COMPARE help choosing undergrad: UPenn vs. UChicago vs. UC Berkeley

[whip]

Hey I’m an undergrad choosing which schools to transfer into. I’m planning on doing a dual degree in math and cs at Penn, Doing computational applied math or cs at uchicago, or cs at Berkeley. I’m leaning away from Berkeley cuz I have to retake several courses and the major isn’t guaranteed and am leaning towards penn bc of quality of life. What do you guys think? Ideally I’d like to break into quant from undergrad but I’m willing to do an mfe if needed.

 

[GoNoles]

Congrats. Upenn would be a dream for me. I think any of these three schools would be leading you in the right direction

 

[Qui-Gon]

I would go for Penn, but instead of math and cs I personally would consider doing math and SSE. SSE at Penn and ORFE at Princeton are IMO two of the best undergrad degrees one can get in the U.S. if pursuing a career as a quant. That said, Chicago is Chicago... good problem to have, congratulations!

 

[Abraham_PM]

Hey I’m an undergrad choosing which schools to transfer into. I’m planning on doing a dual degree in math and cs at Penn, Doing computational applied math or cs at uchicago, or cs at Berkeley. I’m leaning away from Berkeley cuz I have to retake several courses and the major isn’t guaranteed and am leaning towards penn bc of quality of life. What do you guys think? Ideally I’d like to break into quant from undergrad but I’m willing to do an mfe if needed.

One thing I recommend is checking faculty and their research. Not every Ivy League (or similar) has the right faculty for the major you want. Check other less popular schools, you might be surprised that a lesser known school has the faculty that researches a topic you are interested in. For example, my time at UMiami wasn't what I expected because their economics program was way different to what I wanted to research. Also, I eventually realized breaking the bank on undergrad is not the best idea if you are aiming for a master's. Eventually, I settled for a small public university that allowed me to double major in cs and math practically for free. I told them I wanted to apply to finance master's related to quant and they helped me pick the right courses. Moreover, the faculty has more time to help me with individual research since the school is smaller. Hope this helps.