Would it be crazy if I turned down MIT for Berkeley (PhD EE)?

[fdsa]

Here are my reasons in decreasing importance:

1. The advisor I'd work with at Berkeley is very well known, has interesting research projects, and is making a large effort to get me to come to Berkeley (talked to me about research on phone for ~40 mins, gave me his grad students contact info, flying me out separately from visiting days because he'll be out of town then)

2. Berkeley is in the bay area, which I hear is a great place for startups. Potential advisor owns a few companies and would prob be a good mentor if I went this route.

3. People seem to be cool at Berkeley, maybe because it's California, also the weather is nice

Edited February 19, 2012 by fdsa

[newms]

Congrats! Both are top schools, so you can't go wrong, but with the reasons you've listed, it seems Berkeley is the better choice for you.

[mitindian]

congrats......can you post your profile pls..

[GradHooting]

I'm glad that someone else also takes location into consideration when picking a grad school based on fit. The bay area is really expensive, but totally worth it. I've visited several times and enjoy it quite a lot. I hope to do studies there, sometime. While Stanford and Berkeley might rank lower than MIT overall, it has no say on how good a certain adviser and how good that program is. I know someone who got rejected from MIT, so went to Oregon State, but really wanted the prestige of an MIT degree, so got in through a low-demand physics specialty, and transferred. He said that, while he has an MIT Ph.D. on his application, he was miserable there. I'm not sure whether he regrets his choice or not. It really depends on the adviser and the research!

[lolnumbers]

i'm currently at berkeley, so i have some bias, but i did my bs/ms on the east coast and feel pretty comfortable saying that the difference in reputation between berkeley and mit is negligible. and living in the bay area is the most amazing turn that my life has ever taken. it's expensive but really amazing.

[AldonSmith]

While Stanford and Berkeley might rank lower than MIT overall, it has no say on how good a certain adviser and how good that program is.

I agree with everything you said, however, the difference in rankings is completely negligible. Stanford, Cal, and MIT's rankings always swap through 1-3 depending on which ranking criteria and website you look at.

As other people mentioned, fit/adviser/research is much more important.

I would also like to point out, future careers. If you are hoping to get a job in California/Semi-Valley, I am willing to bet that having a degree from Cal or Stanford is much more beneficial than having a degree from MIT. The networking possibilities or internship opportunities will be far easier to come by and greater than if you were in MA.

[HassE]

Personally, I would say no it wouldn't be crazy to turn down MIT if you feel that Berekley has a better fit for you. However, it would be crazy to turn down MIT based upon the fact of "its the bay area" or "it seems nice" or "the people seem cool there" or "the weather is nice".

Lets face it, everyone in Engineering knows that Berekley is a top 5 school. No one will ever reject you from having a Berekely degree where another has an MIT degree. But all of Engineering constitutes maybe 5% of the total population. Who knows when there might be a time where having the recognition and prestige of an MIT degree will really hold numbers. MIT no doubt about it is the best known school across the world for Engineering, I don't think anyone can argue that.

Who knows if there ever will be a situation when your trying to move out of the Engineering side and will be speaking quite often with Lawyers, Medical Professions, or Business Executives. Many times in a company they want the bigger (more prestigous) name to make the ultimate decision and be the leader of the group just because no one will really question them and it makes them look good. If you CTO of some startup company, it doesn't look bad when your CEO/founder can say ya our Chief Technology Officer graduated from MIT to a few potential contractors when the company is looking to get signed for work. Again, this might be a rarity for you if your planning on just being in Academia, but it is something to consider.

Also, yea California might have more startups, however you can't discredit the fact that Boston/Cambridge does not. The two biggest known off the top of my head are Bose and iRobot, both MIT graduates. And let's not forget 5 minutes walking you have Harvard right there who graduated many Entrepeneurs. If you want to start a company, you'll start a company regardless of where you are.

To discredit the beautiful of the Charles river (the river sitting right there on MIT) and all that Boston has to offer as well is crazy. Boston is beautiful year round and even better you get a big city feel, with an actual small city atmopshere. Unlike in Cali, you don't have to go far in Boston to get what you want. Let's not forget that Boston is called the College City for a reason. From MIT there must be a good 20 schools that are all walking distance from each other, don't think you can say the same about the Bay area.

Then again maybe i'm biased cause I was born 30 mins away from MIT and performed my undergrad 10 mins walking from MIT.

Either way congrats! As an MIT PhD grad told me, "if your excellent at what you do, then you reflect your school, however if you make mistakes or not so good at what you do, then your schools relects you" So regardless, you can come from a small unranked school, and do extremely good work and people will be saying "Wow this school must have a strong program", but just the opposite can happen if you go to a top school.

Good luck

Edited February 22, 2012 by hasseye