<p>I am currently a community college student in Florida and I am interested in going to Berkeley as an engineering major. I am interested in mechanical engineering, but more importantly I am interested in inventing and starting my own business. I feel like Berkeley is in the right location to make it happen and I am hoping that it's prestige will factor into the learning experience. Is it worth it? or should I just go to UF instead? Any advice would be helpful, also I am a straight A student.</p>
<p>School prestige is not as important for engineering as for such fields as investment banking. For entrepreneurs starting their own businesses, it may depend on how you fund your business. If you will not be needing outside funding at the early stage, school prestige is likely irrelevant. It may become more relevant if you have to impress outside investors (angel investors, venture capitalists, and the like).</p>
<p>Location can also matter, but that varies based on the type of business.</p>
<p>But the extra cost of out-of-state Berkeley over in-state Florida is likely to be a lot, and it may well be a better idea to take that amount of money to put into your business instead.</p>
<p>Thanks for the reply, I know all about angel investors because I used to work for one on his farm. Do you currently attend Berkeley or are you a former student? and if so, did you like the experience? UCB will likely cost me an extra 40K over a 2 year period when compared to UF, but I really want to live in that area. I care more about getting a job that I like than I do about a cheap education. Please, tell me about your college experience I want to know all of it.</p>
<p>Hello, ME student here having finished all my undergrad at Berkeley also as an OOS.</p>
<p>It sounds like you will be a transfer student if you do come to Berkeley. From experience, I have to say the first two years of education at Berkeley as an OOS is not worth it but the last two years is definitely worth considering and I recommend.</p>
<p>The first two years are learning some physics, some math up to differential equations, the required humanities courses, etc. that all engineers have to take and can be learned from almost anywhere in the nation.</p>
<p>The 3rd year is when ME students actually start to take ME classes finally the topics are specialized and become interesting.
The biggest advantage of Berkeley Mechanical Engineering is that there is a wide selection of topics to choose within ME (bioengineering, controls, design, dynamics, energy science and technology, fluids, manufacturing, materials, mechanics, MEMS, and ocean engineering) and each sub-branch has at least 3~4 professors who are experts in their field of study.</p>
<p>Since you mentioned you want to start your own business soon, I can also say that there are a number of people who are interested in that too. In fact, some of them already start their business as a student and if their business goes very well, they cancel school for that semester (or never come back?) and keep on with the venture business.
Admittedly, that school down at the other side of the Bay (some folks like to call it Stanford, but I’ll refer it as 'Furd or the farm) has more focus on inventing and starting your own business while Berkeley is all about teaching the theories to the deepest level and legitimate projects rather than teaching you how to do start-ups, but it is still a great place to be since you’ll learn everything you need as a ME student with excellent faculties and smart students.</p>
<p>Anyway, Bay Area is certainly one of the best areas to do a start-up since there are plenty of human resources with fantastic Berkeley and 'Furd education.</p>
<p>If you are very ambitious, a Berkeley degree is worth it if you are OOS. No place in the world has come close to replicating the success of Silicon Valley, and I personally don’t think any ever will.</p>
<p>Berkeley also has lots of outside-the-classroom support for budding enterpreneurs. e.g.:
[Center</a> for Entrepreneurship and Technology | Coleman Fung Institute for Engineering Leadership](<a href=“http://funginstitute.berkeley.edu/center-entrepreneurship-and-technology]Center”>http://funginstitute.berkeley.edu/center-entrepreneurship-and-technology)
[Lester</a> Center for Entrepreneurship: Education for Scalable Startups](<a href=“http://entrepreneurship.berkeley.edu/]Lester”>http://entrepreneurship.berkeley.edu/)
[SkyDeck</a> | Berkeley](<a href=“http://skydeck.berkeley.edu%5DSkyDeck”>http://skydeck.berkeley.edu)
[Startup@Berkeley[/url</a>]
[url=<a href=“http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~binnov/]Berkeley”>http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~binnov/]Berkeley</a> Innovation](<a href=“http://startup.berkeley.edu/]Startup@Berkeley[/url”>http://startup.berkeley.edu/)
[Berkeley</a> Angel Network](<a href=“http://berkeleyangelnetwork.com%5DBerkeley”>http://berkeleyangelnetwork.com)</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies everyone. I have decided that I am going to ignore the cost of college and apply to the universities that I want to go to which are UC Berkeley, Georgia Tech, and UF in that order with USF and UCF as back ups. I really hope that I can get into Berkeley, but the odds are against me. Feel free to add to this forum if you are interested.</p>
<p>This videos might be helpful:</p>
<p>[UC</a> Berkeley - Attracting Diversity in the Next Generation of Engineers - YouTube](<a href=“UC Berkeley - Attracting Diversity in the Next Generation of Engineers - YouTube”>UC Berkeley - Attracting Diversity in the Next Generation of Engineers - YouTube)</p>
<p>[Berkeley</a> Mechanical Engineering Machine Shop - YouTube](<a href=“Berkeley Mechanical Engineering Machine Shop - YouTube”>Berkeley Mechanical Engineering Machine Shop - YouTube)</p>
<p>or</p>
<p>[Berkeley</a> Engineering - YouTube](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/user/BerkeleyEngineering]Berkeley”>Berkeley Engineering - YouTube)</p>