Wellesley vs UC Berkeley for Computer Science

drakonus
Sun, 23 Apr 2017 05:54:17 +0000

Hi guys! I’m in a bit of a dilemma over these two amazing colleges. I’m a senior from California (so yes, I do get that $30k in-state tuition from Cal), and I got into Letters and Sciences Computer Science at Cal, so I need to make the 3.3 GPA requirement. Typically, my high school is a feeder school at Cal, with over 50 people getting in on average each year. For my future, I would like to go straight to industry and then advance to program manager (or something of the sort-- I want to have the CS background but work with people, not machines) or pursue patent law. I also want to double major in Computer Science and English, and I want to return to the Bay Area for jobs/internships.

Here is a list of pros and cons:

UC Berkeley Pros: prestige/name (important for hiring), close to home, substantially cheaper, big CS department with resources, good recruiting fair, good weather, liberal, English is apparently no. 1 too now, Silicon Valley, parents like it more, more classes in total that I can waive due to APs

Cons: too many people, no professor connection, 3.3 GPA cutoff-- what to do if I don’t make it?, might not graduate in time with double major, grade deflation, too much like high school (keep seeing the same people), researching opportunities seems a bit sparse, apply to get in clubs, (honestly my biggest worry is not having enough attention/level of stress. I think I can make the 3.3 GPA cutoff, but I’ll have to work really hard for it).

Wellesley Pros: new environment, smaller class sizes, professor interaction, liberal arts education, take classes at MIT/Olin, ambient/quaint atmosphere, I’ll stand out more, better facilities, waive intro CS classes, more likely to graduate in 4 years (?), not as stressful?

Cons: far from home, more expensive, not as well known CS department, commute time back and forth to MIT/Olin might not be worth it, not as many opportunities (?), not many CS clubs, hackathons and events seem sparse unless I travel to MIT, quiet at times, bad weather, (honestly my biggest worry is prestige/lack of resources)

Thanks everybody! I need to decide by May 1st and this is a really hard decision for me