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0 pointsjedberg4y ago0 comments

> going to Harvard instead of Berkeley is also worth about 10 percentage points.

That's interesting to me. Most reputable rankings put Berkeley at #2 or #3, and Harvard is usually around #7 or #8 (and US News puts them at #16!). I wonder what the cause of that discrepancy is.

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WoodenChair4y ago

CS program rankings are largely based on their graduate programs. The parent comment is almost certainly talking about candidates with bachelors degrees. For undergraduate Berkeley has a 16% acceptance rate and Harvard has a 4% acceptance rate. This will likely act as a filter in combination with the quality of the undergraduate CS program, which could be better at either institution but is hard to get a metric for.

jedbergOP4y ago

I was specifically looking at undergrad rankings. The acceptance rate is not a good filter because that's the acceptance rate for the entire school, not the CS program.

From what I can tell, anyone who is a Harvard student can declare the CS major if they pass the pre-reqs. At Berkeley, passing the pre-reqs doesn't get you into the major -- you still have to apply for a limited number of spots, which generally means having a 3.8 GPA or better in your pre-reqs. So effectively both programs have the same acceptance rate.

usaar3334y ago

> For undergraduate Berkeley has a 16% acceptance rate and Harvard has a 4% acceptance rate.

Berkeley EECS is sub-7%.

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