I was recently admitted EA to Stanford, and early to Berkeley in-state (being considered for Regents) and am trying to choose between them for EECS. My family (barely) doesn’t qualify for financial aid and my parents would be willing/able to pay full Stanford tuition, but it would create a financial burden and affect their quality of life. I have a few questions about EECS and Cal in general:
-How much do the budget cuts and large class sizes affect the quality of education? Is it difficult to get into the classes you want? Do you feel like you’re constantly fighting for your education? Do you have relationships with professors?
-Any information about the connections you make in EECS compared to a more ‘prestigious’ school like Stanford? Internship recruitment? Career prospects?
-Biggest problem about Cal? For those that turned down a private school, do you regret it? Is the higher tuition “worth it”?
-What has been your experience with undergrad research opportunities/ EECS clubs?
-Kinda random but how are women in EECS treated? I read somewhere that the ratio is about 85/15 which is pretty crappy compared to Stanford.
Thanks so much for sharing your experiences/advice! I have no clue what to do and any help would be appreciated!
Relax until you get the regents. Focus on that. No point stressing about UCB vs Stanford until you have final net numbers in your hand. You are lucky - you have a quality problem. Most kids would give their left arm to have the choice you do.
A lot of your questions above are very specific. My recommendation is to call Berkeley and try to get some of your answers. Here you will only get well intentioned but half informed answers. Having said all that:
MIT is #1, Stanford #2, UCB #3. Berkeley is about as prestigious for engineering as Stanford. I do not believe you will be sacrificing much except maybe some minor bragging rights, which wont matter in the long run.
Relax, take a deep breath and focus on your remaining school schedule and the regents interviews etc. Who knows… you might get a big regents scholarship and then it would be kind of insane not to choose UCB. In my opinion even if UCB would have cost the same as Stanford it is still close.
My D went to UCB (EECS) and my niece went to Stanford (biology) the same year. So here’s what I learned from them. Note that this is very subjective:
Tuition/yr: UCB $13K (in-state), Stanford $45K. Room and board are of course extra.
Dorm: I think Stanford is better, but I don't know much because my D shared an apartment with others and my niece stayed in dorm for all 4 years.
Administrative: being a public institute, USB is more bureaucratic, plays "by the book." Stanford provides better personal support, and being a private institute, tends to be more flexible.
Convenience (food, shopping, restaurants, transportation): UCB is better. It's also more convenient to go to SF if that's your fun thing to do.
Research opportunities: equally available. Both of my D and my niece worked as RA the summer after the first year and continued until they graduated. They both have very good relationships with the professors. If you are in to CS, one advantage of UCB is the availability of workshops and seminars offered by the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing.
Instruction quality: Stanford has an edge, but not by much. Classes at UCB tend to be larger, especially the first year. But in a lecture, 200 students in a class is just as bad or as good as 600 students in a class. At UCB, you do have to juggle with the class schedule and are always stressed out a bit at the beginning of each semester. But the higher you are, the easier it is. I don't think anyone has to delay graduation because they can not get the classes they need.
Professor accessibility: equal. At UCB, you have to take the initiative to approach the professors. Stanford offers a bit more "hand holding." If you are persistent and are willing to work hard, you should not have any problem getting help from professors at either school.
Career/intern opportunities: plenty at either school. All of my D's friends (mind you, she doesn't have many) secured either a job in the industry, or an offer from a grad school by the time they graduated.
How are women in EECS treated? Frankly, I don't know. My D talked to us about many things at UCB, but never this subject. I don't think the issue ever crossed her mind.
I personally think in terms of overall quality of student life, Stanford has an edge. But IMHO, it’s not really worth $32K/year difference.
Last note: My D turned down an admission offer to PhD program from Stanford (and from some other schools) and chose UCB.
CS has exploded in popularity at both schools. Expect CS class sizes to be large (e.g. CS 61A at Berkeley with 1,000 students, CS 106A at Stanford with 700 students). Both schools have on-line class schedules that list number of students enrolled.
Students whose families make less than $125,000 a year and have assets worth $300,000 or less,
Note the word and*. Making less than 125,000 is common but having assets worth 300,000 or less is rather rare. That means that 1) the family is extremely poor or 2) the family is a very very new immigrant without any jobs as most immigrants are only allowed entry to States with job skills and can find a high paying job easily
Case 1 is probably Questbridge applicants
Case 2 probably won’t have their children applying to top schools if they just arrived in the States due to language barriers if they are from a non english speaking country.
Now, someone may have assets of $300,000 and debt of $200,000 for a net worth of $100,000, but debt that large is usually on a house. It appears that home equity (i.e. value minus debt secured by the home) is calculated as the asset, not the value of the home (without subtracting the debt).
So it should be fairly common for households to qualify for the “assets worth $300,000 or less” threshold. Now, whether such households are common among Stanford applicants or admits is a different story.