<p>Hi all, </p>
<p>I got accepted to both Berkeley and University of Rochester ChemE programs as a junior transfer, and now I am really having a hard time figuring out where to go. I really want to go to a prestigious chemE graduate school like Berkeley, Stanford, MIT, Caltech and Princeton. I know Berkeley's ChemE ranked top 2 in the nation, but U of R has higher quality in undergraduate education. Also, in U of R, it might be fairly easy to get involved in undergrad research. If I am going to work straight out of undergrad, I would choose Berkeley. But, I am not. Is picking U of R chemE a good trade-off for getting better chance to top grad school? Btw, I am currently a ChemE major rising junior in UIUC (This is just a random background).</p>
<p>Anyone has any thought? Feel free to correct my thoughts.</p>
<p>Reason for wanting to transfer away from UIUC?</p>
<p>Net price and debt at each school (including UIUC)?</p>
<p>Note that Berkeley, and supposedly many other chemical engineering departments, prefers that undergraduates go elsewhere for PhD study.</p>
<p>[UC</a> Berkeley, Dept of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering](<a href=“http://cheme.berkeley.edu/grad_info/faq.php]UC”>http://cheme.berkeley.edu/grad_info/faq.php)</p>
<p>I am actually a California resident. </p>
<p>So, do I get better chance to top grad school if I go to U of R?</p>
<p>Could you give me some advice?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Not necessarily, since PhD program admissions tends to judge undergraduate origins, often based on previous experience with PhD students from various undergraduate origins. However, it is unlikely that any information on the preferences of undergraduate origins for any given PhD program are publicly available (other than the stated preference for different school for undergraduate and PhD study). For non-Berkeley chemical engineering PhD programs, it is more likely that Berkeley undergraduates are preferred over Rochester undergraduates than the other way around, but there is no way to be sure on that.</p>
<p>Are you transferring for financial reasons or other reasons?</p>