<p>I've been lucky enough to get accepted into the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke and the College of Engineering at Cal. I plan to study mechanical engineering, though I am also interested in business and I think I'll try to get an MBA at a later time. So, which one? </p>
<p>Duke
What I like: Supposedly great professors, a lot of undergraduate attention in all areas, unity/camaraderie due to basketball. </p>
<p>Worried about: Lack of prestige in engineering other than BME, perhaps not enough "toys" necessary for research in Mech E. Also, I get the feeling that it would be just like my high school: very preppy, especially with greek scene. </p>
<p>Cal
What I like: Extremely prestigious engineering and business, near San Francisco, a lot happening on campus. </p>
<p>Worried about: Very large class sizes, perhaps tough to get research opportunities and meet professors due to size of school/College of Engineering, decreased budget due to weak CA economy. Also, a school with about 85% of kids from the same state might bother me a bit. </p>
<p>Any opinion would be welcome, and please go ahead and refute anything stupid I may have said about either of those schools.</p>
<p>I used to interview a lot of people from a lot of engineering schools. I have to say those that graduated from CAL(4-year not 2-year transfer) in EE(not ME) was by far superior to any other school with exception of MIT(which I did not seem to get a lot of resumes from because they all apply to company in MA, our company has 2 main places, east coast vs west coast). The quality of the candidates with GPA about 3.7-3.8 at Cal is very consistent. However, Cal has a lot of crazy Asians(lol) so it's very competitive, ask yourself if you want to do nothing but study in college, and even then you might not come out with top grades, then go to Cal.</p>
<p>FWIW, Duke's greek scene is low-key compared to public U's. Also, Duke is only 8 miles from UNC-CH so while the area isn't Berkeley/SF, there is, relatively speaking, a lot happening.</p>
<p>Cal is far better than Duke in Engineering. So if you are serious about Engineering or want to get recruited heavily from the school of Engineering, I would go for Cal. Overall, the two schools are equal in terms of reputation, so if Engineering is not something you take very seriously, it doesn't make a difference where you go. At the end of the day, I recommend you go for fit.</p>