I got in both Cornell and UC Berkeley engineering and need some help on choosing where to go. I am international student, and don’t receive any financial aids from both schools.
UC Berkeley seems to be at a better location: nicer weather, close to a city (I have lived my entire life in cities like Seoul and NYC), and near Sillicon Valley. Also it seems to have slightly better engineering programs than Cornell.
However, Cornell could be more prestigious being an ivy league school, and because it is private, it could provide more personalized attention to its students. I have also been selected for Hunter r. Rawlings iii presidential research scholar at Cornell. However, I am unaware of its significanfe and whether it should outweigh all the benefits of being a Berekely student.
Would this research scholar be useful after graduation, for finding an internship or getting into a graduate school?
Any comments would be appreciated.
I don’t think you should base your decision on prestige. It might sound nice to tell the average person that you go to an ivy, but beyond that employers won’t care whether you went to Berkeley or Cornell. Don’t go to a school for prestige and end up hating it because you ignored other aspects of the school.
I suggest you visit each school and see which one is the better fit for you. At the end of the day, both Cornell and Berkeley have fantastic engineering programs
Cornell would provide a lot more hands on attention; has a much smaller class
The thing I would say is that Berkeley is as much prestigious as Cornell. Maybe rankings do not reflect the exact placement of schools on the lists but it can give you an idea. And Berkeley is always a top 5 school in engineering while Cornell is placed around 15-20s. The most important thing should be your education and when it comes to engineering none of the ivy league schools in my opinion are better than Berkeley. At the end it is your decision to make, but I would choose Berkeley as I also got accepted recently. I am an international stundent like you and I would prefer to look over the Golden Gate Bridge rather than jumping from waterfalls during the summer.