I’m having a hard time deciding between UC Berkeley and Northwestern University. I am planning on studying engineering, specifically mechanical and am from Washington State. I really am just looking for what other people’s experience with these schools has looked like and how they feel the programs vary. I understand that UC Berkeley is “ranked” higher, however, I am not complete sure what that ranking entails. Some factors that I am considering include:
Location (Why I eliminated Cornell)
Accessibility to professors and research
Social Life (Not related to partying, but more so activities and recreational offerings on campus)
Diversity in Education/Ability to explore and meet new people out of my major (Something I like about Northwestern and why I eliminated CalTech)
Ability to supplement education with hands-on projects (I really liked the project teams at Cornell)
I would love to know if there are any neat programs that are unique to each school. For example, I am somewhat familiar with Northwestern’s Engineering First program.
Also, it could be worth noting that I was selected as a Murphy Scholar at Northwestern
Murphy Scholar is a major honor and NU is actually the school that is ranked higher overall for undergrad. And yes, NU had Engineering First.
The subject rankings tend to be pure research rankings (what the faculty have done) and not too reflective of the undergraduate student experience.
At Cal, without Regent’s, you’re more likely to be just a number.
If Cal was vastly cheaper and you are sure you want to be an engineer, then I could understand picking Cal if you are a go-getter type and can find opportunities. But if costs are about the same, I don’t see why you would pass up an Ivy-equivalent that would tend to offer better opportunities outside of engineering to their engineering students than Cal would (and where it is easier to double major as well).
Lots of special programs at NU. The areas adjacent to campuses almost couldn’t be more different. Upscale homes , restaurants & shops in Evanston. Berkeley’s streets are a magnet for all manner of folks, some with ties to the university, some not.
“But if costs are about the same, I don’t see why you would pass up an Ivy-equivalent that would tend to offer better opportunities outside of engineering to their engineering students than Cal would (and where it is easier to double major as well).”
Just to be fair to Cal; there are no Ivies (let alone NU) that are “equivalent” to UCB in engineering. The peers of Berkeley in engineering are MIT, Stanford, and Caltech.
Berkeley is the much better engineering school… northwestern is not even on the map… and no ivy for that matter.
a strong liberal arts reputation does not translate to engineering… in fact by and large most schools that have strong liberal arts (with the exception of Stanford and Berkeley) are weak in engineering.
there maybe other reasons to go to Northwestern… but engineering is not one of them compared to Berkeley
I’m not a big ranking person but Northwestern does have a very well respected engineering program – in terms of undergrad engineering Northwestern is ranked #13 (while it is below Berkeley at #3 it is still very very high – above other outstanding schools such as Johns Hopkins, Columbia) and being a Murphy Scholar is an additional plus. IMO saying Northwestern is “not on the map” for engineering is a bit disingenuous.
I know people who have gone to Northwestern engineering and they have been successful after graduation. Assuming finances are similar, I’d choose the best fit school. Personally I’d opt for Northwestern for the reasons set forth by @PurpleTitan above but go with your gut feeling.
If how accomplished faculty in your department are in their research is the most important factor for you, Berkeley is an absolute no-brainer. With exception of IEMS and Material Science, NU can’t hold ground to Berkeley in engineering research.
If you care about class sizes, interest of faculty in teaching undergraduates, opportunities for undergrads etc., the decision may not be as simple …
“I don’t see why you would pass up an Ivy-equivalent that would tend to offer better opportunities outside of engineering to their engineering students than Cal would (and where it is easier to double major as well).”
As someone else said, ivy or ivy equivalents are not where the best engineering programs are, outside of two, MIT and Stanford. There a lot of reasons to select NU over Berkeley, but a better engineering program is not one of them.
OK, there are a lot of people on here talking about the “better” engineering program, but how are you defining “better”, @theloniusmonk, @sbballer, @nollagam?
Will any of you dispute that NU would offer an engineering major more and better non-engineering opportunities (specifically in consulting and finance)? Will any of you dispute that a Murphy Scholar at NU would get more personalized attention than a non-Regent Scholar at Cal?
Better would mean stronger alumni network in engineering and computer science, esp in silicon valley but also nationally and internationally as well. More cutting edge research for potential undergrads to participate in, there are 130 EECS faculty at UCB , I think half at Northwestern, UCB have won Turing awards and are involved in many startups. And that’s just one dept, albeit probably UCB’s best. And I’ve worked with many UCB engineering grads, and they’re very good, both technically and as managers. Now of course NU is not going to have the presence out here like UCB, but I think actual experience outweighs generalizations. I run into many superb NU grads, they’re just mainly from Kellogg.
That being said, there a lot of reasons to select NU in this instance, e.g. if the OP wanted to change to non-stem major or get a minor, NU would be the choice. The campuses feel very different too, UCB is half Asian, NU is 75% white, so the demographics are starkly apparent. Smaller class sizes, NU is more greek I think.