<p>I'm trying to choose between Yale Berkely, and UPenn. I'm accepted for Mechanical Engineering, but I may switch either to Physics or computer Science. </p>
<p>I plan to go into start-ups, or possibly industry when I graduate, and though I don't know for sure that I will always want to do hard engineering, I want to get the most rigorous instruction that I can. I know that Yale is less known for engineering, but I was extremely impressed with their facilities (and obviously their student-teacher ratio) when I toured there. </p>
<p>Does anyone have thoughts on the pros and cons of the different programs?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Net price and debt level at each?</p>
<p>Berkeley is generally considered the best of the three for engineering or CS (and the large size and proximity to Silicon Valley is in Berkeley’s favor for CS job recruiting). But if working in investment banking or consulting is of interest, Yale is probably the best for that (perhaps Penn also).</p>
<p>However, if you are unsure of major, check how easy or difficult it would be to change majors at each school (mainly based on whether there are restrictions at the destination major).</p>
<p>ucbalumnus, net price is not a huge factor for me.</p>
<p>I forgot to mention that I’m very interested in robotics at the moment, and a huge part of my attraction to UPenn is their GRASP laboratory/robotics research in general. </p>
<p>As for Yale, I’m attracted to the liberal arts available, even though that would not be my main focus.</p>
<p>Thank you so much for the input!</p>
<p>^ Penn also is very strong in liberal arts–lots of top-10 and top-20 departments. And of course, there’s also Wharton. And Penn’s One University policy strongly encourages all undergrads to take courses in more than one of the undergrad schools. So you easily could pursue an engineering degree while also taking liberal arts courses in the College, as well as business courses (entrepreneurship, management, finance, etc.) in Wharton. And if you decided to switch into liberal arts or even pursue dual degrees with the College, that’s fairly easy to do.</p>
<p>Pretty sure they all have plenty of liberal arts offerings, though you can browse catalogs and the like if you wish.</p>
<p>Penn has been doing some crazy-cool stuff with their robotics if that is one of your interests. Undergrads were prominent in the demonstrations.</p>
<p>Yale - sorry, clueless, but I would guess your analysis is about right.</p>
<p>UCB - The highest rated of the bunch, my brother and father are grads, but, I hate to say it, I would worry about sending one of my kids there. A portion of their funding is tied to the state budget. A good portion of engineering education is tied to your access to mentors. The size of lab and discussion classes is of primary concern for the next four years. A common complaint is that you spend more time with TAs than with professors. Still, overall, UCB engineering may be the best bang-for-the-buck public education available.</p>
<p>When we visited Penn, I was very impressed with their engineering school. Not so impressed with Yale’s.</p>