Is Georgia Tech's CS program on par with that of UC Berkeley EECS?

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Suburb of Seattle ā€¦ and yes, not happy with where the state is going. But thatā€™s politics again, letā€™s leave it out of this thread.

@hym626 The clubs are not off topic. They are research clubs not just robotics for kiddos, although GATech mentors, but open the posts I send and read it. According to students today, much learning happens outside the classroom and its not for high school kids open the posts and actually read it before you send capital letter insults !!

LACs send student to REUs at major universities today as LACs do not have the resources to do research work today. That may be true for English that an LAC is best but this OP wants to study mechanical engineering and computer science, so an LAC will not work for him.

In terms of cutthroatism, that is probably more related to whether you take classes with lots of pre-med students, or if you must compete to enter your major by GPA. Neither of these is true for UCB EECS or GT CS, assuming that you have direct admission to the major in each case. If you take biology major courses, you will see more pre-med students and their reputed cutthroatism.

UCB EECS is a very large major, and most of the students lean toward CS. Therefore, CS courses, even upper division ones, can be large, while upper division EE courses can be quite small. In addition, there is an L&S CS major whose students choose from the same CS courses; it is also large, despite requiring a 3.3 GPA in three lower division CS courses to declare the major (these courses do not grade on a curve, presumably to discourage cutthroat behavior).

You can check out the UCB EECS course materials here: https://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/classes-eecs.html . CS 61A, 61B, 61C, 70 are the lower division courses for EECS and L&S CS majors, 1xx are the upper division courses, and 2xx are the graduate courses.

In terms of seeking computing internships and jobs, UCBā€™s proximity to Silicon Valley employers and others in San Francisco and Oakland makes it convenient for those employers to recruit there (even a 2 hour public transportation trip is a lot less hassle than an airline flight to recruit).

Well, since the OP already got into GTech and UCB, we can assume that he/her has top notch stats. That stats will likely get him/her into top LACs with excellent CS programs, such as Harvey Mudd, Pomona, Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, etc. Look at which graduate schools their graduates end up at. And a much larger percentage of graduates from LACs go to grad school, so the culture in the LACs is more suitable for prepping for graduate studies.

@Coloradomama - no need to get ruffled. The OP is perfectly capable of learning all about the robotics programs at both schools, but he asked about the CS programs. I am very proud of the essay one of my students wrote about the GA Tech robotics clubs/teams/programs, but its is OFF TOPIC here, as were many of the other side conversations in this threadā€¦ Then again you will disagree. Its all good.

Of course, if the OP did not apply to those LACs, then they are irrelevant now.

Though it seems odd that the OP has not mentioned Texas, since even international students who graduate from a Texas high school after attending for enough time can gain Texas residency for tuition purposes ( https://admissions.utexas.edu/residency#fndtn-t143-requirements ) and Texas has a well regarded CS major.

Yep, I was wondering about Texas as well. As a UTCS alumni, I can testify that the CS program at Texas is at least on par with Georgia Tech. It has the same problems as all the other great state flagships though ā€“ huge lecture classes, graduate student TA, professor donā€™t know you, hard to get research, etc. (BTW, Austin is also the liberal town of Texas, but the Austin liberalism is far from the Seattle or SF liberalism. Oooops, no politics.)

If OP wants to stay in Texas, thereā€™s Rice and Trinity, which are smaller, more undergrad focused, and good for graduate school preparation.

Sounds like the OP has narrowed down his choice to Tech and Cal, so the rest is kinda moot.

The reason I donā€™t want to go to UT (I got in for ECE) is due to the lack of research - from what I looked online and heard from the students there, it is pretty hard to start researching early as an undergrad (as also said by bogeyorpar). That is a big negative for someone like me who wants to go to grad school. I have been to UT several times for Science Olympiad and didnā€™t find the campus appealing either.

Where else did you apply/get in?

I also got into UIUC for ECE. These are all I have decisions for.

Regarding UT Austin, you can check here: https://www.cs.utexas.edu/research/areas/artificial-intelligence how small the number of undergraduate students working on prominent research projects is.

@coolGuy2000, if undergrad research is the top criteria for you, I donā€™t think UCB and GTech will be much better than UT. They simply have too many PhD and Masters students. At large research universities, professors are not that into undergrads. When I was at UT, professors are required to teach 2 undergrad classes per year, so many professors pack 2 classes in one semester, so they can have one semester that they ā€œdonā€™t have to deal with undergradsā€ and focus on research. You will really be much better served at a LAC or an undergrad focused private.

BTW, student:faculty ratio ā€“ UCB (17:1), Texas (18:1), GTech (20:1), Washington (21:1) ā€¦ itā€™s not that much different.

Add UIUC (18:1)

Did you apply to any private or LAC?

The private schools I applied to were all reach schools (MIT/Stanford/CMU).

But from what I have read, UCB GaTech and UIUC have tons of undergrad research opportunities. In fact, their professors encourage students to indulge in undergrad research. I have even seen students there start researching as early as 1st semester. However, I have seen nothing like that at UT Austin. Now you might say such young undergrads donā€™t even have enough knowledge to do research, but well professors take them regardless. I think these are the students who are in it for the long term and professors see it as an opportunity to groom them by the time they become Juniors/Seniors.

You didnā€™t apply to Rice?