D carreer.</p>

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<p>If you do well in engineering at Berkeley, the world is your oyster. You could augment your candidacy for I-Banking by going to Haas, which BusinessWeek ranked recently as the number 3 undergrad business school (on the basis of recruiters rating it #1). The risk here might be that you are not admitted to Haas.</p>

<p>Are you really set on I-Banking? If you are at a true lover of engineering or MIGHT want to work in the biomed engineering area or if you are open to deciding you would go into something like venture capital, you may do better to stay in the Bay Area which is the center of venture capital and the largest center of biotech in the nation (with Berkeley, UCSF, and Stanford, hundreds of companies, and about 90,000 biotech jobs). The fact that British Petroleum just awarded $500 million to Berkeley to develop biofuels is making the Bay Area a center of energy research and development as well (the next wave of technology, presumably), a field which is enjoying a wave of great interest as well as investment. </p>

<p>I think other posters have stated well that you should look at where recruiting is done for what you want to focus on. </p>

<p>On the other hand, my bias is to say getting out of Dodge is always a good idea (you can always come back to the Bay Area after a stint on the East Coast), but before you choose if you haven't done so, you should definitely look at the different campuses. As I am sure you must be aware: Columbia is ultra-urban, so you'd have to like NYC. Duke from what I've heard is a bit socially conservative. Johns Hopkins is a great place to do science, but not known necessarily as having a spicy social climate. And Baltimore is a nice town, but not a destination for most.</p>

<p>I don't know how all the I-Banks work in terms of recruiting. I do know in consulting there are some firms that really want people with the heavy quantitative background that you are bound to have. And these look very favorably at Berkeley quant people.</p>

<p>
[quote]
In my opinion UCB doesn't cut in the Investment Banking World.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I would make your analysis of this data-driven, not reliant on any of our opinions here, unless the person speaking happens to be recruiter for an I-Bank or in that line of work (forgive me if some of you are). Below, in the BW article, GS is noted as coming to recruit and JP Morgan says the quality of Haas undergrads outstrips some MBAs they hire. These are anecdotal bits; research, research, research.
<a href="http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_12/b4026066.htm?chan=bschools_undergrad+programs_undergraduate+b-school+news%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_12/b4026066.htm?chan=bschools_undergrad+programs_undergraduate+b-school+news&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>BedHead: If you read the article, then it states clearly the most companies that flock to UCB are fromt he Silicon Valley that I already mentioned.</p>

<p>But in overall college experience and the carreer into the investment banking my Opinion still be to choose Columbia over Berkeley.</p>

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<p>
[quote]
BedHead: If you read the article, then it states clearly the most companies that flock to UCB are fromt he Silicon Valley that I already mentioned.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>And if you read my post, it states clearly that staying at Berkeley would also be a good option for things other than I-Banking such as tech or venture capital. My point wasn't to offend: I wouldn't take at face value any of our generalizations regarding where companies go to recruit their students unless the information is from within the field itself. I think, on balance, that's the most sensible advice.</p>

<p>The really big part of the puzzle unanswered by recommendations such as "go to Columbia if you want to go into I-Banking" is where the person will be the most happy (and putting aside the question of what the person can or cannot afford since it seems not to be on his mind.) I myself really like Columbia, but the urban thing is definitely not for all. With any of the options on the table, I don't think the person can go wrong even for I-Banking. The question to be answered then is fit, IMO.</p>

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<p>To all who posted, thanks a ton. You were very informative.</p>