<p>I was wondering if I could get some input from some people here about engineering at Berkeley. </p>
<p>I'm currently deciding between CMU and UCB mostly due to the fact that I've heard Berkeley is incredibly competitive between peers and with tons of people. </p>
<p>I went to a small private high school where it was a more friendly unspoken competition where everybody still helped everybody and grades were not so much of a concern. I was hoping to go to a university that had a similar environment. </p>
<p>In case it matters, I do plan on visiting both of these schools in two weeks and I currently plan on going on to grad school.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Competitive? Not quite in spirit, but yes in terms of how well you have to do on exams to get good grades. I think the best way to describe it is that it’s hard to do well in many classes, but not impossible. If you aren’t looking for straight A’s, then assuming your training has been good, you should be fine.</p>
<p>Both have eminent faculty in computer science, though Berkeley is probably more broadly strong in engineering. The strength of faculty is important to those applying to graduate schools, as a solid letter from strong faculty means more.</p>
<p>Sounds like you want a small liberal arts college, although for engineering. Something like [The</a> Cooper Union](<a href=“http://cooper.edu/legacy/engineering/Welcome.html]The”>http://cooper.edu/legacy/engineering/Welcome.html) with small classes, personal attention and a small school feel. Caltech also might fit the bill from the standpoint of personal attention. Most engineering programs and schools are competitive, larger and not so warm and fuzzy as you are seeking. CMU is in between those first two in size, with perhaps 1300 undergrads in the CIT, their engineering college. Harvey Mudd is another closer match than CMU, MIT, Cal or Stanford, given the importance you put on small and personal.</p>
<p>The College of Engineering at Cal has about 2800 undergrad students, only roughly 2X the CMU engineering population and close to CalTech in size. Don’t judge it by the much larger size of all of Cal, which spans multiple colleges. Tons of people are on campus, but studying biology, english, archeology, music, economics . . . and most of them in the College of Letters and Sciences.</p>
<p>
I cannot speak for lower-division courses but in my upper-division EECS courses it is pretty much like that. Well, grades are of concern for almost everybody but that doesn’t keep people from helping each other. Of course there is competition, but, like you said, it is rather unspoken and people are not out to hurt each other’s grades.</p>
<p>There are always exceptions, but I had no problem forming friendly study groups in all my classes.</p>
<p>I was also worried about cal being more competitive vs. cooperative. So far, I find most people are always willing to help friends out. Whenever i have trouble on homework sets or projects, I feel comfortable just asking whoever’s next to me in class for pointers or tips. You also have to be assertive in making sure u have a good group of friends for studying and all. I also believe that when u get to the top tier schools in engineering - Cal, CMU, Stanford, Umich, Cornell - most student bodies will be roughly similar, in that they’re all composed of smart, dedicated students.</p>