Accepted to UCLA and UC Berkeley

College Search & Selection
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<p>Hello</p>

<p>I have been accepted to UCLA and UC Berkeley. I live closer to UCLA (a plus for me), and LOVE the L.A. area. (Brentwood, Westwood, Bel Air) In all actuality, UCLA is probably the perfect school for me, except for one thing; they don't have an undergraduate business school. I would probably have to get my Undergrad in Econ (or Business Econ, if i get in) and then go to a business school grad. BUT, Berkeley actually has an undergraduate business school. I understand that I have to apply to the Haas school at Berkeley, and that competition is tough, but at least it is a really good business school should I get in. Well, maybe "good" isn't the right word. U.S. News says their Undergrad business program is #2, and comparable to MIT Sloan's program.</p>

<p>Second problem... Berkeley is very near SF, and Berkeley, according to Wikipedia, is the third most liberal city in the U.S. I am somewhat Conservative, and was wondering if anyone knew if Haas is a liberal business school, or if Berkeley, in respect to their history, is still an extremely liberal University, and would a moderate conservative be able to survive there for four years?</p>

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<p>the biz and econ students i know are conservative. most of the other students are very liberal. the city is not number 3 it’s #1…the Berkeley mayor played football for Cal, now he likes to sue Cal and he’s essentially a communist…he’s the guy that tried to run the marine recruiting office out of town.</p>

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<p>What happens if you don’t get into Haas, do you think you’ll regret having sacrificed the “fit” that seems to come across in your post?</p>

<p>Secondly, I personally wouldn’t get caught up on not majoring in “business” during undergrad. Business Econ people, or econ people, at UCLA won’t be at a disadvantage just because they didn’t opt for a “business” major. Many top schools, Harvard, Stanford, etc don’t even offer business as a major, and their grads aren’t at a disadvantage when compared to the schools that do, say Penn or Berkeley.</p>

<p>Lastly, where do you see yourself working?
In So Cal, or Nor Cal? I ask because UCLA’s career resources would be more beneficial to you if you plan to work in so cal. If you went to Berkeley, you’d have to rely on whatever connections you can find in So Cal, or will have to come back to So Cal and be left on the job hunt by yourself. </p>

<p>Also, take a look at this thread, which I think is pretty helpful for those debating between taking a business major and econ.
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/other-college-majors/257006-economics-business-major.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/other-college-majors/257006-economics-business-major.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Thank you all for your response.</p>

<p>pacheight - thank you. Many of the people I have asked would assume that the Business School was more conservative, but no one could back that up.</p>

<p>liek0806 - thank you. I know that Haas is not nearly a guaranteed admission, but now I am considering what you said about the career resources and connections that I will make at the school. As far as where I would work, I have no idea. I can see me most likely working is So Cal, but at the same time do not object to Nor Cal, or even somewhere outside of California.</p>

<p>More questions! Would you say that the average class at Berkeley, regardless of what that class is, is “better” than UCLA? This sounds weird, BUT the most important thing to me is my education. I know that UCLA is usually ranked almost equally with Cal, but if one is slightly better than the other, even for just my General Ed classes, that may make my decision for me.</p>

<p>For those of you who go to Berkeley, is their stance kindof a do or die sort of thing. I say that I am more Conservative, but that’s just because of the city that I grew up in and my parents. I would really like to experience something different, if not vastly different, from what I grew up in. But, at the same time, if it turns out that I continue being conservative, I won’t be thrown out of campus or anything… right?</p>

<p>Is the Business Econ program at UCLA a guaranteed Undergrad Major, or are only some students admitted?</p>

<p>Thank You</p>

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<p>UCLA and Cal are pretty evenly matched when it comes to the quality of courses. No, you won’t get “thrown out” for being a conservative in Berkeley - but you might feel uncomfortable since the school and the town are very lefty. </p>

