Berkeley or Caltech
Ask HN: Physics PhD at Stanford or Berkeley
51–60 of 86 posts
Re: Ask HN: Physics PhD at Stanford or Berkeley
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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 someon…
I think as you move further from the specific work your lab did, school brand name matters more and more. Berkeley is a public school, and it’s going to be more closely associated with other top public schools like UW-Madison, while Stanford will be associated more closely with private schools like MIT. I think people in the Bay Area forget this, but as you move further from the bay Berkeley is regarded more and more…
I assure you Berkeley is also globally recognized (disclaimer: no links to either school).
EDIT: I'd also personally would want to stay as far away as possible from people who would see a PhD from Berkeley as a lesser one (based on general "prestige").
Re: Ask HN: Physics PhD at Stanford or Berkeley
#53Meet with Dan Stamper-Kurn, Jon Simon, and whoever else at length, go get coffee with their grad students without any postdocs or the PI present and ask them to tell you the shitty bits, and make your pick. Don't worry about the school -- it's not important. The advisor is. Also, pick by what you won't put up with. The bad bits add up differently than the good bits.
Re: Ask HN: Physics PhD at Stanford or Berkeley
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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 someon…
I think as you move further from the specific work your lab did, school brand name matters more and more. Berkeley is a public school, and it’s going to be more closely associated with other top public schools like UW-Madison, while Stanford will be associated more closely with private schools like MIT. I think people in the Bay Area forget this, but as you move further from the bay Berkeley is regarded more and more…
Multiple brand surveys have shown that Berkeley is one of the best known brands outside the USA after Harvard, right alongside Stanford. Especially in Asia.
https://news.berkeley.edu/2017/06/15/berkeley-ranks-among-wo...
Re: Ask HN: Physics PhD at Stanford or Berkeley
#55Both schools have excellent reputations, so the PI is going to be the most important thing (and, perhaps, variety of PI's if you're not sure you want to stick with a specific one). After that you would consider things like course requirements, likelihood of having to TA, etc. And if you want to live in a city, Berkeley is much easier (yes, it's possible to commute to Stanford from SF, but it's a slog).
Both schools have a great reputation, however Stanford is clearly superior. Berkeley is, at the end of the day, a public school, and so it’s lumped together with other top public schools like UT Austin or U Mich. Stanford, on the other hand, is a globally recognized private university and more often compared to MIT
this is nonsense
Re: Ask HN: Physics PhD at Stanford or Berkeley
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
Both schools have a great reputation, however Stanford is clearly superior. Berkeley is, at the end of the day, a public school, and so it’s lumped together with other top public schools like UT Austin or U Mich. Stanford, on the other hand, is a globally recognized private university and more often compared to MIT
this is nonsense
People in the bay hold Berkeley in a much higher regard than anywhere else in the country. If you go to Austin people will compare Berkeley to UT Austin, but if you go to Stanford they will regard your school to a higher degree.
I think OP should go with the better PI, however suggestion Stanford and Berkeley have the same level of prestige seems wrong to me
Re: Ask HN: Physics PhD at Stanford or Berkeley
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
this is nonsense
People in the bay hold Berkeley in a much higher regard than anywhere else in the country. If you go to Austin people will compare Berkeley to UT Austin, but if you go to Stanford they will regard your school to a higher degree. I think OP should go with the better PI, however suggestion Stanford and Berkeley have the same level of prestige seems wrong to me
prestige among who? As a physicist, I couldn't care less what my school's prestige was amongst those outside of the physics community. Maybe you want to go work for a hedge fund, where Berkeley is also respected. Maybe it's worse to McKinsey? I don't know. Know your audience.
Re: Ask HN: Physics PhD at Stanford or Berkeley
#58Both schools have excellent reputations, so the PI is going to be the most important thing (and, perhaps, variety of PI's if you're not sure you want to stick with a specific one). After that you would consider things like course requirements, likelihood of having to TA, etc. And if you want to live in a city, Berkeley is much easier (yes, it's possible to commute to Stanford from SF, but it's a slog).
Both schools have a great reputation, however Stanford is clearly superior. Berkeley is, at the end of the day, a public school, and so it’s lumped together with other top public schools like UT Austin or U Mich. Stanford, on the other hand, is a globally recognized private university and more often compared to MIT
In the limited context of a Physics PhD, to people within the physics community, the reputations are essentially identical, and also essentially identical to MIT (though that may be different between the asker's specific subfield, which I am not super familiar with).
Outside of the physics community, there may indeed be some differences in reputation, though I'd expect them to be small, since anybody hiring physics PhD's will have a rough knowledge of Berkeley's excellent reputation in physics. Sure, in other fields (or for undergrad), the reputations may not be equivalent. NB: I'm Stanford undergrad, MIT physics PhD, so I have no personal reason to hype up Berkeley (the opposite bias, in fact...).
Re: Ask HN: Physics PhD at Stanford or Berkeley
#59Another Ph.D. physicist here (Ivy, not Stanford/Berkeley) As others have pointed out, your prospective advisor(s) are the most important thing to consider. You can't go wrong with either school. That said, when choosing an advisor: * Pay attention to where the advisor's former students ended up. The former students are a natural "network" for you when you graduate. If you can, ask relatively recent grads about their…
The original version of a PhD is not enough references transparencies for giving talks and it reminds me the world used to be very different not so long ago. I think the new edition only talks about power point.
Actually I gave a talk a couple months ago that was well received where I refused to use slides and only used the chalkboard. Tbh that was way more fun imo.
Re: Ask HN: Physics PhD at Stanford or Berkeley
#60Both schools have excellent reputations, so the PI is going to be the most important thing (and, perhaps, variety of PI's if you're not sure you want to stick with a specific one). After that you would consider things like course requirements, likelihood of having to TA, etc. And if you want to live in a city, Berkeley is much easier (yes, it's possible to commute to Stanford from SF, but it's a slog).
The only people crazy enough to try to commute from SF to Stanford area (Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Sunnyvale, etc.) are hipsters who work in tech, or people who have spouses who work downtown. The rent is substantially higher.
That may be true now... when I was an undergrad *checks notes* nearly 20 years ago, plenty of Stanford grad students lived in the city.