<p>I plan on majoring in Chemical Engineering.</p>
<p>I applied as an international student to both Princeton and UC Berkeley, and was fortunately accepted to them in the major I have chosen.</p>
<p>My dilemma is this.</p>
<p>Princeton, in addition to its fame, also gave me 80% of the tuition in grant (no loans or anything), with 8.5k left in family contributions. However, Princeton is not quite known for its engineering programs.</p>
<p>Berkeley gave me approx 10k aid, except only 2.5k was scholarships and the rest was all loans. that leaves another 15k in family contributions. However, Berkeley has a proven world class engineering program.</p>
<p>i think, since berkeley's engineering is so well known, you should stick with berkeley...............unless finances is a problem for you, otherwise, go with berkeley, it's engineering program, last i heard, was better than MITs =P</p>
<p>Berkeley's Chemical Engineering program is first-rate, while Princeton Engineering is somewhat of an oxymoron. Princeton is known for Physics and Math, but its engineering programs are not thought of at all. Are you college of chem chemE or college of engineering chemE? not that it makes a difference. Either way, ChemE's here get an awesome education with opportunities to do research with the best ChemE faculty in the country. Go to Cal.</p>
<p>Yeah, but...it's friggin' Princeton. Just because engineering isn't renowned doesn't mean it's bad. I don't understand how one could be better than the other in academics. I would think the curriculum would be the same, they'd both have the same facilities, and the professors would all be top-notch.</p>
<p>that might seem like common sense, but in reality, it doesn't work that way. Most top undergrads don't even think of applying to Princeton for a PhD in Chemistry, Biology, or engineering. Princetion is 2nd rate in comparison to Stanford, MIT, Berkeley, Scripps (for chemistry/biology), etc grad programs in the above fields. The profs go where the smartest graduate students are (believe it or not, quality of grad students have the biggest role in faculty recruitment/retention). In the past five years, Harvard, MIT, Caltech, Stanford have each recruited a few of Berkeley's faculty in the above fields, but Princeton (with all its prestige and money) couldn't even steal ONE. I saw the figures in the Daily Cal a few months ago.</p>
<p>That's interesting that you would say that Princeton is a 2nd rate school in bio compared to Scripps, when I see here that according to USNews, Scripps and Princeton are both tied at 9th in the rankings for PhD bio programs. </p>
<p>I would also point out that the majority of people who come into undergrad intending to major in engineering ultimately end up majoring in something else, either because they find something else more interesting, or they can't hack engineering classes, or so forth. Suffice it to say that Berkeley has many majors where you can pass classes while doing very little work, and lots of former engineering students decide to enter those majors because they want to be able to graduate without having to study very much. </p>
<p>The point is, when you choose any school intending to be an engineer, you have to consider what you will do if for whatever reason you decide that engineering is not for you. I knew one guy who turned down Yale for Berkeley because he thought he was going to major in EECS. Now he's a sociology major. I think if he had to do it all over again, he would probably would have opted for Yale.</p>
<p>I didn't say that either, but I do think that whatever is posted on CC be factually correct. We're all entitled to our own opinions, but we're not entitled to our own facts. The fact is, the Scripps biology PhD program is not demonstrably better than Princeton's.</p>
<p>Does anyone know the graduate school acceptance rates for the two colleges? (that is, among the students who graduated from either college and applied for admission to a graduate school, what % gained admission? What are some colleges they went to?)</p>
<p>I don't have general grad-school information. But I can present to you premed information</p>
<p>In 2003, 63% of Berkeley premeds who applied to med-school got in somewhere. Hence, 37% of Berkeley premeds who applied got rejected from every med-school they applied to. The 2004 data is not available yet.</p>
<p>For example, let's take UCSF Medical. Here is a med school where you would expect that Berkeley would have strong home-field advantage
because UCSF is mandated by law to prefer California state residents, and a greater proportion of Berkeley premeds than Princeton premeds will be California state residents. Yet the fact is, in the last 5 years, the data shows that only about 8% of Berkeley applicants who apply to UCSF Med get in, as compared to 13% of Princeton applicants. The same thing is true of UCLA Med - again, UCLA has to prefer California state residents, yet in the last 5 years, only about 6% of Berkeley applicants got into UCLA Med, vs. 12% of Princeton applicants. Finally, take what is arguably the best med-school out there, Harvard. Only about 1-2% of all Berkeley applicants in the last 5 years got into Harvard Medical, vs. about 14% of Princeton applicants. That's about an order of magnitude of a difference.</p>
<p>You're deciding between Berkeley and Princeton and Princeton costs less?! Dude.....you gotta be high on crack not to know what the OBVIOUS choice is. It's like choosing between a $5,000 beat up volvo and a $1000 Beamer. Go with Princeton!</p>
<p>No, dont go for Princeton.
Princeton is NOT at all well unknown even though they have a great undergrad education. And, you'll be known as a snob.
Berkeley is much more well known in the area. You wont regret it.</p>
<p>They are both awesome schools, but if cost is an issue I would say go with the cheaper of the two, which for you would be Princeton. Do not, however, listen to kooks like collegeperson12 who are pretige whores. By the way, collegeperson, whats so obivous about choosing between a cheap-arse 1,000 dollar beamer and a 5,000 dollar volvo?</p>
<p>visiting the schools would probably be a good idea too, because the student body and atmosphere on campus could affect your "happiness" for four years</p>
<p>if money is not an issue: ucberkeley, simply because it has one of the best engineering programs in the world. i don't think you can say that about princeton's program.</p>
<p>i see that you are an international student: are you able to visit both campuses and speak to students and professors? perhaps that will help you decide.</p>
<p>Sakky The UC Medical Schools are not including in the law requiring preference for California residents. It is somewhere on their websites, they will state they don't give any preference to California residents.</p>