<p>Berkeley does have more engineering profs in the National Academy of Engineering…a prestigious club based on research accomplishments. No indication of how well they teach. UT has a good amount of NAE members as well. </p>
<p>Look, the price difference isn’t worth it. Go to UT and don’t fret about it.</p>
<p>UCB is as big a booster of Cal as there is on these boards. If he tells you to go to Texas, believe me it’s good advice!</p>
<p>UCBChemEGrad: thanks for that forceful statement , truly appreciated</p>
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<p>Probably some of the smaller ones recruit only locally (Berkeley, Stanford, San Jose State, UC Santa Cruz) because they don’t have enough people to travel everywhere to recruit.</p>
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</p>
<p>Big companies (like GAFAM) recruit more widely because they need more employees and have the resources to go everywhere. Unlike investment banking and management consulting, which are very “elite school” in terms of recruiting, the best known companies in the computer industry tend to have the widest recruiting.</p>
<p>If you want to know about class sizes, you can try looking in each school’s on-line schedules.</p>
<p>But the differences between the two schools (which are broadly similar in many ways, so it is not like you are looking at huge fit differences) are not worth $220,000.</p>
<p>GAFAM: google apple facebook A? microsoft</p>
<p>what can i strive to do extra in the 4 years i might be at UT A, to make up for what i might have lost by not choosing UCB?</p>
<p>also this thread is telling me that UCB does/might have a wow factor:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-berkeley/1483033-does-berkeley-degree-have-wow-factor-hpysm-america.html?highlight=wow+factor[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-berkeley/1483033-does-berkeley-degree-have-wow-factor-hpysm-america.html?highlight=wow+factor</a></p>
<p>
But UT offers a lot more. It has a top ranked engineering school (10th) and EE&CS department (8th). And Austin is the Silicon Valley of the South … and the Live Music Capital of the World.</p>
<p>Btw, UT has 53 NAE members. While not as many as MIT, Stanford and Berkeley, UT has twice as many as traditional engineering powerhouses like Cornell (25), Illinois or Michigan.</p>
<p>i took rice off the list because it does not figure very high on EE and CS rankings. interesting to note that the cost of attendance at rice is about 45k, which is less than UCBerkeley’s 55k. who would have thought that!!!</p>
<p>incidentally i was rejected at Stanford, CMU, MIT, but am on the Princeton waitlist, which will probably not materialize</p>
<p>the other admissions i have are UCLA (full cost) Texas A&M (full cost) and UC sandeigo (full cost). i took these off the list as well</p>
<p>got it ! gang of five: GAFAM: google apple facebook amazon and microsoft</p>
<p>“incidentally i was rejected at Stanford, CMU, MIT, but am on the Princeton waitlist, which will probably not materialize.”</p>
<p>I still say Texas with zero tuition!</p>
<p>Thanks to everyone!</p>
<p>I have not heard from anyone about the general caliber of students in class , and that sort of difference between the two schools. Is it possible that I would meet a much higher caliber of students at UCB than at UT austin? and that the class discussion would be at a different level at Cal? I don’t know how to research this. Also, in answering, please keep in mind that the comparisin is between ECE Hons at UTA and regular EE&CS (non-honors) at UCB</p>
<p>UT Austin does have an auto admit policy for the top 10% of all public schools in the state.</p>
<p>UT Austin can set a smaller percentage threshold. It is top 8% for fall 2013 admission:
[Automatic</a> Admission | Be a Longhorn](<a href=“http://bealonghorn.utexas.edu/freshmen/after-you-apply/automatic-admission]Automatic”>http://bealonghorn.utexas.edu/freshmen/after-you-apply/automatic-admission)</p>
<p>But also realize that UT Austin engineering may be more selective, and top 8% applicants are not necessarily admitted to the engineering division.</p>
<p>Berkeley is smaller but in a larger population state, so the “low end” of student abilities and motivations is likely to be slightly higher than that at UT Austin. But the difference is unlikely to be significant enough to worry about (and certainly not worth anywhere near $220,000), as each school will get lots of in-state top students (who did not win the super-selective school lottery) if that is what you are looking for.</p>
<p>“i took rice off the list because it does not figure very high on EE and CS rankings. interesting to note that the cost of attendance at rice is about 45k, which is less than UCBerkeley’s 55k”</p>
<p>This is a mistake to rely solely on rankings in EE and CS, which are more applicable to graduate programs and NOT the calibre of undergraduate students. </p>
<p>If you want top caliber students take Rice over UT and UCB. As a Texan, OP should visit Rice.</p>
<p>I’d still take a full ride at UT over 45k a year at Rice.</p>
<p>As Berkeley Alum has said, 220k is just too much debt. Even with a 100k/year salary coming out of undergrad, it will be difficult to justify spending that much money. If you save a fairly substantial 40k a year, it will take 6 years to pay off the debt.</p>
<p>There are some exceptions, however</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Your family is wealthy, and you have a “If I ani’t first, I’m last” attitude. Berkeley EECS is, after all, the best of the best. </p></li>
<li><p>You know you are super smart. You have taken tough college classes and gotten A’s easily. The value of a Berkeley degree increases greatly when you also have a very high GPA, because the tippy-top companies want to see that you went to a premier university AND got 3.8+. McKinsey, for example, won’t even consider someone who didn’t go to the very top schools. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>In other words, a 3.8GPA Berkeley EECS degree is almost certainly worth an extra 220k over a 3.8 UTA degree.</p>
<p>*
Originally Posted by sanchanim
could get a so much of a better education at UCBerkeley that my enhanced earning potential would make up the difference?
