<p>Hi everyone,</p>
<p>I just recently got off the waitlist for the Pratt School at Duke. I was planning on attending UC Berkeley for mechanical engineering prior to finding out about my acceptance to Duke. I am still leaning towards Berkeley because of its instate cost (roughly $30,000 vs. $58,000 at Duke) and engineering prestige, but I would like to hear any reasons why I should go Duke over Berkeley. Any thoughts?</p>
<p>If you want reasons to choose Duke over Berkeley, I guess I could start with 1. smaller class sizes, 2. basically guaranteed to do research as an undergrad (90%+), 3. guaranteed to actually be able to enroll in your desired courses, 4. much higher graduation rate in four years in the engineering program than Berkeley and a lower dropout rate, 5. more intimate engineering community, 6. better connections/recruiting for engineers wanting to go into business/consulting/finance, 7. easy to study abroad, 8. flexibility in curriculum allows for a double major in Trinity (or Pratt), 9. campus is beautiful, 10. basketball.</p>
<p>Berkeley is obviously great at mech eng, but I could easily see Duke being a much better fit for some individuals. But that’s a big chunk of change that you’d be saving your parents…although maybe it doesn’t matter to them if you didn’t qualify for financial aid.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>I would recommend Duke if you prefer a more intimate learning atmosphere.</p>
<p>Nonsense. Its Berkeley in a landslide. There are only 5 “elite” engineering programs in the US (in order: Stanford, Berkeley, MIT, Caltech, University Illinois/Georgia Tech) and only really 3 super elites: Berkeley, Stanford, MIT. Duke (or Harvard for that matter) arnt in the top 20. Google, Yahoo, Facebook, Oracle, Apple, etc. all take about 12% each of their entire workforce from Berkeley and Stanford (24% total)…with MIT coming in next at about 3%. If you are interested in a tech job, you are doing yourself a disservice by going to Duke. The only reason to go to Duke (or any of the Ivy’s for that matter) is if you want a job in finance on the east coast. I work in the tech industry, and my entire family has graduated from either Berkeley, Stanford, or Harvard so it really does matter what you want as a career, which school to go to…</p>
<p>This thread is over a year old…I’m sure the OP has made his/her decision. </p>
<p>I agree Berkeley is a fantastic engineering school and in state is a good deal. I chose Duke over one of your 5 “elite” engineering schools, though. There must be some reason Pratt attracts students of (on average) higher caliber than Berkeley, Illinois, and Georgia Tech despite being “non-elite.” Berkeley clearly also benefits from its geographic location with the companies you mention (in addition to its great program). Despite being on the East Coast, Duke still sends a lot of its grads to Silicon Valley and I know plenty of people who got jobs at Google, Microsoft, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. In this ranking by the Silicon Valley business journal, Duke actually comes in 5th overall in a per capita basis (Stanford is #1, Berkeley is #10 clearly being harmed by the large size of its student body):
<a href=“http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2013/12/17/the-top-10-colleges-that-fuel-the.html?page=2”>http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2013/12/17/the-top-10-colleges-that-fuel-the.html?page=2</a></p>
<p>In any event, not suggesting in this situation, the OP should have chosen Duke; just that in certain circumstances, I could certainly see the argument, particularly since Duke has strong financial aid and Berkeley is very expensive for out of state students. </p>
<p>^the OP was an instate student. </p>
<p>^Yep, I know.</p>
<p>I know this is an aged thread, but I’ll post an additional reasons (because I hope current juniors/seniors, and their parents/advisors, may consult germane CC postings):</p>
<p>Current “prestige” is continuously debated, however, for today’s seventeen or eighteen year old potential applicant, isn’t likely “future stature” really more germane? If so, Pratt is on an exceptionally ascendent track (as is Duke, in aggregate), while the UC system – and this is not criticism of Berkeley or of its Engineering School, both of which are outstanding, but it is entirely factual – is suffering from significant financial pressures, which unquestionably will adversely impact the achievement of future, academically-relevant objectives (for example, the VERY competitive recruitment/retention of top-faculty/researchers). </p>
<p>To document, in the last years the best UCs (including Cal Berkeley) have admitted largely increased numbers of out-of-state students, principally to obtain enhanced tuition revenues to – in small part – offset declines in public funding. At the same time, Pratt’s status rapidly improves and Pratt’s/Duke’s fund raising – which obviously fuels substantially enhanced facilities, faculty, research, financial assistance, interdisciplinary work, and much more – annually creates new records (in just-concluded FY-14, for example, Duke received over $440M, another new benchmark in charitable donations).</p>
<p>I hold Berkeley in the highest esteem, but were I a teenager seeking a superb undergraduate education, I’d attempt to look a few decades into the future. After all, that’s when it will be most critical to have peerless credentials (young, distinguished alumni of either institution will have NO problem with initial career or postgraduate placement). </p>
<p>
…which includes donations to the medical school.</p>
<p><a href=“http://cae.org/images/uploads/pdf/VSE-2013-Survey-Respondents-by-State.pdf”>http://cae.org/images/uploads/pdf/VSE-2013-Survey-Respondents-by-State.pdf</a>
Berkeley raised $341M for the same period (with no medical school). For comparison, UCLA (with a medical school) raised $419M and UCSF (medical school only) raised $386M. Donations for research are vastly earmarked for medical endeavors - not undergraduate education. </p>
<p>UCs also get support from the state, which is as you mentioned, has declined over the past decade, but is still a significant revenue source that privates don’t have. California voters passed Proposition 30 back in November 2012 increasing taxes to restore some of the funding lost.</p>
<p>Berkeley is positioned to better capitalize on its reputation by attracting more out-of-state students, who do provide more tuition revenue. I feel adding more OOS students enhances the geographic diversity of the university community.</p>
<p>As for Berkeley engineering, the department continues its strength - especially in notable faculty which drives department reputation. Berkeley engineering has 94 National Academy members compared with 6 NAE members from Duke University. Duke may be on an upswing with engineering reputation, but it has a long way to go.
<a href=“http://www.nae.edu/MembersSection/Directory20412.aspx”>http://www.nae.edu/MembersSection/Directory20412.aspx</a> </p>
<p>Duke is definitely on the upswing. I’d personally pick Duke.</p>
<p>@UCBChemEGrad: A very salient factor that has not been mentioned is size/enrollment. Obviously, any financial metric – in this case, annual charitable donations – must be largely evaluated in relation to the number of students (and faculty, researchers, etc.) it serves.</p>
<p>Duke’s total student population (undergraduate, postgraduate and professional schools) approximates 14,600, while Berkeley’s approximates 36,200 (both based on Fall 2013 data). Further, in FY-14 charitable gifts to Duke were about $442M, while Berkeley’s approximated $341M (employing the figure you cite for UCB). You can do the math, however, it is clear that Duke received about $30K per student, while Berkeley’s donations approximated $9.4K per student – or about a 3.2:1 ratio favoring Duke.</p>
<p>Obviously, these are only rough analytical measures and, in some cases, details such as economies of scale may apply. But, with such a disproportionate advantage, I confidently reiterate the overriding point in my pervious post: future stature is quite dependent on finances/donations (that fund constant improvement in faculty, facilities, research, financial aid, and so forth) and Duke receives appreciably more contributions to enhance a far smaller academic/research enterprise than does Berkeley. </p>