<p>I may have to chose between UC Berkeley and Cornell for undergrad engineering. To be honest, I just lloooooooveee Cornell, but just because UC Berkeley is internationally famous, I might have to go with that...</p>
<p>How famous/renown in the world is Cal comparative to Cornell anyways?</p>
<p>Internationally:</p>
<p><a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_Ranking_of_World_Universities[/url]”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_Ranking_of_World_Universities</a></p>
<p>UC Berkeley - #3
Cornell - #12</p>
<p>Probably not enough of a difference if you love Cornell not to go to Cornell</p>
<p>67% would favor Cornell over UC Berkeley</p>
<p>[The</a> New York Times > Week in Review > Image > Collegiate Matchups: Predicting Student Choices](<a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2006/09/17/weekinreview/20060917_LEONHARDT_CHART.html]The”>The New York Times > Week in Review > Image > Collegiate Matchups: Predicting Student Choices)</p>
<p>^^Are you kidding me? ASU is ranked #2 in that rankings…wow…talk about epic fail.</p>
<p>Ashwin, are you OK?</p>
<p>look again</p>
<p>Never mind…wow…I guess I was subconsciously high at the moment 
How ironic…</p>
<p>I don’t trust that cross admit data. I doubt 48% chose UVA over Duke</p>
<p>Berkeley beats cornell internationally, it is very highly regarded in India and China, they probably see it on par with HYPSM</p>
<p>Besides international rep, i would still choose berkeley, engineers get job offers from silicon valley pretty quickly because its close by, and berkeley is consistently ranked in the top 1/2 for most disciplines in engineering on USNWR…you also have awesome research opportunities with the lawrence lab</p>
<p>berkeley also has better weather and less suicides</p>
<p>cornell is indeed an excellent ivy league school, but doesn’t even come close to berkeley’s international reputation</p>
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<p>As far as the research coming out of the schools, Berkeley is known more in a majority of technical fields, including mathematics and engineering overall. Berkeley’s graduate programs and faculty are on average quite consistently at the very top of the list. </p>
<p>Cornell’s undergraduate population is on average stronger because of the Ivy status attraction among U.S. undergrads, although the stronger majors at Berkeley would remind one of the stronger students at most elite schools. Both are competitive schools once you get in. Berkeley has budget issues in several departments, but this does not seem to affect, for instance, engineers and mathematicians; perhaps several others are unaffected.</p>
<p>It really depends how much international fame means to you. I think both are internationally known enough that you should go to the school that makes you feel best about the environment, and no I’m not one of those people who routinely chants that. If you really like certain fields that Berkeley is strong at, it is worth giving up your first choice of environment for what nevertheless is a school with very friendly students, beautiful CA weather, and internationally acclaimed departments.</p>
<p>For a large group of students, the fact that Cornell is an Ivy plus the fact it attracts certain strong undergraduates just due to that status would move them in that direction. And many would make the argument that it doesn’t matter what the faculty are like exactly, because you’re not a grad student. But they’re wrong in general!! Depending on if you want to pursue graduate studies in the future, having access to a broadly strong department can be inspiring and do wonders. It depends on the individual.</p>
<p>overall Cornell may have a stronger undergraduate population, but berkeley has better engineers, their EECS engineers are probably on par with MIT</p>
<p>Berkeley Engineering is world-class and as an overall department, Stanford and MIT are the two other names that are comparable. Caltech’s just as great too. But, that is a poor reason to choose Berkeley especially when you say
The Berkeley name (especially relative to Cornell’s) will not make you a happier person and it sounds like you’ve already made your decision. Go to Cornell.</p>
<p>^ what bsd said.</p>
<p>Seems like you have already decided. Go to Cornell.</p>
<p>enjoy your time at Cornell, you’ve already made your decision. your love already has more than 5 “o’s”. we really can’t tell you what you should want.</p>
<p>But if we could. You should want Berkeley.</p>
<p>Both are great schools with completely different cultures.</p>
<p>Can you stand the isolation of a long, cold winter? I know of three students who transferred from Cornell–all hated the geography and the lack of social life (their idea of a social life).</p>
<p>The weather is different at both schools, and the contexts surrounding both schools are so different. It is like asking CC contributors if you should have filet mignon or rack of lamb in a garlic, honey, Rosemary, olive oil marinade (can you tell I’m hungry). Only you can tell what your “taste” preferences are. But make no mistake, the schools are not interchangeable re: the experience at each.</p>
<p>Hey, these were my top two choices back in 2006. I ended up going to Cornell, mostly because I’m Asian and from CA, and I wanted to go somewhere different, live on the east coast, experience the seasons, meet different people. It’s a beautiful school and winters aren’t too bad. For personal reasons, I left after two years, took a break, and am now trying to transfer to UC Berkeley… but don’t let that discourage you. I left because it’s a large school and it’s easy to get lost in the shuffle if you don’t take care of yourself (e.g. professors don’t say anything if you skip class, administration staff make you go through big long bureaucratic procedures when you try to do anything, nobody gives a **** about your well-being or helping you succeed). If you can take care of yourself and be responsible, you won’t run into that problem, though.</p>
<p>Melodie - what you said about Cornell is at least as true of Cal - “it’s a large school and it’s easy to get lost in the shuffle if you don’t take care of yourself (e.g. professors don’t say anything if you skip class, administration staff make you go through big long bureaucratic procedures when you try to do anything, nobody gives a **** about your well-being or helping you succeed”</p>
<p>Handholding and easy procedures come from LACs and a few of the Ivy schools, but Cal is certainly a big school too.</p>
<p>This topic seems to come up a lot, you might search for past threads, such as this one
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/cornell-university/845741-berkeley-vs-duke-vs-cornell-vs-cmu-electrical-computer-engineering-2.html?[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/cornell-university/845741-berkeley-vs-duke-vs-cornell-vs-cmu-electrical-computer-engineering-2.html?</a></p>
<p>I was facing the same decision back in 2007, but I have completely different academic interests. I went with UC Berkeley and have never looked back. I really like it here, I love the Bay Area and San Francisco, and I think I would have felt pretty out of my element in Ithaca.
If you like Berkeley and it’s better for engineering, I think you should think about choosing it, but at the same time, they’re both good schools, and you’re better off being happy than being at a slightly higher ranked school. They’re also both huge, as Melodie was saying, and you won’t have anybody on your back to make sure you’re going to class and doing your work, so you have to make sure to keep yourself motivated.</p>
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<p>It is true that Cal is famous world-wide. It’s one of those very few schools around the world that would “wow” people may it be an ordinary guy in the street, an academician, a top employer or a high political leader. As a whole, it’s hard to find distinction in prestige between Princeton and Berkeley or Stanford and Berkeley or MIT and Berkeley or Caltech and Berkeley. Based on my observation, the only schools that are more famous than Berkeley are Harvard and Oxford. </p>
<p>Having said that, Cornell is also very-well regarded internationally. Though I don’t think that the gap between Berkeley and Cornell in prestige isn’t that wide, as Cornell is also considered a top 15 school globally.</p>
<p>When I was in HS, I really thought that Berkeley and Stanford are an Ivy school. :D</p>