*</p>
<p>Enhanced earning potential? You won’t have an “advanced earning potential” with a Cal degree over a UT degree. not at all. The issue isn’t that the difference isn’t worth $200k, the issue is that there won’t be a difference at all.</p>
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<p>Yet another bubbly gem! Do you have any sources for the above statement, or is it the usual figment of your vivid imagination.</p>
<p>Sigh</p>
<p>a family friend’s son was hired by mckinsey after UT A’s petroleum engineering undergrad degree</p>
<p>hey, i’m in the same boat you are, except my dilemma is either business honors at UT vs. Berkeley for undergraduate. I think that there are a few things to consider when you make your decision (if you want, you can PM me and add me on Facebook or something - if you go to UT we can be friends! haha)</p>
<p>so, here’s why I’m going to probably choose UT honors</p>
<p>1) attention - not that many kids are honors at UT - out of the thousands of undergrads, only about a few hundred or so are honors. Berkeley, on the other hand, has a ton of people vying for the top spots and all the attention. From what I have read, UT gives you select attention and access to high level professors in the honors undergraduate programs that isn’t really available much elsewhere.</p>
<p>2) Cost - even if you don’t have a full ride (which you do), living in-state makes UT SO CHEAP compared to Berkeley that it’s hard to turn down a tuition fee of that magnitude of difference. Even if money isn’t an issue, it’s probably best to make the most economic decision. Also, on your resume, you can write that you attended UT with a full ride scholarship - that helps let employers know your situation a little bit more. They will recognize that you’re a smart person when interviewing you and can probably deduce that you had other options but chose UT for financial reasons.</p>
<p>3) honors is phenomenal - the BHP has only about 110 kids attend every year which seems to be an astronomical difference to Berkeley’s Haas program which isn’t guaranteed and doesn’t really offer the same honors opportunities to undergraduate students.</p>
<p>4) family - you might get homesick a lot. that may not seem like that big of a deal, but it really does make a difference. if you go to UT, home is RIGHT THERE. you get the independence of living at a huge college while getting the luxury of having your family just a drive away.</p>
<p>5) opportunities - honors kids get SO many more internships, especially in Texas. this is where the oil is, this is where the financial energy sector is. Texas is THE place to be in terms of getting a job post-college. California, while awesome and may seem appealing, has two disadvantages
A. the cost of living is SO high
B. the economy is in shambles, which has left many UC Berkeley graduates looking for jobs. UT literally connects you right to employers. it’s awesome.</p>
<p>I think that at the end of the day, what matters more than where you go is how you adapt and your work ethic. both places will put you in a great place at the end, but I think for the purposes of undergrad and selectivity and just having a better college experience, I would recommend UT. I’m in the same situation with you (albeit different because of business vs. engineering), but we can definitely talk a bit more if you PM me. </p>
<p>hope this helps! the reason i posted such a long reply is because this has been something i’ve been thinking about extensively lately.</p>
<p>For people who are not familiar with BHP, it is one of the leading programs for undergraduate business in the nation, and is the Honors program of an elite business program. Ih Haas might compare with the regular Business program, there is no comparison with BHP in terms of selectivity and scope of education. </p>
<p>Congrats to both of you. Start looking at the Honors’ housing in Austin.</p>