<p>I agree with the conclusion that Berkeley is a peer school of Stanford, MIT, and Caltech in engineering, but it doesn’t make sense for you to tell others not to draw distinctions of quality among them and then go on to point out the tiniest differences in departmental quality where Berkeley is ‘ahead.’ Berkeley is not better in ME or CE (how can you even say what the teaching quality is, and further that it’s better at Berkeley?).</p>
<p>People choose Stanford over Berkeley for many reasons: better facilities (Stanford’s campus is larger and has more sq ft in STEM fields than Berkeley), better ratio of academic staff to students, more prestige, better funding for projects, etc. in addition to the many reasons related to students’ lives: better graduate housing at Stanford (more than half are guaranteed; Berkeley doesn’t guarantee any), better weather (less rain, slightly warmer), usually better scholarships and fellowships, etc.</p>
<p>^ LOL… There’s no need to <em>over</em> defend Stanford here. I have no issues with Stanford. I think it’s a fantastic school and generally superior to Berkeley as a whole and slightly superior to Berkeley for engineering. I would also personally choose Stanford over Berkeley. But that is not to say both schools aren’t peer schools for engineering. They are peer schools for engineering at both the undergrad and postgrad levels even when Berkeley loses cross admits to Stanford almost all the time.</p>
<p>A big one for undergraduates may actually be cost. Out of state students probably see full price at Berkeley, while those from non-super-wealthy families may see significant discounts (financial aid) at Stanford. And there are significant family income ranges where stated financial aid policies are likely to make Stanford less expensive even for in state students.</p>