Decisions, Decisions ~ UCB vs HMC

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Berkeley
1

<p>Givens:
-I'm definitely (~99%) sure I want to go into STEM, probably engineering of some sort.
-Accepted RD into both UC Berkeley (MSE) and Harvey Mudd College (unspecified major)
-At the moment, I want to go to grad school (either for an MBA or further work in STEM), preferably at UC Berkeley, and settle down in Silicon Valley. How does UCB stack up against Mudd for grad school prospects? HMC touts its figures but UCB Career Center doesn't provide much data.
-Career prospects (call me naive LOL): Probably industry (NASA? ;D) , or (less likely) college professor at a research university (I love research and teaching but the K-12 public school system really disheartens me)
-$30k/year at Berkeley; $60k/year at Mudd. No aid from either, and I don't expect to stumble upon any Nobel prizes in the next three weeks.
-Interested in humanities. Can't live without music. I currently play cello at a very high level (for a non-major, that is), and I need musical opportunities to stay sane.
-Live about an hour south of UC Berkeley.
-If I go to Cal, I will probably (>50%) do a joint major in MSE/EECS.
-If I go to Harvey Mudd College, I will probably (>50%) major in Engineering (only a general engineering degree) while trying to develop a strong CS background, just because everybody in Silicon Valley loves CS.
-Personally, I think I will enjoy any hard science major roughly equally.</p>

<p>The Question: Cal vs Mudd? I know I'm supposed to make my own decision, but I'd appreciate some thoughts on both sides of the issue. Any thoughts on the majors I mention? I hear many good things about Berkeley EECS and Berkeley Chem, and less things about Mudd's individual programs but many good things about Mudd engineering as a whole.</p>

2

<p>I know two people with undergrad degrees from Harvey Mudd, and lots of people with undergrad degrees from Cal. I’d rate the Mudd guys higher than those from Berkeley.</p>

<p>For an undergraduate degree, I’d suggest Mudd if you don’t mind the small size. On the other hand, Berkeley is probably one of the top 3 or 4 graduate engineering schools in the world.</p>

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<p>Does <a href=“https://career.berkeley.edu/Major/Major.stm[/url]”>https://career.berkeley.edu/Major/Major.stm&lt;/a&gt; provide the career information you were looking for?</p>

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<p>I’ve seen that website. It would be great if people responded to it more regularly…there were like 7 respondents under CoE MSE. Their EECS data is plentiful and impressive, I must say, but it’s probably a bit misleading (only the best outcomes would be reported anyway).</p>

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<p>$120,000 at one, and $240,000 at the other? Yikes! I hope you come from a prosperous (and generous) family.</p>

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<p>They likely report whatever responses come in. Of course, these days, CS is doing very well in general (including in other <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/internships-careers-employment/1121619-university-graduate-career-surveys-4.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/internships-careers-employment/1121619-university-graduate-career-surveys-4.html&lt;/a&gt; ; based on class sizes, it appears that most EECS majors are emphasizing CS these days). Other majors (e.g. molecular and cell biology) are not doing so well in the survey. MS&E is a relatively small major, so the survey data is sparse for that reason (EECS is the largest engineering major).</p>

<p>Take a look at the course catalogs and curricula to see how easily you can construct a four year curriculum for yourself at each school.</p>

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<p>When I visited my older brother at Harvey Mudd in the 80’s, my impressions were that they played lots of Dungeons and Dragons, and there were approximately 1.7 unicycles on campus per student. That should tell you all you need to know. ;)</p>

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<p>If cost absolutely does not matter to you, then go to Mudd. Otherwise, go to Berkeley. Mudd is a cool place, sure, but I don’t think it’s worth $30k/yr more.</p>

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<p>One of my S, friends has the exact same choice. He choose Mudd fyi. I don’t know if we had that decision what we would have thought. We didn’t apply for this exact reason, we heard finaid wasn’t good. There was no way we could come up with $50k a year, and debt load would have been nuts. Even at berkeley if I don’t get help we’re looking at $30k worth of loans and thats the parents cutting everything back.</p>

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<p>A year ago, my D was making the same choice, right down to also playing cello. She chose Cal. I fretted about huge classes and her being just a number. And then she shared this story with me:</p>

<p>The third week of class, in her 350-person freshman chemistry lecture, she raised her hand to ask a question. And the prof called on her. By name! </p>

<p>He knew her name because she had visited him at office hours. She likes to go to office hours, even if she doesn’t have specific coursework-related questions. She just likes to go talk with the profs and GSIs and learn about what they do. She has found that they are pretty much always happy to talk with her, except sometimes just before an exam there might be some other students there and she’ll have to wait until the prof is done answering their questions. Sometimes she even goes and talks to other profs in her department whom she hasn’t had for classes yet. </p>

<p>Two of the profs have offered her jobs and/or research opportunities. She is working on one this semester, and might do a second one over the summer.</p>

<p>She has found it difficult to keep up cello at Cal. Not for lack of musical opportunities, but because there are so many other worthwhile endeavors competing for her time. </p>

<p>You can make a large school small, but it is very hard to make a small school large.</p>