Both are very good schools. You should look into the quals process as well since it would be unfortunate to go to a school and then get kicked out. Stanford EE PhD quals were notoriously hard but they have gotten easier from what I have heard. If you are going to be doing nanofabrication as part of your research, check to see how the shared facilities are and how flexible they are for facilitating the kind of research you are planning on doing.
Ask HN: Physics PhD at Stanford or Berkeley
21–30 of 86 posts
Re: Ask HN: Physics PhD at Stanford or Berkeley
#22I went to Princeton for my PhD, but I was at Stanford for my undergrad, and knowing a few experimentalist grad students, it seems for whatever reason the completion time was usually 7 years (or more), longer than usual. Might be something to consider. Anyway, if you don’t have a specific advisor in mind (well you wouldn’t be asking if you do), my advice is go to the open house in both departments and talk to the actu…
Going to the open houses is an absolute must if you can.
Re: Ask HN: Physics PhD at Stanford or Berkeley
#23Both great schools. As others have mentioned, your PI is going to matter a ton, there are really bad PI's who will deliberately keep you a few extra years, and there are good ones who will let help you and progress your career. It's sort of a gamble as to which is which unless you know them personally.
One other consideration though is that Berkeley is the safety school for people who don't get into Stanford. If all else is similar, I would go to Stanford, as it will provide a lot more opportunities down the line than Berkeley.
Re: Ask HN: Physics PhD at Stanford or Berkeley
#24One more thing to check would be to see the ease of getting an advisor from adjacent fields like EE/EECS or Materials Science.
Re: Ask HN: Physics PhD at Stanford or Berkeley
#25Both programs are very good, the specific PI is going to be much much more important than any generic advice you glean from this thread. Separately, the environs are very different. Stanford is pristine, quiet, safe, boring, isolated, VC-oriented. Berkeley is urban, gritty, dense, exciting, outgoing, academic. For most people it doesn’t really matter but if it does for you this could be important.
Berkeley and Stanford have more or less equal number of VC startups. Some years Cal has more, other years Stanford has more.
https://newsroom.haas.berkeley.edu/berkeley-named-top-univer...
Re: Ask HN: Physics PhD at Stanford or Berkeley
#26Both programs are very good, the specific PI is going to be much much more important than any generic advice you glean from this thread. Separately, the environs are very different. Stanford is pristine, quiet, safe, boring, isolated, VC-oriented. Berkeley is urban, gritty, dense, exciting, outgoing, academic. For most people it doesn’t really matter but if it does for you this could be important.
Berkeley and Stanford have more or less equal number of VC startups. Some years Cal has more, other years Stanford has more. https://newsroom.haas.berkeley.edu/berkeley-named-top-univer...
Ya but the vibe is different because Stanford is much smaller
Re: Ask HN: Physics PhD at Stanford or Berkeley
#27- Number 1 thing is having ~2-3 plausible advisors that you can see yourself working with (by all means fall in love with just one, but keep some optionality)
- Most physics departments allow for 'rotations' during your 1st or 2nd year (while you are taking classes and studying for the qual). Check if the 2-3 plausible advisors will take you as a rotation student
- Check if the grad students are (relatively) happy, especially the 4th-5th years during your open house. Ask them how much help the are getting in career search (good departments take care of their senior grad students)
- I personally didn't care to optimize for locale very much. Don't regret it. PhD is a grind, you won't have too much time to yourself... and with what you have, I think you can have a vibrant social life at almost any university
- There is some funding anxiety right now (NIH, but surely NSF is not far behind). I would make sure that the labs you are in are well funded. Stanford is better in this regard.
- I would max out your applications to GRFP, NDSEG or whatever the in-vogue PhD fellowships are. It increases your chances of getting into a competitive lab
- You didn't say theory or experiment? If experiment, find out if you are going to spend time in the fab, and make sure you check out the fab. Berkeley nanolab was a shockingly functional shithole (at least when i visited, and i know it caused misery to many friends)
TL;DR - Stanford if research fit is there.
Re: Ask HN: Physics PhD at Stanford or Berkeley
#28Re: Ask HN: Physics PhD at Stanford or Berkeley
#29Both programs are very good, the specific PI is going to be much much more important than any generic advice you glean from this thread. Separately, the environs are very different. Stanford is pristine, quiet, safe, boring, isolated, VC-oriented. Berkeley is urban, gritty, dense, exciting, outgoing, academic. For most people it doesn’t really matter but if it does for you this could be important.
> Stanford is pristine, quiet, safe, boring, isolated, VC-oriented. Berkeley is urban, gritty, dense, exciting, outgoing, academic.
This is a huge difference IMO. If you want insulation from the world, go to Stanford. If you want to be immersed in it, good bad and ugly, go to Berkeley.
Re: Ask HN: Physics PhD at Stanford or Berkeley
#30Both great schools. As others have mentioned, your PI is going to matter a ton, there are really bad PI's who will deliberately keep you a few extra years, and there are good ones who will let help you and progress your career. It's sort of a gamble as to which is which unless you know them personally. One other consideration though is that Berkeley is the safety school for people who don't get into Stanford. If all…
> Berkeley is the safety school for people who don't get into Stanford.
This is true for some undergrads, although there were plenty of people who got into both and chose Berkeley.
But it's definitely not true at the Graduate level. It just depends on the program. Some programs at Cal are better than at Stanford, and vice versa. But in make cases the two schools collaborate quite a bit. It's not unheard of for someone at Stanford to have a Cal professor as an advisor for example, or the other way around.