compare Northwestern & UCB for computer science

College Search & Selection
1

Hi,
Please help me to compare Northwestern University and University of California, Berkeley for computer science in terms of which is better in general and also in terms of

  1. Public Vs Private
  2. Resources - Being able to sign up for the desired courses
  3. Job opportunities
  4. CGPA
  5. Ranking
    Thanks in advance.
    zeeyuw
2
  1. Check how much your family is able to afford, and if you are a California resident, then Berkeley is a much better deal. 2. Fewer students at Northwestern, plus the quarters system, means you are less likely to miss out taking desired courses at the proper sequence to graduate on time. 3. Berkeley's easy access to Silicon Valley gives you a big advantage. 4. ? Don't understand your question. GPA, as long as it's respectable, will get your a job, especially as a CS major. 5. Berkeley engineering ranks higher than Northwestern, but Northwestern offers a better well-rounded education in case you change your major/school within the university.
3

Thank you for your reply. My question 3 was whether how good your GPA is depends on the university and how does it affect your job and further studies.
Thanks again for precise responses.

4

Seconding all the above and emphasizing that GPA, so long as it’s above or even around 3.0, makes virtually no difference in CS.

The biggest difference between the two will come down to student experience. If you want a well-known program and are okay being in large lectures and the like, UCB all the way. If you really value the closer student to professor experience, Northwestern will fit much better.

5

Berkeley’s costs are much lower if you are a CA resident … and if you’re comparing sticker prices.
If need-based aid comes into play, then it depends on your family’s financial circumstances.
For low to median income families, Northwestern’s net price may be competitive (or even lower than Berkeley’s).

For a family income of $60K (a little higher than the national median), with $60K in financial assets and another $60K in home equity, with only 1 child, Northwestern’s net price would be about $12K-$13K (according to its online net price calculator).

Berkeley’s would be about $14K - $17K according to its NPC, depending on whether the $60K in home equity is counted in the parents’ assets (I don’t know how UCB handles this).

YMMV. It’s not clear if you’re building an application list or comparing offers. If the latter, then you must already know the net prices. Otherwise, run the online NPCs for yourself to estimate costs.

6
  1. Public Vs Private: Private education is better. You'll get more attention and you'll receive help to graduate.
  2. Resources - Private universities will make it easier to sign up for courses. You'll have to apply for cs major second year for berkeley.
  3. Job opportunities - Berkeley no doubt. Lots of cs grads go to berkeley, stanford, or mit for grad school or works at silicon valley. Every summer you can go do an intern at Google or Uber (berkeley is a feeder school), and just pay off your tuition.
  4. CGPA - Berkeley has grade deflation. Companies don't care as much. Grad schools do tho.
  5. Ranking- Berkeley, CMU, MIT, and Stanford are the four number one schools in computer science. They're way above the rest in terms of research and graduation prospects for computer science students.

Go to UC Berkeley. It’s far superior to Northwestern in terms of graduation prospects and ranking. Studying in California is much nicer too. There’s no comparison between UC Berkeley and Northwestern unless you’re afraid of the competitive environment at the best CS school in the world.

7

For Berkeley, were you admitted as an EECS major, or in the L&S division?

If the former, you are in the major. If the latter, you need to earn a 3.3 GPA in the three prerequisite CS courses to declare the L&S CS major. This is due to capacity limitations.

8

Are you ‘in’ your major at both or will you need to apply sophomore year?
If you’re not direct admit at one but are at the other, pick the other.
Costs would matter: is one cheaper than the other (without deducting any loan)?
Northwestern won’t have 700-student lecture halls and it’ll be easier to register for classes.
It’s also got a possible Cs+x and UX emphasis that I find very interesting but that’s subjective.

9

Thank you for your time, this is really helpful to move towards a decision.
ok, to give you more details that came up in this discussion:

  1. Admitted in EECS at Berkeley
  2. CS at McCormick at Northwestern
    Further, will be great to know if you have additional plus/minus specifically for these 2.
    Thanks in advance.
    zeeyuw
10

On-line class schedules can help with both class sizes and frequency of offering.

Berkeley’s is at http://classes.berkeley.edu/ . Due to the large number of CS majors (probably around 700 combined EECS and L&S CS graduate per year, but additional L&S undeclared students take the introductory CS courses like 61A), class sizes can be large (e.g. over 1,000 in CS 61A).

Northwestern seems to make finding its class schedule really difficult. An overview of when each CS course is offered is at http://www.mccormick.northwestern.edu/eecs/courses/ , but class sizes are not shown. However, https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/?q=northwestern+university&s=all&id=147767 indicates that there are probably only about 100 combined computer science and computer engineering graduates per year there (though some introductory CS courses may have higher enrollment from other majors and undeclared students sampling them).

Note that Northwestern divides the academic year into three 10-week quarters, versus two 15-week semesters at Berkeley and most other schools. Summer session at Northwestern and other quarter system schools is another 10-week quarter, while summer session at Berkeley and other semester system schools is typically shorter but accelerated (i.e. half as long, courses move twice as fast, but a full load is half as many courses/credits as a regular semester).

11

Thank you for the links, this gives a good idea about the courses offered and I am going through this information now…
Will be good to know, how do you rate these 2 in terms of collaborative Vs Competitive.
Thanks everyone!
zeeyuw

12

If you do not like a competitive environment, stay away from courses with lots of pre-meds.

Also, Economics 1 and UGBA 10 at Berkeley may have a greater level of competition from the pre-business students trying to get into the competitive-admission business major.