Hopkins vs Berkeley for Undergraduate Computer Science

callian
Sat, 28 Apr 2012 08:13:16 +0000

CS at Berkeley is very rigorous, but if you survive it and do well, you will come out more than prepared to go into a top grad school and have quite a few job offers to boot.

Johns Hopkins is amazing for its pre-med and med school, but I haven’t heard much about its CS department. Cal’s CS on the other hand is tied #1 with Stanford and MIT for 2012, so you won’t get much better than that.

If cost isn’t an issue for you, go to Berkeley. Even though many of the rankings you see for CS are for their graduate program, undergraduates are still taught by the same professors that teach the graduate program, so the level and quality of instruction is still the same. Although it’s a large university (which is great in terms of building up your social network), building close relationships to professors is quite easy to do - you just need to make the effort of approaching them.

Berkeley is a very “independent” university, in that there’s no hand-holding for students; you need to take the initiative to get what you want. That said, if you need help, there are always a multitude of people with the answers you need and who are more than willing and eager to help. You just need to take that first step - it’s good training for when you’re in the real world and looking for a job!

If you do decide to choose Berkeley, feel free to mail me with any questions/comments you might have, including academics/housing options/college life/etc.

Hope this helps!