<p>Is Caltech really harder to get into than Stanford? I know a person who got into Caltech and was rejected by Stanford so I always assumed that it was either easier to get into Caltech or about the same as Stanford. Going into an easy major and then switching at Stanford won't help you because at Stanford you don't declare majors until your sophomore year and you are not bound to any school (ie school of engineering). If you are redoing your SAT definitely get the blue book that collegeboard sells. Its practice exams are pretty much what you get in the exam (they ae made by the same people). I think (especially if you raise your SAT score) that if you work hard on your essays you have a decent chance at Caltech and Stanford, a pretty good shot at UCB and a really good shot at CalPoly.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Is Caltech really harder to get into than Stanford? I know a person who got into Caltech and was rejected by Stanford so I always assumed that it was either easier to get into Caltech or about the same as Stanford.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>In general, Caltech is more difficult to get into than Stanford, although only slightly. I've seen many students who are accepted at Stanford but turned down at Caltech and vice versa. Stanford focuses more on well-roundedness while Caltech focuses purely on academic accomplishment. But all in all, Caltech is still slightly more selective than Stanford.</p>
<p>At may of the UCs it's difficult to switch into the school of engineering although it's easy to switch out. For the UCs, I wouldn't follow your friend's advice about going in under an easy major and then switching because you mght find yourself stuck.</p>
<p>rtkysg - Yikes, that list is a little unsettling. Only a 50/50 chance sounds horrible and makes it seem like I probably won't get into Berkeley under Engineering.</p>
<p>"Caltech
Stanford
EECS Berkeley
Harvey Mudd + Berkeley Engineering
Berkeley CS under Arts
UCSD
CalPoly"</p>
<p>CS = Computer Science, right?</p>
<p>So, what schools should I apply to and under what major (It seems that what major you choose plays a heavy role on whether you get in or not)? It seems that UC San Diego is also being recommended a lot.</p>
<p>I'm still a little confused with all of these abbreviations. What's the difference between Berkeley Engineering and EECS Berkeley? Which one is it that I want? What are my chances of getting into Berkeley under Electrical Engineering? Are the terms that you guys using the real terms that Berkeley uses (When you go to register and what not, do you choose Electrical Engineering + Computer Science?)? I'm really unfamiliar with a lot of this terminology, so if you could simplify it a bit that'd be really helpful.</p>
<p>EECS stands for Electrical Engineering Computer Science and is the most difficult major to get into Berkeley</p>
<p>I'm a little confused as you guys suddenly started factoring in EECS/EE/CS under Arts. Which one should I apply under? It seems that EECS would be the absolute best, but I doubt I can get into that, correct? Which one of these were you guys referring to when you guys were talking about Berkeley earlier? And what do you guys mean by "reach"?</p>
<p>I'm starting to think that I don't have a decent shot at Berkeley (Under EE or EECS or whatever you guys call it). I don't think knowing just the odds of getting into regular Berkeley are helpful since I'm obviously looking down the EE/CE/CS-ish pathway.</p>
<p>Pardon my wrong naming, the name of the Berkeley department I was referring to is Berkeley College of Letter and Science, not Letter and Arts. Please refer to this link to understand the difference between the CS program under EECS and L&S: <a href="http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/Peer/%5B/url%5D">http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/Peer/</a></p>
<p>'Reach' generally means that you have a shot at a school, but you shouldn't rely on it. Hence your list of schools shouldn't only comprise of 'reach' schools, but also many 'match' and 'safety' schools. As I mentioned before, you should apply to as many schools as possible. You shouldn't limit the list of schools you are applying. Also consider other good engineering schools outside California s.a. Michigan, UIUC, CMU, and the like. They are actually easier to get into than Berkeley EECS and you have a pretty decent shot at those schools.</p>
<p>Just pay the extra money and apply to UCLA, UCSD, UCSB, UCI, and UCD while you are at it. It is the same exact application as the one to UCB, literally. Only difference is you only check off UCB instead of the others. Do yourself a favor and pay an extra couple hundered and open up far more oppurtunites. By the way, have you even vistied the campus of the school you want to go to. Im choosing UCLA over UCB in a heart beat for engineering since I like the atmospher there more, not to mention they are a great engineering school as well.</p>
