Choice between UC Berkeley and Johns Hopkins

[Anonymous]

My kid went from a small private to Berkeley a couple of years ago. Almost all his friends went to private colleges or SLACs so he too was very hesitant when deciding. However, he has grown a lot in the past few years and being close to Silicon Valley has broadened his exposure immensly. He has learned to hustle because getting opportunities and internships were competitive. Fortunately, he has not had issues getting classes. Neither school will disadvantage him careerwise but for tech, the kids at Berkeley and oppprtunities in the Bay Area are very good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid went from a small private to Berkeley a couple of years ago. Almost all his friends went to private colleges or SLACs so he too was very hesitant when deciding. However, he has grown a lot in the past few years and being close to Silicon Valley has broadened his exposure immensly. He has learned to hustle because getting opportunities and internships were competitive. Fortunately, he has not had issues getting classes. Neither school will disadvantage him careerwise but for tech, the kids at Berkeley and oppprtunities in the Bay Area are very good.

Very important skill but not all can cut it

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have 2 kids at JHU both engineering majors. They have been absolutely loving their time there. Made a lot of friends in their dorm and have study groups for every class The kids seem to be very collaborative and truly want to see each other succeed. My current junior was saying how kids are still sending out internship and research opportunities in order to help their classmates find something. They also really enjoy Baltimore. Easy to get to O's games and there are some fun neighborhoods with bars and restaurants.

+1. I have a kid at JHU in mechanical engineering who loves it, has made lots of great friends, works in teams in classes and as a member of multiple engineering clubs and has specifically told me how much he enjoys the collaboration. Enjoys Baltimore. Has had internships and done reasearch.

[Anonymous]

UCB hands down.

Yes, undergrad generally is sink or swim on your own, but EECS department is fantastic and very closely connected to tech jobs in California.

[Anonymous]

UCB for his career goals 100%. Prepare him that he might hate it the first two years. His peer students will try to sabotage him and he should be wary of collaborating, it’s that bad. Some classes grade on a curve where only 10% can be As etc and a solid portion are Cs, Ds and Fs. UCB attracts and accepts cut throat kids who aren’t above playing dirty and cheating. There is simply too much pressure and at stake for some of these kids to not mess up your lab experiment when you walk away, screw up your code if you don’t log out, or give out the wrong notes. It’s not a new thing, spouse went there 30 years ago and had to endure it. He said it greatly diminishes once you get past the weeder courses. Everyone is nice outside of class just don’t trust them in class.

[Anonymous]

At JH he is going to be surrounded by pre-med/biotech focused people. Not everyone, but will definitely be the prevailing vibe. That would be a turn off for my tech-loving CS major (at a different school)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:UCB for his career goals 100%. Prepare him that he might hate it the first two years. His peer students will try to sabotage him and he should be wary of collaborating, it’s that bad. Some classes grade on a curve where only 10% can be As etc and a solid portion are Cs, Ds and Fs. UCB attracts and accepts cut throat kids who aren’t above playing dirty and cheating. There is simply too much pressure and at stake for some of these kids to not mess up your lab experiment when you walk away, screw up your code if you don’t log out, or give out the wrong notes. It’s not a new thing, spouse went there 30 years ago and had to endure it. He said it greatly diminishes once you get past the weeder courses. Everyone is nice outside of class just don’t trust them in class.

Why would anyone want to attend a school like this? Sounds absolutely horrid.

[Anonymous]

UCB just doesn’t sound like an experience I’d want to sign my kid up for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS is having a difficult in committing between UC Berkeley and Johns Hopkins. He is accepted to EECS major in UCB and general engineering in JHU. He is set on pursuing a CS career. More interest in going to big techs and promising start ups than academia. We visited both and both are acceptable with usual pros and cons. The difficult for him is to know how it is like to study in these schools. He likes to have a collaborative exploration with smart and focused students. He does not mind challenging courses and projects but would like to close working relationships with other students not just pure competition. For UCB, he is concerned that there would be too fierce competition, and the environment is just sink or swim because of the class size. For JHU, the concern is that there would be not many dedicated CS major students, and most are from former pre-med students.

We are looking through various forums and have some general ideas, but it will be great to hear perspectives from parents of students in these two schools to know which one might be a better fit for my DS. The advice we got from adults in STEM areas are almost entirely go to UCB because of the location and strong reputation. However, his friends mostly like JHU much more. It seems like that the cold practical calculation is UCB for sure but qualitative quality of life may be better with JHU. We are really conflicted and welcome any advices.

