Berkeley vs Stanford Structural Engineering

[Romano]

Hi all,

I have some dilema in my decision making that needs your advises. I recently got accepted to both Berkeley and Stanford MS degree in the Structural Engineering programs. Luckily, i got almost full fellowship/funding for both. For Berkeley, it's block grant fellowship of $24k/yr. On the other hand, Stanford appoints me CA/TA with the stipend of $24k/yr in addition to the tuition aid of $9500/yr. Those two offers are pretty appealing; however, i am not quite sure which program will fit better with my interest and personality.

I love to travel and am interested in pursuing an MBA later on in my career. Lately i just found out that a lot of business consulting companies such as McKinsey or Bain & Co hiring qualified engineers with competitive pay to work as Business Analyst. I really love the traditional engineering work; however, i think i would prefer dealing/coorperating with clients rather than sitting in the office and crunching in numbers.

As my research goes, Berkeley arguably has the strongest structural program in the country. However, Stanford grads tend to get higher respected and better paid jobs??? How about the alumni networking?

Anyone have any insight about this? How would you choose if you were in my seat? Any comments are welcomed. Thank you!