GT vs Berkeley for Industrial Engineering

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>Hello, </p>

<p>Can somebody please help me make a decision, just in case lightning strikes and I get accepted to both of these schools. Im trying to find out what school will be a better choice to pursue an IE degree. </p>

<p>Industrial Engineering rankings:
Georgia Tech #1
Berkeley #5</p>

<p>Public school ranking:
Berkeley #1
Georgia Tech #7</p>

<p>In my case, I would have to move out if I was to attend one of these schools even though I live in California. I'm also aware that I will be paying about 24K for GT since I'm OOS and only around 9K for Berkeley.</p>

<p>I would really appreciate if somebody can give some feedback or comment about how the IE programs differ at these schools or anything that can help me. Thanks.</p>

2

<p>My honest opinion is I wouldn't pay twice as much (after you factor in housing and stuff) to go to a similarly ranked school.</p>

<p>As an aside, my roommate went to Cal and is now here for ISyE for grad, so if you were looking to get an MS that's one possibility.</p>

3

<p>If you get into Berkeley, go there. GT might be ranked #1 and our program is definitely VERY good, but it's really not worth all the money unless you get a great scholarship.</p>

4

<p>I too would take Berkeley. I don't think that such a relatively small difference in rankings is worth the extra money, particularly when you might end up switching majors anyway (or completing the major but just not taking a job in that major).</p>

5

<p>If you feel you fit into both schools equally well and they both wind up being about the same amount of money (if GT were to give you aid/grants), Berkeley might still be nice if you want to stay somewhat near home and don't want to have to drop $500 to fly cross-country for each break.</p>

6

<p>UC Berkeley</p>

7

<p>Isn't Berkeley's major capped? If not then go to Berkeley ASAP.</p>

8

<p>Well, yes, all engineering majors at Berkeley are capped. But if you get admitted to the major, then you're fine (as long as you don't flunk out, obviously). </p>

<p>Where the cap plays a role is that you may not even get admitted to the major, in which case you won't even get admitted to Berkeley completely, because as a high school senior, you're allowed only one shot for admission. So either you're in all the way, or you're not in at all.</p>

9

<p>i would pay more to goto Berkeley. Stronger engineering school, and overall rep.</p>

10

<p>I'm transferring from a community college so I don't think I'll recieve much financial aid for out of state schools. I currently have a 3.65 GPA. I'm done with everything (math, chem, English, Engineering courses, GE's) except one physics class which I'm currently taking. What do you guys think?</p>

11

<p>Honestly, Berkeley's instate for you...I would go there. I'm from CA as well, but got rejected from Berkeley. I would have gone there over Tech if I had gotten accepted.</p>

12

<p>Thanks for the good advice. It obviously looks like Berkeley is a better choice for Industrial Engineering, hands down. Hopefully Berkeley returns good news. Be good people and pray for me.</p>

13

<p>go to UC-Berkeley since you are in-state, the difference between #1 and #5 isn't that great!</p>

14

<p>Berkeley is not for all people. If you visit your gut instinct revolts, go to gt. Otherwise, Berkeley is the winner because it has better nonengineering classes than tech and honestly, when u get out of college, california's job market is so much more promising that GT's, although both programs have good job prospects.</p>

15

<p>What do you mean by "Berkeley is not for all People"? How does one find out if Berkeley or GT is for them? I'm too far from both to visit them.</p>

16

<p>Berkeley is a very large school and it is easy to end up feeling like just a number. It is also easy to fall through the cracks, and there are numerous silly rules that detract from the student experience. One rule that I especially despise is that, starting from day one, the engineering students are locked into specific engineering majors with only limited opportunities to switch. I'm not just talking about being locked into the College of Engineering, I am talking about being locked into a specific engineering major. For example, if you come into Berkeley as an IE (actually called IEOR) major at Berkeley and then find out later that you are actually more interested in, say, EECS, you have to apply to switch engineering majors, and approval is far from automatic. You may find that you are denied, in which case you're stuck in a major that you no longer want. {Seriously, most high school seniors don't even really know whether they want to be engineers at all, and they certainly don't know what kind of engineer they want to be, yet Berkeley forces you to declare a specific engineering major right from the start.} </p>