Congrats on the acceptances. UCB CS is an especially tough admit. Your analysis looks pretty much spot on. I would normally say JHU vs UCB for virtually anything but CS is different.

You are correct about the environment at UCB. It will be highly competitive, the courses will be huge and grading will be very hard because it is curved.

Intro to CS will have 12oo kids, be taught in a ballroom and your kid will be encouraged to not attend but rather watch it streamed online. Classes will be huge for at least the first two years and almost always large. But your son will be in the heart of it all with some of the smartest CS kids anywhere. If he is up to the challenge of the environment UCB is probably the better choice.

In my group at a FAANG I have UCB, CIT, MIT, Waterloo. But I also have UCSC, NC State, UCF, Missouri S&T, RIT, and several SJSU. Your kid can make it from everywhere but being in the heart of it all really helps.

YOu would neve hear it on DCUM but SJSU (and Santa Clara) are the ultimate sleeper schools for CS. You can go any where and get any internship with some networking because of their numbers in the valley.

OP here, Thank you for your explanation. Since I never attended a private school, it is difficult to know how much better the college experience will be. So far, the personal attention JHU is giving to my son is a lot and jokingly, he told me that definitely, JHU has the money. Regarding the tech placement, I assume that attending JHU will not prevent him getting a job at big tech companies. How much advantage UCB will have is the critical question. For my field of science, nobody cares about undergrad schools and I rarely met people from top private or public schools. But most prominent people are from top graduate schools. I understand the tech industry does not require a graduate degree but I also heard that it is very meritocratic. Will this mean that the importance of the school name may not mean much compared to individual abilities?

You are welcome, you kid got a couple of great options.

In the tech world if you can code you can code, it is all that matters once you are on the job. It is a huge part of getting the job as well. But, there is much value in full immersion into the world and that would be harder to do in Baltimore. JHU is an incredible school but people don't look up for JHU CS like they would for JHU Biology. You kid can get a great education there but he will need to hustle a bit more lining up internships than someone in a tech hub might have too. As long as they understand that they will be fine. School name won't matter at all as long as you can code.

[Anonymous]

I'm at Google now, Hopkins places extremely well here. Less competition than berkeley too. Would recommend it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If your kid really wants to work in tech, it’s hard to not pick UCB.

Don’t underestimate the advantage of being physically in the epicenter of tech and the ability to get internships during the school year.

Seems like the distance (I assume you are on the East Coast) and other factors are probably coming into play. Why are your sons’ friends so pro JHU?

JHU does tours of all the tech companies (Google, Meta, Nvidia, etc) during the winter break for CS and other majors. The alumni network there is strong vs berkeley where it's more diluted (by sheer number of EECS grads). There is no disadvantage of going to JHU vs Berkeley for tech placement. If fact, I'd argue it's the opposite. Google only hires the 10% of Berkeley CS grads where competiton is far fiercer.

[Anonymous]

Also, Google, Meta, and a slew of other big tech come to Hopkins' campus to recruit.

[Anonymous]

Berkeley, of course.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UCB for his career goals 100%. Prepare him that he might hate it the first two years. His peer students will try to sabotage him and he should be wary of collaborating, it’s that bad. Some classes grade on a curve where only 10% can be As etc and a solid portion are Cs, Ds and Fs. UCB attracts and accepts cut throat kids who aren’t above playing dirty and cheating. There is simply too much pressure and at stake for some of these kids to not mess up your lab experiment when you walk away, screw up your code if you don’t log out, or give out the wrong notes. It’s not a new thing, spouse went there 30 years ago and had to endure it. He said it greatly diminishes once you get past the weeder courses. Everyone is nice outside of class just don’t trust them in class.

Why would anyone want to attend a school like this? Sounds absolutely horrid.

Seriously! It can’t possibly be this much of a disaster or who would go?

[Anonymous]

Interestingly, it's JH that has always had a reputation for being cut-throat--as in, students destroying library texts in order to put their pre-med classmates at a disadvantage when studying for exams and applying to med school.

Cal has one of the best CS programs in the country. Why not be confident in one's ability to succeed in it? Plus, better weather and more socioeconomic diversity.