<p>I'm deciding between these two right now and it would be really nice to get some honest input. As far as as the overall quality and experience goes, I have no doubt UChicago would be preferable. But my intended major is CS, and that's where the major issue lies. UCB is very renowned in CS whereas UCB is not. I want to go into grad school after I'm done; any opinions?</p>
<p>Are you a CA resident? If so, I would say, go to Berkeley for the reason you mentioned. It’s a top notch school with a renown in your field, and much cheaper. So no brainer here.</p>
<p>However, if you are paying out of state (OOS) tuition, no way Berkeley is worth it over Chicago: the tuition works out to be about the same, and Chicago is a much more prestigious institution with truly world class education. You are taught by renowned professors in very small classes, NOT by TAs in a mega lecture halls. Access to faculty is terrific at U Chicago: my son is getting AMPLE air time with faculty members, and it has bee line that even as a first year two years ago, and his papers are returned by comments by the professors that are longer than his original paper (not because the work is shoddy. He got A’s). In terms of going to graduate school, I don’t think you have will disadvantaged at all because U Chicago’s CS department is not ranked as high as Berkeley’s.</p>
<p>CA’s budget problems are notorious, and it does not look like it’s going to go away any time soon. Already, the writing is on the wall that they are losing top notch faculty members to other elite schools and the overall quality of education is being impacted. Their class enrollment is a well known nightmare. You get taught by TA for the first two years in large lecture halls. I have a friend whose son is a sophomore at Berkeley, and he is very frustrated.</p>
<p>Now, if you ever change your major, that will be another problem at a large state university with maxed class sizes. Already, stories abound regarding the cases where the students were not able to graduate in 4 years not due to their laziness, but because of the course requirements that couldn’t be met due to course scheduling issues.</p>
<p>On the other hand, at U Chicago, my son has friends who changed their majors in the third year to a “popular” (meaning high demand for classes and courses), and they are having no such difficulty. </p>
<p>In fact, my general advise to anyone who is thinking about UCLA, Berkeley, UVA and U Michigan as an OOS student, is “stay away”. The tuition is almost at the level of top elite private schools, and you will get better education in private schools with small class sizes and excellent access to faculty. I am assuming that the general reputation and ranking of the schools are comparable. </p>
<p>(PS. Berkeley was my son’s safety, and he was accepted. However, the moment he got an acceptance letter from Chicago, he did not even bother to read any email/snail mail from Berkeley)</p>
<p>hyeonjlee, I would always Chicago over Berkeley OOS except in the case of Computer Science. The reputation of UCB in this field is incredible and it’s far more conveniently located to access the best jobs and research opportunities in the field. The roster of Cal grads at Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Intel, etc. probably runs in the high hundreds and is exponentially greater than Chicago’s network in the industry.</p>
<p>If Chicago is cheaper and is a better fit for the OP outside of his field of study Computer Science, then it becomes a more complicated matter. Otherwise, UCB is the way to go here.</p>
<p>The ideal scenario would be to go to UChicago for undergrad and Berkeley (or another top CS school) for grad. Most of the problems at Berkeley are going to arise with the undergrad experience, and a lot of the benefit of the renown faculty flows to grad students rather than undergrads.</p>
<p>I agree with hyeonjlee–no way would I pay OOS tuition for Berkeley these days.</p>
<p>There is something to be cautious about choosing a school primarily based on the idea of a major as a 17 or 18 year old. Many kids change their mind about their major once they go to school. So, if school A is far better option in almost every other respect than school B except for the intended major, then there is a danger to choosing school B. If the student changes his major, that becomes a pretty raw deal.</p>
<p>As for Berkeley access to Silicon Valley - U Chicago kids can get summer internship just as well in top high tech firms, and that’s what counts at that level.</p>
<p>From what I know of CS in Berkeley, it is really top notch with incredible research opportunities. I have had friends who go there tell me that EECS is one department that is not really impacted by UC budgets. The professors there have so much research funding. I just read they got 10M grant from NSF [Big</a> grant for Big Data: NSF awards $10 million to harness vast quantities of data](<a href=“http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2012/03/29/nsf-big-data-grant/]Big”>Big grant for Big Data: NSF awards $10 million to harness vast quantities of data | Berkeley News) Proximity to silicon valley is a big plus, and they have the new entreprenuership venture as well. It is definitely more compettive but that will be same in UChicago.</p>
<p>IMHO, CS department @ uchicago is somewhat underrated. Not many people know about its affiliation with either Toyota Technical institute or Argonne.</p>
<p>Here is the list of courses recommended by uchicago CS department:</p>
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</p>
<p>I don’t see how you will be at a disadvantage if you take these courses and make the most of research/internship opportunities.</p>
<p>As an example, take a look at what they offer at one of the labs for undergrads
<a href=“https://sites.google.com/site/uchicagolssg/lssg/undergrad[/url]”>https://sites.google.com/site/uchicagolssg/lssg/undergrad</a></p>
<p>If you like or don’t mind everything else - core, location, div III sports & weather then you won’t have any regrets. :)</p>