<p>Hi! I'm going to college this fall and am planning to be a CS major.
I've been accepted to Caltech, Berkeley(EECS), CMU(SCS) and currently my first choice is Caltech. Undergrad at Caltech seems great.
But I can't make up my mind since comp. sci is not the best major in Caltech. If the CS programs in Berkeley or CMU are seriously better than Caltech's, I'm willing to change.
What do you think?</p>
<ul>
<li>I'm a hardcore math/sci student</li>
<li>Decided on CS major</li>
<li>More into theory than practical; likely to do a minor in math (or double major)</li>
<li>Current field of interest is artificial intelligence (esp. machine learning) but I guess this can change</li>
<li>I want to go directly to graduate school</li>
<li>I hope to learn much from my peers; would the small class size(I heard there's less than 20 people in CS major in one year) be a problem?</li>
</ul>
<p>The EECS program at Berkeley is amazing. It is a highly-rated program and oversubscribed. But Caltech is great for undergrad in all its majors. </p>
<p>I’d say choose base on fit. Caltech is small. Berkeley is large with plenty of things to do in and around the campus. Both schools are research-based and cutthroat. </p>
<p>Personally, I would choose Berkeley’s EECS.</p>
<p>Computer Science Specialty Rankings: Artificial Intelligence
Ranked in 2008
1 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, MA
2 Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA
3 Stanford University Stanford, CA
4 University of California–Berkeley Berkeley, CA
5 University of Texas–Austin Austin, TX
University of Washington Seattle, WA
7 Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, GA
University of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign Urbana, IL
9 University of Maryland–College Park College Park, MD
10 University of Massachusetts–Amherst Amherst, MA </p>
<p>I’m not sure that this is relevant though. You haven’t even started college and your interest and focus is likely to change.<br>
You mentioned that you’re intersted in more theoretical aspects of CS. Here is the same site’s ranking for this:</p>
<p>Computer Science Specialty Rankings: Theory
Ranked in 2008
1 University of California–Berkeley Berkeley, CA
2 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, MA
3 Stanford University Stanford, CA
4 Cornell University Ithaca, NY
Princeton University Princeton, NJ
6 Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA
7 University of Washington Seattle, WA
8 Harvard University Cambridge, MA
9 Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, GA
10 University of Texas–Austin Austin, TX </p>
<p>It seems you cannot go wrong with CMU or Berkeley. For Caltech, I’d do a little digging to see if the lower ranking in CS is relevant to you. Sorry, I realize that was not much help.</p>