Hi everyone, I am having a hard time deciding between Berkeley EECS an Vanderbilt.
I am aware of the pro’s and con’s of each university, and I like Vanderbilt a lot, but the one thing that throws me off is the Vanderbilt CS/Engineering rating, which is a lot lower than the Berkeley one. Is there a loss of opportunities in my field at Vandy?
My son decided Vandy over UCB CEE. We made the decision this way
This is 4 year undergrad. UCB's engineering ranking is highly based on their grad school performance. For example, Harvey Mudd is a great undergrad engineering school but much less visible without a big time grad school program.
UCB is public school with high undergrad population to fund the graduate programs. We figure TAs for first 2 years, huge classes and competing for resources is the norm at public university undergrad programs.
We figure UCB engineering would be lock and load focused on STEM degree target. My son didn't show hardcore engineering traits so far... so we opt for broader view+experience at Vandy. Rather than to compete for engineering major on day 1, we valued the time and breathing space to figure out what the target should be.
My son concluded he'd learn the same no matter where he goes for 4 year undergrad. So its really about what you gain+lose besides the basic undergraduate education material.
Vandy is well known nationally and probably positioned well pursuing grad school and getting interviews.
When we looked at Vandy engineering undergrad job placement in our Seattle region, we noticed biggest employers were Amazon and Microsoft. So Vandy engineering is definitely in the radar of big tech college recruitment.
Anyhow, very different schools and very much depends on your personality.