It is not a very high bar to be recruited by some of these companies (for example, Google recruits at dozens or hundreds of colleges, not just a few of the best known for CS). However, the bar to pass technical interviews and get hired can be fairly high.
If I go to MIT/Cal and get recruited by FAANG, do I have a better shot than someone from, say, an LAC? Or does the alma mater only matter when trying to get recruited?
I, for one, don’t think it is a slam dunk; I think it could go either way.
For me: if my family was willing to afford it, I would pick MIT.
If you fit.
Because it is MIT (in part). Because you will experience the east coast.
YMMV.
To me, MIT suggests “among martest dudes walking around”.
If you are actually such, there is some advantage in being branded as such. Some opportunities are available basically only to such people.
Berkeley is known to be great but is still a state school, and has a broader standard deviation of talent. The upper echelon there will be every bit the equal, but in my opinion (could be wrong) you will have to prove it. Two of my kids went to schools where “things would be just the same if they prove it”, and both of them did just a bit less well there than they needed to in order to graduate with honors; i.e. get categorized as “among the best” there. so this is a risk.
There may be aspects of the programs of study that are different that may matter to you. IIRC my D1’s friend who went to MIT chose it because he didn’t want to study liberal arts topics much and wanted to go straight into research. Which he did, and today is a Prof. I suggest digging in to the distribution requirements and detailed programs of study at both schools.
Going to school on the east coast may be a somewhat different experience for you. I follow the Cornell subforum, and a number of California students there have positively commented on experiencing the different types of students (citing greater diversity - don’t know if that equally applies to MIT)and that East coast people are a bit different), and experiencing the changing of the seasons. On the other hand it will be more trouble to go back and forth. You likely won’t see your family as often.
From what I’ve read on CC, it might be easier to switch to other majors at MIT, if your objectives change after you start college. Which is humongously common.
On the other hand, if you decide you want to switch to certain humanities subjects MIT may not offer them. You should check all this, as I personally know know virtually nothing about either school.
Please let us know what you decide !
Gotcha, graduate early, great idea.
And in my example in my second P of #76, I meant that many if not all the five sections would be taught by the same lecturer. This is the reason why many schools, including the lecturers involved, would rather have only one lecture with easing of logistical bookings of lecture halls, etc., for the term.
https://firstyear.mit.edu/academics-exploration/ap-and-transfer-credit/advanced-placement
https://engineering.berkeley.edu/students/undergraduate-guide/exams/
You may want to look at the above a bit more carefully.
MIT:
- 5 on *both* AP physics C exams is needed to skip 8.01 (you still need to take a second physics course).
- 5 on AP calculus BC *and* a high enough math placement exam score is needed to skip 18.01 (you still need to take multivariable calculus).
- 5 on either AP English allows you to skip the first year essay evaluation for communication-intensive-humanities (CI-H) courses, so that you have a broader range of CI-H courses to choose from, rather than being required to take a CI-HW one. You still need to take two such courses.
UCB CoE:
- 4 on AP biology fulfills Biology 1A, 1AL, 1B (not required for EECS, but may fulfill an elective science).
- 3 on AP chemistry fulfills Chemistry 1A, 1AL (not required for EECS, but may fulfill an elective science).
- 3 on AP CS principles fulfills CS 10 (not required for EECS, but you should be ready for CS 61A).
- 4 on either AP English fulfills reading and composition A (you still need to take reading and composition B ).
- Up to two humanities and social studies courses may be fulfilled with AP credit. Note that reading and composition courses are included, so only one additional may be fulfilled (you still need to take at least four more, including two upper division).
- 4 on AP calculus BC fulfills Math 1A and 1B (you still need to take multivariable calculus for EECS).
- 5 on AP physics C mechanics fulfills Physics 7A (you still need to take another physics course).
At least for Google, the hiring selection process once you get recruited into it is rather standardized; there are YouTube videos describing it. It does not appear that college name matters. Google does recruit widely among dozens or hundreds of colleges, and is well known enough that those at other colleges can apply directly if they want.
I’ll be thinking about this a lot. Thank you for the thorough and definitive reply, @eyemgh!
Again, you shuld keep in mind that your interests may change once you learn more about other areas, as well as about the path you think you want.
A guy from my HS went in planning to study physics, but wound up choosing Art History.
@ucbalumnus Gosh darn parentheticals. Also, I took multivariable calc and both physics’es at a local CC, so those would also transfer over for Cal, right?
MIT
Skip Calc, Physics, an essay
54 elective credits for a minimum of 48 credits
Cal
Skip Calc, Physics, 2 humanities
6 unrequired science courses - can I get credit for the course by fulfilling the course?
