<p>Please help. I'm trying decide between these two programs. Both are prestigious schools in great cities. Columbia costs around $30.000 a year more since I'm a CA resident. Is is worth it to go into immense debt as an undergrad?</p>
<p>berkeley engineering is far more famous prestige wise. also, if you are CA resident i see no point in spending $30000 more for less education</p>
<p>does berkeley have financial engineering? if yes, then columbia's better or berkeleys?</p>
<p>How much of a burden is 30.000$ for you? Are your parents comfortable enough that they could bear this burden?</p>
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Columbia costs around $30.000 a year more since I'm a CA resident. Is is worth it to go into immense debt as an undergrad?
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<p>Is it worth it? As a SEAS graduate (who turned down Cal because he had absolutely no interest in the school), I'm hard-pressed to believe I'll make more money over the course of my career as a SEAS grad than a Cal grad than if I had put the $120,000 in the bank and let it grow until 2045. However, the intangibles are hard to quantify and may very well be "worth it."</p>
<p>yeah, it totally depends what london4's interests are and what diversity of opportunities they're looking for, as well as social atmosphere etc. the likely answer here, though, is that Berkeley is the logical choice just on price, the difference isn't great enough unless you have very specific needs and priorities.</p>
<p>GO TO BERKELEY. It is SO much better than Columbia SEAS. I'm from CA too and I can tell you an engineering degree from Berkeley will open huge doors for you. I've heard of companies automatically hiring Berkeley engineering students just because they're from Berkeley. There is absolutely no reason to go to Columbia SEAS if you get into Cal.</p>
<p>"I've heard of companies automatically hiring Berkeley engineering students just because they're from Berkeley. "</p>
<p>The "I've heard" stories are really credible tbh. I've heard about loads of stuff, and most of it is nothing more than BS. Also, if this story of yours were true, the company can't be a high flyer. Who in the right mind would automatically hire someone just because he went to a certain school. It's absolutely absurd.</p>
<p>namayo, you have absolutely no clue...</p>
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Columbia degree can open door for Medicine ( Bioengineering)
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<p>medicine and BME arent' the same at all if that is what you are implying. </p>
<p>This would be an easy choice...go to berkeley! Unless your parents are millionaires $120k is ALOT of money, not to mention that NYC is very expensive and the costs of flying back and forth and summer housing etc etc</p>
<p>You people must be crazy. I live in the Silicon Valley and my whole family is comprised of engineers. If you want to be an engineer, GO TO BERKELEY. Berkeley is very hard to get into if you want to major in any engineering field or in Chemistry. The reputation is crazy good in the Bay Area. Getting into engineering at Berkeley, which has one of the best engineering programs in the country, is insanely better than Columbia SEAS which is something like the 30th. (I'm not sure.) My friend had to pick between Columbia SEAS and Berkeley engineering (civil engineering), and she picked Cal. She loves it there.</p>
<p>"You people must be crazy."
No we're not.</p>
<p>"Berkeley is very hard to get into if you want to major in any engineering field or in Chemistry."</p>
<p>Is there a seperate engineering school? If not, it does not take geinuis to put something other than engineering on your application.</p>
<p>Yes, there is a separate college of engineering that you apply to directly, and it takes the best and brightest. Its faculty consistently rank up there with MIT and Stanford, particularly in certain engineering fields. Based on the limited information given by the OP, I see no contest. For an engineering education at the cost of in-state tuition Berkeley can't be topped. It's probably the best value in the country.</p>
<p>What was not mentioned is whether there are any other factors under consideration. Is the core curriculum an attraction? How sure are you about engineering? How significant is the cost differential to your family?</p>
<p>I'm intrigued by the contrast between these two terrible, inaccurate posts:</p>
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GO TO BERKELEY. It is SO much better than Columbia SEAS. I'm from CA too and I can tell you an engineering degree from Berkeley will open huge doors for you. I've heard of companies automatically hiring Berkeley engineering students just because they're from Berkeley. There is absolutely no reason to go to Columbia SEAS if you get into Cal.
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Columbia is definitely better than Berkeley</p>
<p>Columbia degree can open door for Medicine ( Bioengineering), Law(Patent), I-Banking(Financial Eingineering), Consulting ( Management Engineering) and you can also earn respect as an top Ivy League graduate.</p>
<p>With Berkeley degree, you careet option is very limited only in Engineering fields, which is not that prestigious. Berkeley undergrad program is not well respected because it is too easy to get in compared to Columbia.
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<p>For what it's worth:</p>
<p>A financier and entrepreneur, whom I respect and who earned a PhD in physics at Berkeley a few years ago while working on the Human Genome project, discourages people he knows from attending Berkeley. he says that they've been resting on the laurels of the Nobel Prizes from the 50s and 60s when they were at the cutting edge of physics research, and since then it's gone downhill. Plus, Berkeley CA is a terrible place to live, although SF itself is nice.</p>
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he says that they've been resting on the laurels of the Nobel Prizes from the 50s and 60s when they were at the cutting edge of physics research, and since then it's gone downhill.
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<p>To be fair, Columbia Physics isn't what it used to be in the 50s either. Isn't Columbia less prestigious in physics than Harv, Stan, MIT, Princeton, CalTech, etc.?</p>
<p>Well depends on what you look at. You do know that Columbia had the most nobel laureates in physics past couple of years than any other schools you listed, right?</p>
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Well depends on what you look at. You do know that Columbia had the most nobel laureates in physics past couple of years than any other schools you listed, right?
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<p>Columbia has one physics Nobel in the last decade, I believe (Stomer). And Stomer's work wasn't done at Columbia and was done 25 years ago. I'm not ripping CU physics, nor am I a real physics expert, but I just don't think Columbia physics is THE best in the nation.</p>
<p>Yeah, my impression seems to be that Columbia's physics has been dropping since the peak of the Manhattan Project era. I think one of the only departments that's (still) a powerhouse is poli sci.</p>