I know these two schools are radically different; however I seem to like both schools in terms of atmosphere and people.
I’m an international student, and will very likely to go to a graduate school. From what I’ve researched and heard, Harvey Mudd is great in teaching, undergraduate research and clinic program. The only downside is it is less famous. For UCB, I already know a lot about UCB’s prestige in engineering; I just want to know whether obtaining an undergraduate research opportunity is easy for an international student in UCB. I can’t get access to the BeeHive, but from what I’ve read on many UCB’s labs websites, it seem that the research positions for undergraduate are relatively few comparing to the total number of students.
I’m interested in robotics. I’m also interested in computer science.
Berkeley for sure. Reputation actually does matter for STEM graduate school (check out the physics grad school forum) tons of examples of 4.0 from a lesser known institute getting rejected vs 3.5 from berkeley or a comparable school. Then again this is physics but its pretty analogous.
As for beehive there are actually about 300 open positions right now for mechE (just checked). It’s relatively low for L&S cause they’re noobs (not really but don’t take this joy away from me of calling non engineers noobs)
Thanks for your reply! I got accepted to College of Engineering in UCB, and engineering in Harvey Mudd. According to your experience, how many engineering students get involved in real hardcore (not fluffy) research? Do they have to compete with graduates for positions?
Harvey Mudd may not be as well known among the general population, however, from what I’ve learned and observed their reputation is very high among grad schools and employers looking for these top students. I think what you need to thing about is where do you fit in the best. UCB is a large school and HMC is a very small school (though with the Consortium it has the benefits of both a very small and medium size school). (And how important is geography to you? They are in very different parts of CA)
I can at least tell you research opportunities are out there for those who want it. If I were the professor, then why wouldn’t I want to hire these young students that I can use without having to pay and sometimes not even giving credit? Jokes aside though, there is no need to feel the pressure to get a research position because it is free labor and you are the one doing the favor for the professor. Grad school application is also surprisingly not as intense as you think because it is for folks who want it.
It is much more important to consider what topic you find interesting, and this is one of the biggest reasons that most students don’t do research at least a year or two into college since it takes time to take courses and figure out what is their interest. Any research will have somewhat tedious and laborious (and even boring) aspect to it, so the least thing you can do is join a group that you find interesting and willing to do it for free.
Most people don’t like it when things are tedious and boring, and thus don’t do research or quit after a short period of time. I’m not saying those are negative aspects, but those are the nature of most research work.
What you can do right now is browse through each professors, and each one of them should have a list of interests and researches on their homepage. Read through those, find which ones are interesting, and visit the professors and talk about them in person once school starts.
Getting a research position is honestly the easiest part of research so make sure you choose something that interests you. If nothing interesting for you appears on beehive, then it’s worth it to wait instead of forcing yourself in.