<p>How do I calculate my GPA for UC schools? I know that they don't count classes like PE and classes like Freshman Essentials, so would I just exclude these classes wherever appropriate and just divide by that many less classes? If I include everything:</p>
<p>Freshman:
4.3
4.3</p>
<p>Sophmore:
4.3
4.5</p>
<p>Junior:
4.3
4.5</p>
<p>Average: 4.36</p>
<p>If I exclude PE/Freshman Essentials:</p>
<p>Freshman:
4.5
4.5</p>
<p>Sophmore:
4.4
4.6</p>
<p>Junior:
4.3
4.5</p>
<p>Average: 4.46</p>
<p>I think I remember reading that for Berkeley Engineering you need something like a 4.3 at the bare minimum, with a good GPA that'll give you a shot of 4.5+. What can I do to improve my chances of getting into Berkeley Engineering? What's my weak point right now? SATs? I plan to sign up for the Fall SATs soon, so that's taken care of (Hopefully I'll do better than 2100). What else should I do?</p>
<p>The problem with other schools is that I haven't sent them my AP/SAT scores, so I don't know what to do. I start applying next month and a lot of these schools that you guys are talking about that I also check out (UCSD, UCSB, UCI, etc.) I never considered before and thus they don't have my SAT/AP scores sent to them when I took the exams.</p>
<p>check out ucla as well. You may notice I like that school a lot.</p>
<p>Best Engineering in California (no particular order):</p>
<p>Stanford
Berkeley
Cal-Tech
UCSD
UCLA
USC</p>
<p>All of these programs are amongst the best in the country. I would look at these schools if your stats are excellent. All of these schools are considered stronger than Cal Poly SLO in engineering. Probably equal or slightly less prestigious than Cal Poly SLO in engineering would be UCSB, UCI, UC Davis.</p>
<p>
[quote]
All of these schools are considered stronger than Cal Poly SLO in engineering.
[/quote]
Looks like ucchris (who really should call himself ucsdchris) is up to his usual tricks. He has this delusion that ucsd is one of the top schools in the country and so he posts lists that somehow always manage to place it there.</p>
<p>If you want to see how what a survey of deans and senior college faculty says about undergrad engineering education, take a look at the US News survey. A copy is posted at <a href="http://www.sandiego.edu/engineering/news_events/news_details/cbeng.pdf%5B/url%5D">www.sandiego.edu/engineering/news_events/news_details/cbeng.pdf</a></p>
<p>In the ranking on a 1-5 scale you can see that Stanford, Cal-tech, and Berkeley are rated 4.6 or higher. There is a significant drop-off to the rest of the schools in the list above. All the rest of the schools ucsdchris lists are in the same range with scores ranging from 3.5 to 3.7. These are still fine schools, make no mistake about that, but to try to lump ucsd in with the top 3 is a sham that ucsdchris delights in pulling.</p>
<p>I need a list of schools that I should apply to. So far, I've got the following:</p>
<p>Caltech
Stanford
UC Berkeley (EE)
Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo
(UCSD?)
(UCLA?)
(UC Davis?)</p>
<p>What I'm MOST concerned about is how important WHERE you get your degree is to your success in your career and to your employers. This is why I'm really unsure about the other schools that I've seen people mention (UCSB, UCSD, UC Davis, etc.); since I didn't see these schools anywhere high on the listing of the top engineering schools (I know that you can't always rely on these kinds of surveys/lists for everything, but still...), my brain is telling me that I'm shooting lower for my career by going to a school not particularly known for having a great engineering program.</p>
<p>I want to get my master's at a minimum, so that's why I'm factoring in graduate school right now (So I can base my decision after factoring in whether I'd have to go to a different/better school for my grad. degree, or enroll in a special under/grad program at one college, etc.).</p>
<p>My friend, who is also interested in pursuing the engineering pathway, told me that I'm being too pessimistic and that I need to go in shooting for the top. He's telling everyone that he's shooting for MIT, and his reasoning is that you need to go into this stuff with a positive attitude and you need to shoot for the best for the best results, even if you don't get in. I told him that I really doubt that either of us would get into MIT, but he just told me that I'm being pessimistic and that this is my problem (I don't think that I can get into the absolute top schools in the nation, so I don't bother to apply or "shoot" for them).</p>
<p>My friend has slightly worse grades than me and doesn't take as many AP classes as me (I believe the only AP classes he's taken are Calculus, Physics, English language, and English literature). However, he is really good at math. He got a 790 on the math portion of the SAT (but did horrible in the other 2 parts and ultimately got a lower total SAT score than me; I believe he got something like 2050) and he has already taken and passed the Calculus AB & BC exams. He's currently taking a college Calculus class at a local university (CSU Stanislaus).</p>
