Tough choice. Please help me decide between UChicago, Berkeley, Columbia, and JHU.
I am from CA, so Berkeley is going to be about half the cost of others. I am not receiving any aid from the others.
Parents prefer Berkeley because of this (and also it is not far from home).
Based on my research so far, it seems I would like the Core Curriculum and intellectual bent at UChicago.
I am thinking of double-majoring in Neuroscience and Comp Sci (but it may change). Which one
would give the most flexibility to change majors?
It is almost a given that I will be going for graduate studies later. In that case, does the undergrad Univ ranking matter much?
I’d say Berkeley actually has the most flexibility to change majors since unlike most other private schools, your class choices won’t be micromanaged by the advisers and you can kinda literally take whatever you want. Both neuroscience and CS are legit in both Berkeley and UChicago, and as long as you do decently well in your undergraduate studies, going to grad school won’t be an issue, although I have yet to see any CS majors around me going to grad school when they can get a job and earn a nice 6-digit paycheck per year instead.
Berkeley is probably in the best location to be a CS major looking for jobs or paid internships. And if you want to go on to PhD study in CS, doing well at Berkeley should be good preparation for such.
Remember that $120,000 is a very large amount of money. If you plan to go on to post-graduate study that you have to pay for (i.e. medical or law school), or if there is any question about your parents being able to pay for your college, college for any younger sibling, and their own retirement, then consider that difference.
You do have to make a 3.0 in the prerequisite courses for Berkeley L&S CS in order to enter the major.