Penn VIPER dual degree vs. UC Berkeley EECS

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Berkeley
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<p>Hi guys I'm currently choosing between these two colleges and their respective programs. I really don't know where to go at this point since both programs are really attractive. One main deterring factor is that Penn is not known for it's engineering as much as Berkeley, but I feel that Penn will open me up to a lot of opportunities in the energy research field. Plus, high professor interaction and the lack of a cutthroat nature are two really compelling factors. Moreover, I loved being on the Penn campus and I felt like home there.</p>

<p>However, Berkeley is the better engineering school and is notorious for EECS. Due to it's location in the Silicon Valley, I know that job opportunities are really high with this degree, but I am worried about the level of competition, and I know that VIPER is the better program for me to get into a good grad school. The lower GPA at Berkeley is a huge deterring factor, and I don't want to get screwed for grad school. Also, I didn't like the Berkeley campus as much but I am definitely a more adjusting person and I can convince myself to like Berkeley if I end up here.</p>

<p>If money is not an issue, then which would be the better program for me? Also, I am flexible with jobs, and I am perfectly okay with not working a completely technical job. Thanks for the help.</p>

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<p>Berkeley does have an [energy</a> engineering major](<a href=“http://coe.berkeley.edu/students/guide/departments/engineering-science/energy-engineering.html]energy”>http://coe.berkeley.edu/students/guide/departments/engineering-science/energy-engineering.html). However, you would have to apply to change into it.</p>

<p>What type of “grad school” are you interested in?</p>

<p>Cutthroat nature likely depends more on your major. Students chasing GPA for medical, law, or business school may have more incentive to be cutthroat.</p>

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<p>I am planning on doing an Masters in EE @ucbalumnus so schools like Stanford or MIT or even out of the country like Cambridge appeal to me.</p>

<p>At this point I am actually very happy with my major at Berkeley (EECS is very well renowned). However, Penn’s dual degree program is also very appealing. Moreover, it is not an energy engineering major; I still have to do an engineering major and a science major at Penn, but the program is focused around energy research.</p>

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<p>You may want to go through degree requirements and course catalogs to see what allows you to choose the best fit selection of courses for you. But it is kind of late in the game to be doing this, since the deadline to decide is soon.</p>

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<p>Go to Penn… Berkeley EECS will kill you.</p>

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<p>actually Penn allowed me to postpone my SIR date and I have until May 5 to make a final reply. I’m doing a LOT of extra research to make sure I get the right info.
@BearFacts are you a current EECS student or just a Cal student? If you are an EECS student then what makes the course so ridiculously hard?</p>

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<p>I’m not sure why people think that Berkeley EECS is necessarily that much harder than other engineering majors.</p>

<p>Berkeley EECS is actually relatively flexible in the upper division, since upper division EE and CS courses are not specified other than needing to take a specified number of credit units of them. In addition, there is actually free elective space in the curriculum, even for a student with no AP/IB/A-level/college credit going in.</p>

<p>Penn’s VIPER dual degree requires 46 credit units, in contrast to 32 to 36 for liberal arts majors and 40 for engineering majors (at Penn, most typical semester courses are 1.0 credit unit, with a few 0.5 or 1.5 credit unit courses). So the schedule in the VIPER program will be quite full. The sample curricula listed in the back of <a href=“https://www.viper.upenn.edu/sites/viper.sas.upenn.edu/files/VIPER_Curriculum_Information_2013.pdf”>https://www.viper.upenn.edu/sites/viper.sas.upenn.edu/files/VIPER_Curriculum_Information_2013.pdf&lt;/a&gt; indicate a rather intense workload.</p>

<p>In theory, you could build a similar double degree at Berkeley or other schools (although without the special VIPER seminars), with a similarly intense workload.</p>

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<p>^^i understand the courseload at Penn is really intense. However, I know that at Berkeley the average GPA of EECS students is rather low, and I’ll be competing against a lot more students in classes. I don’t know if I’ll be able to stand out that much in Berkeley as I would at Penn. </p>

<p>To be quite honest, the only two reasons I’m still considering Berkeley is because Penn’s engineering curriculum is not as strong as Berkeley’s and also because of Berkeley’s location in the Silicon Valley (my parents want me to find a job here, not in the East Coast).</p>

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<p>I was in a very similar position as you a few days ago (although it was Cal CS vs Brown CS and had nothing to do with energy engineering) and I ended up choosing Cal - I ALSO considered Cal the better choice simply because it is so close to Silicon Valley and has the right environment for CS majors (hackathons and other fun stuff), whereas Brown (or any other ivy for that matter) won’t give you the same environment in my opinion. And I was also apprehensive because there wouldn’t be nearly as much professor-student interaction as at such a smaller school.</p>

<p>That being said, if you really want to get into the software industry and development etc, I think Cal would definitely be the way to go. Judging from your posts on this thread however, it sounds like you’re really more interested in Energy Engineering and the program Penn offers than CS, and if that’s what your interests are centered around (as opposed to primarily CS), I think you should go there - especially since you will get a more intimate experience. If you can manage a big school and really want to do EECS, however, I’d say go to Cal. But since you have phrased some of your sentences like this:

</p>

<p>It sounds like you’re in it for the EECS prestige, whereas you genuinely sound much more enthusiastic about energy research (I may be wrong). What I’m saying is, decide based on your interests. Cal if you really like CS (I think EECS would be very tough if you don’t enjoy it) and Penn if you really want to do serious Energy research (according to a friend at Berkeley, undergrads aren’t able to contribute nearly as much as grad students even if they are able to get research positions).</p>

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<p>is there a lot of opportunities to do research at Berkeley?</p>

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<p>Ah, sorry for not being able to add much, but after you have decided, let me us know what you went with! In a similar boat.</p>

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<p>^what’s your scenario @shishand80 ?</p>

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<p>@nitinm sorry for the late response, i have been having a dilemma between eecs and cs alone, given i can only apply to one of the departments, i have to choose between these two and i hear eecs is very hard at cal… anyhow what did you pick?</p>

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<p>

EECS and CS are a part of the same department. But yeah, you can only apply to one major.</p>

<p>I would say decide based on:

  1. If you want an ABET-accredited degree (not useful in the software industry / if you get into development). If you do, then EECS.
  2. If you want to take a lot of EE classes / want to focus on EE rather than CS. - then EECS
  3. If you want to double major in another subject (eg: Math/Cog Sci/Physics/Stat/Econ etc) - then CS</p>

<p>Here, take a look at: <a href=“http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/csugrad/”>http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/csugrad/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Particularly,</p>

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