<p>So, what's your view here? He's telling me that I need to shoot for the gold for something like this. If I don't get into MIT, and I end up getting into some place like Berkeley like I want to, then I won't be upset, according to him (He said "You might end up finding out that you didn't get into MIT, but then you'd see that you got into Berkeley, which is something that you'd like, so everything is good." My problem is that I think that he's just fooling himself by thinking that he seriously has a shot at MIT.</p>
<hr>
<p>Okay, serious screw up: There was a college presentation thing a couple days ago at my high school and I realized that I need to take 2 different SAT II subject tests. I haven't taken any. What should I do? I REALLY screwed up here and I feel horrible (Especially since I should have taken the Bio and History ones last year since they were right around the time of the AP tests for these two subjects, so I'd already be well-prepared). This part is scaring the crap out of me. I'm assuming that since I'm shooting for engineering that I need to take the math subject test (Which I'm also afraid I might not do well on and thus Berkeley EE might not accept me), but I don't know what to take for the other one. I believe right now my weakest aspect is my poor scores regarding math (Mere 700 on the SATs, and probabl a similar score when I take the subject test; I read on the other college message board that it's REALLY hard to get into Berkeley Engineering given my profile, especially due to my low SAT scores).</p>
<p>Also, what do you guys think about the whole going to a junior college first to take care of my general education classes to save cash? During the presentation they said that a lot of people go to a local junior college to take these classes because it's a lot cheaper, and then they all transfer to whatever university they want and start immediately with classes related to their major; they also mentioned that it is easier to get into the school you want through this method (They said that transfer students have precedent over the other new, incoming freshman students). They also mentioned that when an employer sees my transcript, he/she won't see the junior college listed and will only see the university where I got my degree. This seems too good to be true and I get the feeling that it may be limiting and that it can actually make me look worse in the eyes of an employer and that they can actually see something like this.</p>
<p>Also: I'm about to sign up for the SATs but I don't know which one to take. I'm thinking I should take the SAT Subject tests (Math I) to get that out of the way , but I still need to retake my regular SATs. What should I do? Can I sign up for 2 SAT subject tests for the same day (If I can't then I'm out of luck since I need to take 3 tests - Regular SAT retake, 2 SAT Subject tests)?</p>
<p>Okay, it seems that I can sign up for up to 3 at one time. So, I'm doing "Biology E/M" and "Mathematics Level 1." Is this good?</p>
<p>Oh, and I still need clarification on this: I only sent my AP Scores to some schools before, but now I'm aware of more schools (UCSC, UCSD, etc.). WHAT SHOULD I DO? These schools have NONE of my scores. Also, since I'm signing up for my SATs RIGHT NOW, which schools should I choose to send the scores to?</p>
<p>Azure326:</p>
<p>UCB/UCLA: Slight Reach (Engineering)
UCSD: Match (Engineering)</p>
<p>"Looks like ucchris (who really should call himself ucsdchris) is up to his usual tricks. He has this delusion that ucsd is one of the top schools in the country and so he posts lists that somehow always manage to place it there.</p>
<p>If you want to see how what a survey of deans and senior college faculty says about undergrad engineering education, take a look at the US News survey. A copy is posted at <a href="http://www.sandiego.edu/engineering/...ails/cbeng.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.sandiego.edu/engineering/...ails/cbeng.pdf</a></p>
<p>In the ranking on a 1-5 scale you can see that Stanford, Cal-tech, and Berkeley are rated 4.6 or higher. There is a significant drop-off to the rest of the schools in the list above. All the rest of the schools ucsdchris lists are in the same range with scores ranging from 3.5 to 3.7. These are still fine schools, make no mistake about that, but to try to lump ucsd in with the top 3 is a sham that ucsdchris delights in pulling."</p>
