<p>Depending on how much you have to pay for Columbia, I would actually seriously consider it. UCSD isn’t known for engineering either, besides maybe BME. Berkeley is good for engineering…if you’re a grad student. The undergrad class sizes have gotten the point of ridiculous, with class sizes of 600-700 not uncommon. Its losing its prestige and there are plenty of review on CC on why NOT to go there for undergrad. Columbia SEAS is one of the better SEAS programs in the ivy league, and depending its cost, may be worth it, seeing the amount of connections and opportunities in NYC. I would look into it more.</p>
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<p>That is likely a feature of most research universities; there is likely little practical difference between a class of 100 and 700*. Small class sizes at the lower division level are typically found at LACs, schools like CSUs, and community colleges.</p>
<p>*The 700 seat auditorium at Berkeley is not used for typical engineering major courses. However, general chemistry for non-chemistry/chemE majors has 1500 students broken into three 500 seat lectures to accommodate all of the premeds, biology majors, and non-chemE engineering majors. Columbia’s equivalent appears to have about 350 to 600 students broken into two or three 150 to 240 seat lectures.</p>