<p>Hey, I was recently admitted for Berkeley and Cornell University as a BioEngineering major from New York. BioEngineering in CALS for Cornell. I'm so excited about getting into both schools, but in terms of choosing, I am extremely interested in switching from BioE to EECS/CS (Electrical Engineering or CS) as my intended major, so please keep this in mind as you read the following:</p>
<p>Anyway, in terms of Berkeley vs Cornell</p>
<p>Berkeley PROS
Amazing environment for college life: close to the city, crapload of stuff to do on and off campus
One of the best Engineering/CS departments in the world
Great weather relative to Cornell
Social life is much more based around friends and not frats which is something I appreciate
BEAUTIFUL CAMPUS! Campanile ftw</p>
<p>Berkeley CONS
Relatively hard to switch majors
*Important for me, since I will be attempting to switch from BioE to EECS/CS
Since I’m Asian, it may be hard to stand out above everyone else in Engineering?
Large classes – though I don’t really mind this since there is no difference for me between class having 50 and a class having 150</p>
<p>Cornell PROS
Great campus life, but I feel the off campus experience is a little limited relative to what I have heard about Berkeley
Not far behind Berkeley in terms of Engineering/CS
More diverse and smaller classes
Overall a little prestigious in terms of overall academics
Very easy to switch majors compared to Berkeley</p>
<p>Cornell CONS
I CAN NOT SURVIVE THE COLD
Social life relatively more based on parties and frats
Bad location</p>
<p>Anyway, I'm an out of state student, but for the sake of argument, let's not talk about financial aid and tuition as I have reason to believe I will not receive a significant amount from either school.</p>
<p>I understand that some of my generalizations are not correct. Please feel free to correct me but I am just stating these opinions from my point of view and in completely relativistic terms between the two schools.</p>
<p>Thanks you so much for reading! I really appreciate it.</p>
<p>well in my opinion relatively to Berkeley’s location in the Bay area, I feel that Cornell’s location in Ithaca is a bit of a disadvantage (at least for me personally) no offense to Cornell in any way haha</p>
<p>“Since I’m Asian, it may be hard to stand out above everyone else in Engineering?”</p>
<p>??? What on earth does this mean?? I don’t think at Cornell they give out extra points on engineering exams if you happen to be asian. The stats ranges for incoming cornell engineering students are published, despite having smaller % asians (though still probably plenty) the ranges speak for themselves. </p>
<p>I am Jewish, and before I got to college I thought Jews were smarter than everybody else. It was at Cornell I leaned that actually there were a lot of different kinds of people smarter than some Jews. In particular, this one. Maybe it would be good for you to have a similar experience. Maybe not. Maybe you meant something else altogether.</p>
<p>But anyway, this topic has come up once or twice before,eg</p>
<p>@monydad: Sorry for the misunderstanding, I meant that I know many Asian Americans who see attending Berkeley as a con because of its high asian population (especially within engineering majors). As you may know, Berkeley does not admit based on race. I think this leads to a relative homogeneity and more competition between students – especially people who grow up in the same culture as many Asian Americans do.</p>
<p>Not that it’s necessarily a bad thing, but I would like to try my best to stand out as an individual. I didn’t mean to offend anyone with my broad generalizations, but I am trying to be as blunt as possible for the sake of the thread. I’m really interested in hearing your opinions so thanks for your responses!</p>
<p>Sorry again! Hopefully i cleared up any misunderstanding!</p>
<p>it sounds like you are clearly favoring berkeley. if you really cannot survive the cold and you want to be near the city then go there; it’s a great school! i know really smart people that are going there and will go there next year.</p>
<p>with respect to Berkeley, suggest you should verify that the presence of the city, and /or the housing situation, does not detract from the nature of college life, or the connection students have to the campus. Also that, as a poor college student, you can actually afford to do all those things that you think are so great to do there. My D2 transferred to Cornell from NYC, and prefers life in Ithaca.</p>
<p>There is an active frat presence at Cornell to be sure, but you are overestimating their importance. The fact is 2/3 of students are not in frats. After freshman year when the frosh are being wooed, if you are not in a frat they will likely play miimal to no role in your social life thereafter, which can be quite fulfilling regardless.You will be doing stuff with your friends.</p>
<p>Those links I posted are about Cornell vs Berkeley, you should read them. And the others you can easily find via search.</p>
<ol>
<li>I love California; I was once in this situation before; and I know your prospective field relatively well.</li>
<li>Wherever you are coming from, you CAN survive Ithaca’s winter. Just need proper gears.</li>
<li>Being an Asian in both school does NOT make a difference. What people really care about is whether you can do well. You would stand out if you work hard and do very well in your classes.</li>
<li>Both schools are beautiful, but different. I loooove Berkeley’s Campanile, but if you go up to our McGraw tower, you get a totally amazing view!</li>
<li>Both schools are GREAT in EECS/ECE field. Can’t go wrong choosing one over the other. However, my only concern was which school gets affected more by the budget cuts.</li>
</ol>
<p>You should go to Berkeley, you seem to be inlove with the school already, and that is the most important, especially since both are very high level.</p>
<p>One thing you might do is think back to what you were thinking when you decided to do that, and see how valid that reasoning still is, in light of what you’ve learned subsequently.</p>
![http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ithaca_Hemlock_Gorge.JPG[/url]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ithaca_Hemlock_Gorge.JPG%5B/url%5D){kind=link}
