skibum1981

I don't know much about that field. I'd see if there are faculty members who match your interests, and if so, consider Cal Tech. But it's not like you have a bad option with Berkeley -- it's a fantastic institution.

What kind of math do you want to study? I should also say there's a rather talented young field's medalist at UCLA should you get in, also a big name in compressed sensing he he he. Terrence Tao.

Also, whatever you do, DON'T go to Harvard. That dept. isn't anywhere near as good as Applied Math and Engineering Depts. at other schools, especially Cal Tech and Berkeley...

It depends on what you want to do. If I had no predisposition as to what I wanted to do a PhD in, I personally would choose Berkeley over Cal Tech any day of the week. However, if there's a certain advisor at Cal Tech that's a leader in the field you want to study, go to Cal Tech. For example, one of my interests is Compressed Sensing, and both Candes and Tropp (two big names in the field) are at Cal Tech in the ACM department. It all depends on what you want to do. If you don't know what you want to do, pick Berkeley. There's just a heck of a lot more breadth there, pure and simple.