Cornell v. UC Berkeley

Colleges and Universities A-Z Cornell University
1

<p>I'm interested in both mechanical and aerospace engineering, and so here are the positives and negatives I'm considering so far:</p>

<p>UC Berkeley:
Most Important Pro:
[ul] [<em>] Better engineering program (third in the country)[/ul]
Other Pros:
[ul] [li] Less expensive, but double Cornell's amount in loans[/li][</em>] Location, closer to Silicon Valley[/ul]
Cons:
[ul] [<em>] 45% Asian...I wouldn't want to be "just another Asian"
[</em>] No undergrad aerospace
[li] Too many people I know are going there[/li][/ul]</p>

<p>Cornell:
Most Important Pros:
[ul] [<em>] Aerospace engineering minor
[</em>] East coast experience (but there's always grad school too)[/ul]
Other Pros:
[ul] [<em>] Snow!
[</em>] Mandatory P.E.
[<em>] Project teams (does Berkeley have this too?)
[</em>] Involved alumni network
[<em>] Slightly more prestigious/selective (something like 16% v. 20%)[/ul]
Cons:
[ul] [li] $5,000/yr more expensive overall[/li][</em>] Reputation as a party school?
[/ul]</p>

<pre><code> My list is pretty limited, so feel free to add anything else (dorms, social life, research opportunities, academics, etc) that I might want to consider in making my decision.
I'm also thinking of possibly going to law school for patent law or grad school afterward, so I'm also wondering what graduate/law schools think of the two.
The only thing that's really keeping me from deciding Berkeley though is the lack of an aerospace minor. Other than that, it's pretty even and I'm sure I'll be fine either way.
</code></pre>

2

<p>I’m a fan of leaving the state for college. To me, it’s entirely different when you have to adjust to a new culture, make new friends, and you don’t have your parents for backup. My one problem with Californians is that a lot of them are so enamored with California that they never leave and they never get to see how wonderful the rest of the US is.</p>

3

<p>You can consider Berkeley to have the activist culture so you may or may not like that. Cornell is a lot more prestigious for undergrad, can’t just look at percent acceptance and the average salaries out of the engineering programs are slightly higher at Cornell (maybe not anymore, this is what I remember from 10 year old data, and it was only 5% more). Despite that, academics are not that important in making a decision when they are so similar. It ultimately comes down to your happiness. Berkeley also has budget cuts.</p>

<p>Do you like the activist culture and weather at Berkeley a lot? Or do you like to meet new people on the east coast and is Aero eng major important to you? Just think about where you would be happier and if it is financially feasible for you.</p>

<p>I’m kind of similar to you, 5k a year more for Cornell, want to go to East Coast, Asian, and a lot of people at my school going to Berkeley. I’m pretty set on Cornell.</p>

4

<p>I agonized over this decision a few weeks ago. Except for me, Cornell is actually roughly 100 k more expensive through four years, so the amount of money isn’t negligible. I chose Cornell anyway. </p>

<p>My rationale was this:</p>

<p>Berkeley’s departments are higher ranked than Cornell for the most part, but you literally will not see any difference at the undergraduate level anyway, so this is irrelevant as long as the department is in the top 20 or so.</p>

<p>Berkeley is declining due to budget cuts.</p>

<p>Berkeley is the second most prestigious school internationally, but who cares about international prestige? Also, this is largely built off the graduate level, just as it is at Harvard.</p>

<p>Berkeley is more cutthroat.</p>

<p>Cornell has a stronger alumni network.</p>

<p>Cornell is still a large school, but has only half Berkeley’s undergraduate population.</p>

<p>Berkeley is pretty easy to get into from California, so going there would have trivialized high school accomplishments to an extent. Lots of people get in.</p>

<p>Cornell is more diverse.</p>

<p>I’ll admit I wasn’t a huge fan of Cornell before finding more out about it due to a lot of CC posters bashing it. But using the transitive property with my preferences beforehand:</p>

<p>I would have taken Northwestern over Berkeley. Cornell is at the very least as good as Northwestern, and therefore taking Cornell over Berkeley makes sense. </p>

<p>I’m from California and want to experience the east coast and get a NYC banking job.</p>