<p>I think you should go to UCLA. It’s where your heart is. Don’t worry about the minute differences in supposed prestige between the two schools. They’re both world class. They both offer an outstanding education - just a slightly different experience (and more than slightly different weather.) Admit it: you’re a Bruin. And there’s nothing wrong with that :slight_smile: (says this Cal grad.)</p>

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<p>As a relatively sheltered kid from SoCal, I found the Berkeley environment refreshing. I am more conservative and got irritated at all the wacky protests but the environment seemed more student-oriented and intellectual than UCLA. Haas is up on the hill and sorta removed from the activities on central campus’s Sproul Plaza and Telegraph.</p>

<p>Berkeley was the going away to college experience. You can get around very easily and a car is not necessary. Flights into Oakland are relatively cheap and you can take BART to the campus and get access to downtown San Francisco for an occassional weekend break. </p>

<p>If you don’t get into Haas, Berkeley’s economics department is one of the best in the country. </p>

<p>

Definitely not. :slight_smile: Get out of the Socal bubble and go to the best public university in the nation.</p>

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<p>katliamom, why do you say UCLA is where his heart is? The OP wants to experience something different. Berkeley will be much more different from Simi Valley than Westwood.</p>

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<p>The Berkeley campus in 2010 is not “Berkeley in the 60’s.” There are plenty of more conservative students. You’ll be fine.</p>

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<p>UCBChem, I simply get the sense that OP loves LA. And I think it’s OK to choose a school in part because you think its surrounding area and vibe are interesting. I went to Cal because I loved SFBay Area. That’s all.</p>

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<p>You have excellent choices, be thankful.</p>

<p>When I first read your post, I though you were from OC. Berkeley certainly isn’t for everyone, because you’ll meet bums and tree people and a naked guy - sorry Cal people, you’ll never live the latter down. </p>

<p>If you were from OC, then I would most certainly say UCLA > Cal for you because a lot of the kids from behind the OC curtain, generally are not big on Cal’s scene; they find UCLA much more to their liking, even though there are liberals at both places. </p>

<p>The liberals at Cal tend to have teh empty-can syndrome which makes them more prevalent. Add that the surrounding area, though nice in the foothills, has a lot of grimy, sludgy areas that would make them fairly uninhabitable by someone like yourself. </p>

<p>The city people of Berkeley and nearby Oakland, too, are a strange bunch, passing strange ordinances, etc.</p>

<p>Be forewarned that Bus-Econ at UCLA is no gimme wrt entry after the prereqs are done. </p>

<p>Perhaps you could tell us what your interests are with you Bus Admin or Bus-Econ degree?</p>

<p>Regardless, your choice of either school will be a great one. Congrats.</p>

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<p>Go to UCLA. Berkeley will drive you crazy.</p>

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<p>If your only reason for choosing Berkeley is the Business School, that is risky. Same for UCLA BizEcon… you might not get into either.</p>

<p>Since neither is a guarantee, which would you attend assuming neither program existed?</p>

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<p>just go to the better school</p>

<p>by far, UC Berkeley</p>

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<p>said the 18 yr. old JohnAdams12 with loads of life experience – </p>

<p>Actually, UCLA is a better school. Oh, right, better is an interesting word, isn’t it. Has lots of nuances, shades, particularities.</p>

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<p>Oh, never mind. I’m actually thinking JohnAdams12 could be a parent assisting a child through this process… and got sucked into the vortex…</p>

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<p>Thank you all for your great advice.</p>

<p>I went on the UCLA College Day tour yesterday, and the truth is I love the campus, surrounding area, and dorm life. Though I grew up in a bed city of Los Angeles, I have spent a lot of time there. I have friends that, living hear so they could be wrong, say there is much more to do within a 1 hour radius of Los Angeles on any off time.</p>

<p>I knew that I wouldn’t be burned at the stake for being conservative, or anything like that, but I just wanted to know if it would pose some difficulties.</p>