<p>HAHA r u kidding me... The best way to evaluate what a school's overall engineering ranking is, to back up my claim, is to review US News' Graduate Engineering ranking. UCSD is ranked just below Berkeley and just above UCLA. if you dont believe me, just go check it out, at US News graduate engineering ranking. I believe berkeley is a top 5 engineering and ucsd comes in at number 10. u can dispute what i say all you want mikemac, but you clearly are making wild claims about engineering rankings you know nothing about. I attended ucsd for undergraduate and am attending ucla this fall. im not sure why you think i attempt to pump up ucsd. i feel ucsd comes in well ahead of other uc's such as davis and irvine, and just below schools like ucla and uc berkeley. this is its indisputable place. do you dispute this? for engineering however, berkeley is 1 in the uc system, ucsd is ranked 2, and ucla is ranked 3. again if you feel i am full of it, check out the 2007 engineering rankings in us news. im not sure why you would have a problem with what i stated, i feel it is good advice. lumping UCLA, UC Berkeley, UCSD, USC, Cal-Tech, and Stanford together as the top engineering schools in California is fact, again do you dispute this mikemac?. All are top 12 programs i believe. do you wish to dispute this. LOOK UP THE RANKINGS. Looks like mikemac is up to his old bull %$$#, posting on things he knows nothing about. Check the rankings next time before making an ass of yourself. And let me know what your problem with my posts are, as i dont think i inflate UCSD or any other UC higher than i believe it should be. furthermore, if you think that cal poly engineering stacks up to ucla ucsd and uc berkeley, your are kidding yourself. its engineering is more on the level of irvine and santa barbara and davis. that however is nothing to be ashamed of. if you want to evaluate Cal Poly's true strength, check out their schools of architecture. that is where they are truly elite. they also, of course, have a strong engineering department, but on the level of berkeley, la or sd, not a chance. Berkeley, Cal Tech and Stanford are all members the very elite engineering programs, and USC, UCSD, and UCLA are not far behind. All of these schools are ranked in the us news graduate book top 12 or so universities in engineering, so no, i do not have a problem listing schools ranked in the top 12 nationally together as the best of california. do you? this does not meen i dont believe berkeley or cal tech's engineering programs are not superior to ucla or ucsd, because i do, but all the schools i listed are elite in terms of engineering, and listing them together should not be a problem, all being top 12 or so graduate engineering departments. What did i do to **** you off mikemac, did i say something about your undergraduate school in some other post that must have ****ed you off. do you feel you need to bash on my posts which happen to be quite accurate to get back at me? haha do you feel better now making an ass of yourself?</p>
<p>New California University Engineering Rankings (according to mikemac):</p>
<p>Elite schools of engineering in California:</p>
<p>Stanford, Berkeley, Cal Tech (because they are ranked in the top 5 nationally graduate ranking) and Cal Poly SLO (I have no idea how they got in this league, but according to mikemac SLO is better than ucsd and ucla for engineering) </p>
<p>Mediocre Schools of Engineering in California:</p>
<p>USC, UCSD, UCLA (Since they are only ranked in the top 8-13 nationally graduate ranking)</p>
<p>-How ridiculous is this that someone would refer to schools with graduate engineering programs ranked this high as mediocre or second class. To give you an idea about SLO's undergraduate engineering ranking at #6 amongst non-phd granting universities, San Jose State is ranked 14th, alongside Cal Poly Pomona. Hence, you see in relation how less competitive non-phd granting universities engineering programs are in relation to phd granting universities engineering programs when schools like San Jose State and Cal Poly Pomona are top 15. Im done ragging on mikemac for now.</p>
<p>All the schools ucchris mentioned are great for engineering, including UCSD. No graduate school is going to look down upon a student for attending one of these universities. Your biggest factor condsidering the quality of these schools should be fit. For instance I would not go to Cal Tech and be at a giant **** fest, but I wouldn't get in anyways. </p>
<p>And between UCB, UCLA, and UCSD I really doubt there is a huge difference in the quality of the education, especially for undergraduate degrees even if the rankings say otherwise.</p>
<p>I got a good belly-laugh from ucsdchris's comments, and I'm sure many of you did too.</p>
<p>but seriously -- look at how what he says about my post, and then look at the ACTUAL post a little higher on the screen and decide for yourself if it bears <em>any</em> relationship to what I wrote. And if he is that careless/misleading with something you can easily check then it makes you wonder about everything else he writes, doesn't it?</p>
<p>And you really have to scratch your head about his reasoning. The OP asked about undergrad engineering education. On the one hand there is a survey of deans and senior faculty members (link given earlier) focused specifically on undegrad education. Should that be trusted? Pay no attention to that, says ucsdchris, "The best way to evaluate what a school's overall engineering ranking is, to back up my claim, is to review US News' Graduate Engineering ranking." What do those deans and faculty members known, anyway, when we've got ucsdchris to set us right!</p>