<p>Cornell’s reputation has kind of been dragged through the mud on these forums, so it was a hard choice at first, especially considering cost and travel distance. But I’m 99% sure I made the right choice.</p>

5

<p>“Cornell’s reputation has kind of been dragged through the mud on these forums”
It’s pretty much just you, and I really do mean it’s just you. The only other ones that you see are trolls who accomplish nothing with their lives and are resorting to bashing other schools (Happens for every school forum).
“Berkeley is the second most prestigious school internationally, but who cares about international prestige? Also, this is largely built off the graduate level, just as it is at Harvard.”
Prestige, again, is not really important at all because ultimately you decide what happens with your life.
“Berkeley’s departments are higher ranked than Cornell for the most part”
It really depends on what departments. Pretty sure Cornell does better than Berkeley in many departments.<br>
“but you literally will not see any difference at the undergraduate level anyway, so this is irrelevant as long as the department is in the top 20 or so.”
If a department is higher ranked for a school, it’s something to consider.</p>

6

<p>^
It’s mostly just high schoolers, actually. Although there is one guy called muerteapablo who claims to have transferred from Cornell to Penn and bashes Cornell quite a bit. Not sure if you’ve heard of him.</p>

7

<p>^ The long-gone poster you mention originally listed him/herself as a him (in the personal profile), then a few months later switched it to a her. Also, there were additional oddities to that poster, who in my opinion was a tricky, though persistent for a while, ■■■■■. Ancient trivia (and by trivia I mean suspect/worthless “information”).</p>

8

<p>OP</p>

<p>A couple of questions for you.</p>

<p>Engineering Ranking. To you, exactly what does it mean to be ranked #3 as opposed to #8. Rankings are rough guides at best. Now if we’re say talking about #3 vs # 34 maybe you’d have a point (however, since #34 is Yale, maybe not) … but #3 vs #8? They’re both up there and I don’t see how it makes a difference. (I also don’t accept that the USNWR system is anything more than Rough Justice in the first place – but that’s another story)</p>

<p>The point I’m trying to make is that we look at numbers and say that #3 is better than #8, so this must mean something. I would suggest that when looking at top schools (and both Cornell and Berkely engineering clearly qualify here, small difference in Rank are practically meaningless). </p>

<p>To be fair, I’d say exactly the same thing about Cornell vs Berkeley selectivity (where Cornell wins) 16% vs 20%. Meaningless, in my mind.</p>

<p>45% Asian – so you won’t be another Asian. Hard for me to put myself in your shoes, but after visiting campus, I think it’s safe to say that Cornell Engineering is not exactly underrepresented by Asian students. I don’t think you’ll be uncomfortable in either place. Personally, I put Cornell’s diversity as a plus.</p>

<p>Cost – I would never say that $5,000/year of someone else’s money is meaningless, but compared to the overall cost of education, it’s probably one of the smaller differences we see.</p>

9

<p>@Colene</p>

<p>As long as a department is in the top 25 or so, I doubt an undergraduate will see any difference. At the graduate level, yes. Undergraduate level, no way.</p>

<p>@Colm</p>

<p>That guy seemed to have had an unhealthy obsession with bashing Cornell for whatever reason. Not sure why he wasted so much of his time trying to discourage people from coming here.</p>

10

<p>^ That “guy,” who switched to claiming female status, may simply have been a Penn fanboy/girl ■■■■■ zealot – like a Redsox fan who trash-talks the Yankees.</p>

11

<p>^
So this isn’t true at ALL, right?</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/5411361-post35.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/5411361-post35.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

12

<p>In my opinion that poster was a ■■■■■, and most of what he/she said was biased claptrap. That you don’t get on with a more positive/trust-able focus now perplexes me.</p>

13

<p>If you note, she actually bashes every school that’s not Penn. Cornell makes for an easy target but she is the definition of a ■■■■■.</p>

14

<p>Thank you all for your very insightful posts (and some colorful off-topic ones too).
When it boils down to it, I think I’m leaning toward Cornell because of its aerospace engineering minor and its location. Then again, I know I can go to graduate school on the East Coast as well, so it’s not as big of an issue – basically then, I’m just considering the aerospace engineering: are a few aerospace classes for the minor worth a total of over $20,000 more in tuition than Berkeley?
I’m very interested in aerospace engineering, and I am pretty sure I want to go into aeronautical design as a career (unless in college I suddenly find out that I hate engineering and end up going to law school for patent law, another interest of mine…), but I’m also aware that I can always study aerospace for my master’s and that many companies, like Boeing, hire mechanical engineers as well. So in the end, is the aerospace minor worth the money, in terms of job opportunities or graduate school acceptances or anything else you can think of?</p>