<p>I am interested in Business Administration. That is what I can see myself doing for the rest of my life. BUT, I love Economics. Part of the reason that I was accepted, imo, to these great schools (because I’ll be the first to tell you that my GPA was not the 4.37 average that UCLA’s admit pool was this year) was because of a paper that I wrote in my AP English class that dealt with process efficiencies in the modern business settings. Again, sounds businessy, but it dealt mainly with Macroeconomics. So now I can say I LOVE ECON.</p>

<p>These are the two possible routs I am thinking of taking</p>

<ol>
<li>Berkeley Business Admin Undergrad, MBA Graduate</li>
<li>UCLA Business Econ Undergrad, MBA Graduate</li>
<li>UCLA Economics Undergrad, MBA Graduate</li>
</ol>

<p>I don’t think there will be much of a difference between Undergrad Business Econ vs. Undergrad Econ vs. Undergrad Business Admin. So, I guess my question is, from a purely academic standpoint, and since I need/want to get into a really good graduate school, will there be any difference in what school I go to (UCB, UCLA) and the possible graduate school I go to? (Assuming I get the same grades, and everything at both. Just based on the prestige of the school.)</p>

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<p>Go where you will feel the most comfortable. The happier you are on campus, the better you will do in class.</p>

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<p>I’m hardly one to be giving advice to anyone about anything. ;)</p>

<p>I happened by College Confidential, because I was doing reasearch on how many undergrads from UCLA attend med school from year to year, because I know someone who wants to know UCLA’s placement, and was guided by a search to CC. </p>

<p>What provoked me to register was when someone was reciting numbers from the UCLA Career Center, stating 209 applicants from the 2008 graduating class, with 105 acceptances. I found this to be too low appicant-wise, and cited 737 applicants from 2009 per AAMC, with maybe around 1/4 re-applicants, per national trends. (Sorry to be long on the off-topic, but I have been called a bit long-winded; also, as you’ll note that I have only a handful of posts on this message board, so I’m hardly a senior member here. But anythng UCLA does interest me, thus, my response to your original post.)</p>

<p>Sorry to have gotten to the topic at hand for which you are most interested so late in the process…</p>

<p>… But it sounds like you want to be a consultant of some sort, even above industry, and not specifically within or certainly not on a company level. Perhaps there are those here that can best plot your undergrad and grad-level course. There are economists on company boards, but most are probably above the fray and are not company associated, and many are associated to universities.</p>

<p>The thing that struck me about your plans was somewhat of a redundancy of undergrad and post-grad plans. For instance, I know someone who received an undergrad degree in BusAd specializing in Entrepreneurship, but he had nothing really of note in which to found a fledgling company, so he went real-low tech – these were his words.</p>

<p>It might have been better for him to have majored in something tech-oriented, EE, whatever, and then did the entreprenur-thing later on in grad school. But even then, the best chip makers (or whatever industry) tend to be PHDs, and they leave the business side to othres.</p>

<p>I’m not sure how the prior two paragraphs relate to you – I do ramble, other than if you were to start a business, maybe you should vary your educational mix.</p>

<p>Most people – I don’t know if it’s a predominant number – tend to study something else besides a business undergrad major, prior to when they enroll in an MBA program. You can probably find some pie chart of students’ undergrad majors at whatever MBA program interests you.</p>

<p>Not trying to dissuade you from going BusAd or Bus-Econ, it’s your world. But pure econ would sound like a nice mix with an MBA, or even dance, history, political science, maybe something tech-science oriented like chem or physics. Again, not trying to dissuade, but there will be a redundancy of coursework in you undergrad and grad studies the same. </p>

<p>Again, somewhat off-topic: I knew someone who wanted to be an economic consultant and he thought the words “business administation” where cheesy and dirty to him. He was going pure econ, then do the PHD thing later.</p>

<p>So the message in all this? I guess it won’t really matter in the end what you really study in your undergrad work; I’m sure that you’ll do well in whatever MBA program takes you, and I’m sure you’ll have very good choices.</p>