Help me decide - Berkeley vs Vanderbilt vs UT Austin
using friend’s account to post this
context: interested in business, but fine with doing engineering undergrad (can just do MBA later)
non-issues:
- cost (berkeley is slightly more than vanderbilt and ut but all in 25-40k range, can afford)
- career opps (all feed or semi-feed into consulting, intended career path)
berkeley pros:
- strong engineering program (got into undeclared engineering there, will prob do EECS)
- instate and close to home, makes me feel more secure and also have access to good food
- no required dorms/meal plan
cons:
- large class sizes, definitely not my favorite
- may not be able to dual major with business (not strictly necessary but would REALLY like it bc i am mainly interested in business)
- hard to get into lower-div classes, especially w EECS
- got second choice major (wanted MET)
vanderbilt pros:
- full-tuition scholarship that comes w an honors program (which means i get easier access to professors, probably am considered first for job recruitment, etc.)
- can dual major with business (officially ‘human and organizational development’) + cs/engineering easily
cons:
- not really amazing or top-notch for cs/engineering or business
- in tennessee (far away from home, politics are not great either)
- might have a harder time finding good food (i’m vegetarian), also not thrilled abt the meal plan
- culture shock, different crowd from the bay area, richer populace, all of that might be difficult to handle
ut austin pros:
- honors program (so can register for classes first and such)
- engineering + business program
- ut austin is highly ranked for both engineering and business
cons:
- in texas (far away from home, politics are not great either)
- large class sizes, again im not a big fan of these
- doesn’t feed into consulting as much as the other two
- overall rank (t50, the others are t20s)
- i’m honestly just not as excited about this one as i am about the others but that’s not a huge deal