An alternative to graduating early is to go deeper into the technical curriculum and/or walk with a BS/MS in 5 years. Extra classes don’t have to be a “waste.”
That said, one of my son’s favorite classes was Philosophy of Space, Time and Matter. It is essentially the philosophy of relativity and quantum mechanics. The math makes it one of the hardest philosophy classes, but his background made that easy. He could just enjoy the knowledge for it’s own sake without the stress.
He has a thesis based MS and has been working at a startup for almost a year. He’s still 23.
For UCB, go to https://www.assist.org and see if your community college courses cover UCB Math 53 and Physics 7A and 7B. For the biology and chemistry credit, you could use them to fulfill the science elective and STEM elective listed in https://eecs.berkeley.edu/resources/undergrads/eecs/degree-reqs-lowerdiv .
For MIT, you would need to have them evaluate the courses for subject credit. Save the syllabus, book lists, assignments, exams, etc. in case they ask.
@ucbalumnus That it does! Perfect.
I think I have a decision made up, but I’m going to watch a lot of youtube day in the life vlogs and sleep on it before announcing.
Here’s how I would think about it:
For tech jobs in the Bay Area (including FAANG (why no MSFT?), Cal EECS probably would work out as well as MIT. But MIT would offer you more different opportunities (in finance, consulting, and on the business side). On the other hand, the money saved could then be spent on a Master’s (and pay for most of an MBA) later on if you want to switch careers or something.
I personally am a fan of optionality and compounding. But MIT is MIT. Given these 2 choices, if it doesn’t affect my retirement, I’d pay up for MIT. Though if I also had a choice of UT-Dallas/NCF for free, I’d probably take that, because that means $300K for both a master’s (if I feel like I need it) and an M7 MBA.
Remember, there is status is saying “I turned down MIT” too. 
Good luck and know that if you make the best of the opportunities in front of you, you’ll be golden. If you don’t, no school’s name will pull you through to lasting success.
I don’t know why you’re so status-conscious. Saying “I turned down MIT” still doesn’t get you the MIT network in finance/consulting/business.
@PurpleTitan, I’m not. The OP is. Per the original post: “No one will look at me differently if I say I graduated from MIT rather than from Berkeley.” How they are looked at is at least a bit of their concern.
The OP has given NO indication that finance/consulting/business interest them at all. Also from the original post: “My nebulous plans are to join a FAANG company eventually, probably with some smaller companies beforehand because it’s unlikely that they’ll hire me straight out of college.” There was some mention of an MBA, but it appears very clear from their original post that the intent is to get a technical background and then manage in a technical field rather than to be in the business sector.
Yes, I don’t want to go into finance/marketing/consulting of any form. An MBA might be in the books after the requisite experience and preferably with a sponsoring employer, just to make it easier to move up in the ranks of a tech company.
@firmament2x, great class size post!
One additional thing to consider, number of TAs. That can be found in the schools ASEE profile.
It was one of the things my son looked at and a main factor in choosing Cal Poly. Classes less than 50 at Poly…88%. Classes less than 50 at MIT…88%. Classes greater than 100 at Cal Poly…4%. Classes greater than 100 at MIT…4%. Engineering TAs at Cal Poly…35 (zero in ME, my son’s major). Engineering TAs at MIT…338 (274 in ME). Cal has 331 total BTW.
That’s not to say that instructors with terminal degrees are always great teachers or that graduate students can’t be. There is real value however in being taught by someone hired to teach versus someone hired to do research.
"MIT has more money and WAY smaller class sizes. "
So class size for STEM is overrated, you learn in a major like CS by solving problems, which is why you can have larger class sizes in introductory calculus, science classes, even at a place like Stanford. As long as you have smaller breakouts (they will be led by grad students), which these classes do, you’re fine.
"Berkeley is known to be great but is still a state school, and has a broader standard deviation of talent. The upper echelon there will be every bit the equal, but in my opinion (could be wrong) you will have to prove it. "
You don’t have to prove anything in silicon valley if you’re EECS from Berkeley. Only, and maybe only Stanford CS has a better reputation.
“A guy from my HS went in planning to study physics, but wound up choosing Art History.”
In which case Berkeley is the better choice, in non-stem majors, UCB is better.
“An MBA might be in the books after the requisite experience and preferably with a sponsoring employer”
So on the pro-MIT side, this might be one reason to attend MIT, b-schools do consider undergraduate experience as a whole, but that would include, major, projects in addition to where you went. In that case, MIT undergrad could be better.
^ For b-school, it’s more the work experience that matters, not where you went to undergrad. MIT grad who goes to code for FAANG and Cal grad who goes to code for FAANG would look the same. MIT grad who goes in to product dev or quant finance or business consulting would look different.