15

<p>" I’d say 1/4 kids here actually deserves to attend an ivy. The others are quite stupid."
Honestly, this is actually quite true IMO (In terms of stupidity) … but I’d change it to 1/3, and that 1/3 are REALLY SMART (you don’t want any more of them really, trust me on this). However, remember once again that strict academic intelligence is far from the only thing gets you into an ivy. You’d honestly see this in all of the ivies, especially more with sports-heavy ones.</p>

<p>“If you’re decently intelligent, by which I mean top 10% of high school class, 2250 or up on the SATs, etc, you will absolutely be among the top students at Cornell.”
This is hugely false (considering that 90%ish of enrolling students were already top 10% of their high school classes, so pretty much EVERYONE besides hooked applicants and a good number of hooked applicants too). Good number of kids with 2250+ SAT end up within the middle 50% even when they try hard. This once again shows that SATs are far from a strict ruler of academic performance.</p>

<p>Oh and Saugus, stop being insecure.</p>

<p>@OP
Honestly I feel that the difference in educational reputation and opportunities really do not matter at this point (same goes with berk v. any non-hyp ivy). Which one will cost you more and where do you see yourself enjoying life - those questions would lead you to the right choice.</p>

16

<p>To the OP:
Couple of courses in aerospace Engg at Cornell isn’t going to give you any leg up over Berkeley Mech Engineering. If you were that set on Aerospace Engg, these are the colleges - Purdue, UMichigan, Georgia Tech, UIUC (illinois - urbana champaign)</p>

<p>So if your basis for going to Cornell is for the couple of aerospace minor, I don’t think that is basis for selection. You should choose it based on other factors - private vs public…etc…etc.</p>

<p>check this lab out at berkeley [BEAR:</a> Berkeley Aerobot Research](<a href=“Berkeley Robotics and Intelligent Machines Lab”>Berkeley Robotics and Intelligent Machines Lab)</p>

<p>Anyway, I think graduate program in aerospace is what will get you to where you want to be.
For now, choose based on other factors, whether you see yourself there for 4 years.</p>

<p>@saugus - Will be awaiting your post college posts from Cornell…tell us how it is - no holds barred :)</p>

17

<p>@Colene</p>

<p>If they’re really that stupid, how did they even get in? Ugh. But you did mean that this is true at all other schools, too, right? Including HYP?</p>

<p>And why are the educational opportunities at HYP better than at Cornell?</p>

18

<p>

</p>

<p>Cornell’s aerospace (graduate level) was ranked No. 11 in the most recent US News list for this specialty-- so Cornell is one of “these colleges” (for top flight aerospace engineering). Also, the undergrad minor in this discipline is not insignificant considering its adjacency to the excellent graduate program.</p>

<p>[Best</a> Aerospace Programs - US News](<a href=“http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-engineering-schools/aerospace-rankings][b]Best”>http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-engineering-schools/aerospace-rankings)</p>

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<p>^And I believe UCLA is #11 or #15 (depending on the site rating it). While I am not discounting Cornell’s aerospace program, what I am saying is it should not be the make it/break it deal, just my opinion. I’d choose a college based on a lot of other factors…If the OP is from CA, CA provides vast aerospace internship opportunities.</p>

20

<p>Saugus you are infuriatingly hopeless outside of hard academics.
Every post you make reeks of insecurity. Makes me wonder how anyone like even survived for all these years being so absolutely OCD.</p>

<p>I’m going to torture you and let you think this one through by yourself. The way you presented yourself thus far with your posts is that once you get to college you will accomplish nothing. I’m letting you know now that this isn’t how the world works - when you talk to your employers, if all you have to talk about is the name of your school, you have absolutely no hope of getting the job. The competition isn’t over once you get to a top school, HYP or whatever. It is especially because so many dumb kids graduate from the ivies that they look for more than just the name of the school.</p>