EECS is nice, but you won't learn anything but CS and EE if you do it. I got into the program but decided to go to UPenn instead...and although I didn't know it then I think I know why Stanford or an Ivy League school might be better for a real education rather than a public one, even if the public is very highly ranked in engineering etc, as Berkeley is.
If you look at the overall rankings, there's a reason why Berkeley is in the low 20's while Stanford is #7. Yes, Berkeley has an outstanding engineering department, and a great business school to boot (Haas). But, in this case it's the stuff not in those rankings that seem to be important when you get there, at least to me.
I chose Penn over Berkeley because of the flexibility it offers in its curriculum, whether it be engineering, business (we have Wharton instead of Haas), or whatever. This flexibility extends to most of the private schools out there, including Stanford. This means that generally if you want to study something else after you get there, fine by them.
Public schools have it a little differently. I'm not bashing public schools, because the two other schools I chose from were UCLA and UC Berkeley, which are both great. But, this applies better if you go in declared in a major that you stick to until you graduate. Flexibility is hard to come by at Berkeley. For example, from what I hear from my friends, it's nearly impossible for an engineering student to take business classes in Haas. You're kind of stuck in your engineering curriculum, and it's pretty hard to switch to something else that may interest you.
Two annoying things I know about Berkeley:
1. If you get into Berkeley as a business major, i.e. Haas, you must re-apply at the end of your sophomore year to get into the actual business school. I really hope I missed a part of the explanation there, since if that's the case, that
stinks.
2. There is a credit ceiling present at Berkeley. So, if you get a certain number of credits, you
must graduate. This makes it very difficult for people to have flexibility in their curriculum. I've never heard of a university punishing its students for trying to expand their academic knowledge, but here we go. This time, I don't think I missed anything as my friend is in a predicament where the credit ceiling shot his academic goals down. What is this, a university or a graduate factory?
Still, it's not like they put a ball and chain on you when you get there...it's just that you have to prod the administration a lot more if you want to do something that is outside the narrow pathway that they've set up for you. Heh, I don't even like Stanford...probably cuz they rejected me though...hehe.
Lastly, money-wise...umm, private schools have dough...dough that they will happily give out if they want to. So...don't always think that a private school is more expensive.
As for the rankings in general, they may not say everything about a school, but you can get a lot out of them.
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