<p>In fairness, I know less about Georgia Tech and that school may also have its own ridiculous rules.</p>

17

<p>I'm transferring from a community college and I don't think changing majors will be an issue. I also heard that the IEOR department at Berkeley is small so I'm guessing the upper division courses, which will be all I need, have less students, hopefully that will avoid me from feeling like a number. Is this right?</p>

<p>I think the Industrial and Systems Engineering major at GT has more students, but I don't know if students feel like numbers. Anybody know? </p>

<p>Can somebody comment more about Berkeley's IEOR or GT's ISyE major/department/instructors/students/???? </p>

<p>Thanks</p>

18

<p>@Sakky: I didn't know Berkeley had such strict major restrictions. Wow. At GT, you can switch your major absolutely "free" 2 times I think until you get a certain amount of credits; I think it's when you officially become a junior. They're much more lenient over here. In fact, when you apply as a freshman, they don't even consider what major you're applying under (different for transfer students).</p>

19

<p>Hi Zac,</p>

<p>I am a second year IEOR major at UCB and am involved in the school's Institute of Industrial Engineers chapter. </p>

<p>Strictly speaking, Georgia Tech would be better to pursue an IE degree in. Their IE department is much larger, richer, and correspondingly, well connected. But I think your question is a little to narrow for someone just entering college. A lot of my class/schoolmates chose their major without a thorough understanding of what the major entailed. Many are still in that major, some because they enjoy it and most because they are already in it.</p>

<p>To be sure of what you want to do, you need to research (online and through projects), talk to students and professionals to learn about the actual experience, do internships/jobs/job shadowing, and take classes. </p>

<p>My point is, if you limit yourself to one major early on, then you may lose opportunities to let new interests grow in the future. Berkeley would be the better choice in this respect. Aside from the fact that pretty much all the engineering departments are highly ranked (Bioengineering is like #13 or something) and offer promising academic pathways, Berkeley offers a large variety of options outside of engineering. The Haas School of Business is very good, as well as political science and other areas of study. If you do end up doing IE/IEOR, Berkeley is still a better bed (I think) since many IEOR majors go into various industries, often consulting/business. Berkeley provides more resources for those college students as the students are also able to utilize resources from Haas and other departments.</p>

<p>I agree with the others though, the significant difference in financial packages makes a big difference (unless huge sums of money don't make a dent in your wallet). Whether GT is somehow better or not, any potential superiority is not worth the amount of money you have to spend. </p>

<p>Actually, I had similar pros and cons in my weighing of colleges. I was deciding between Johns Hopkins and UCB. Johns Hopkins was over 3 times more expensive, but my parents wanted me to go there and said money was not an issue. I didn't choose UCB because it was cheaper, but I'm really glad I ended up going to the less expensive school. I didn't get involved with financial issues back then, but now I have slightly better sense of money...that amount of money was substantial. Another reason I decided not to go to Johns Hopkins was because of the lack of options in terms of majors. Their prominence in bioengineering was very alluring, but I knew that I probably wasn't going to do it, in which case- why would I go there? </p>

<p>Nevertheless, Berkeley's IE department is very good...just a lot lot smaller and um, not too wealthy. Sakky, I've never heard of the engineering majors being capped (cept for maybe EECS). I know some people apply to easier majors and try to transfer in later, in fear of getting rejected and not being able to go to UCB at all, but I haven't heard of there being size limits on most engineering majors.</p>

20

<p>
[quote]
Sakky, I've never heard of the engineering majors being capped (cept for maybe EECS). I know some people apply to easier majors and try to transfer in later, in fear of getting rejected and not being able to go to UCB at all, but I haven't heard of there being size limits on most engineering majors

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Go ahead and ask them, if you don't believe me. All majors in the CoE have been impacted for decades now, such that your ability to switch majors, even from one engineering field to another, are restricted. Sad but true.</p>