<p>So, I've been living in America for about.. 14 years.
I'm a Japanese-American, 18 years old, a high school senior.
While I myself am not obsessed with prestige, I find that most Asians (especially Japanese, Chinese and South Koreans) are more interested in how famous a university is rather than the quality of education they get.</p>
<p>When I told my father that I wanted to apply to Claremont McKenna, he bashed me, saying, what the hell kind of college is that? You'll never get a job in Japan with that college on your resume.</p>
<p>And the sad thing about it is... he's most likely right.</p>
<p>In Japan, there are about 10 highly respected universities, 5 of them noted to be the best of the best. Among them are... Tokyo University, Kyoto University, Keio University and Waseda University. Anyone who applies for a job at a well-respected company that did not attend one of these universities is usually ignored.</p>
<p>So, I applied to these colleges mostly because Japanese companies know them well.
Michigan
UCLA
UC Berkeley
Cornell
NYU
Carnegie Mellon
BU
University of Washington
UMass Amherst
USC
Claremont McKenna</p>
<p>See, I've always wanted to work in Japan but I feel like even though I love both UC Berkeley and Claremont, if I got into both, I'd feel like I'd HAVE to go to Berkeley because its more prestigious.</p>
<p>Taggart: I always lived in America but when I transferred to this boarding school, met a bunch of Japanese people, became their friends and went to Japan with them, I realized that I definitely want to live and work in Japan. I love the country so much, I plan on exchanging there for a year and also brushing up on my Japanese by double majoring in Econ/Business and Japanese.</p>
<p>Fact: a higher percentage of Asian-Americans attend community college than any other group (take out South Asians and the percentage becomes that much bigger).</p>
<p>Fact: Jewish-Americans attend the Ivies at a much higher percentage rate than AAs - so shouldn’t it be “Jewish obsession w/ prestige”?</p>
<p>Fact: You’ll have a better chance of getting a job in the States having attended Cambridge, Oxford, Sorbonne, IIT, etc. than some little college overseas that no one has heard of.</p>
<p>K&S - I grew up on Long Island, and I can confirm that jews are often obsessed with going to prestigious schools.</p>
<p>Genre - there has to be a school you’d enjoy socially with academic prestige right? I think any on the list are good, particularly NYU and Michigan for what you’re doing. I’m assuming you don’t wnat to see HS friends at the UC’s right?</p>
<p>The schools you have listed vary widely based on the perception of prestige. Six of them are public schools. Four of them are private, one is from the Ivy League. The big state schools are similar to each other. The smaller private schools are similar to each other. The lone Ivy League school has more in common with the private schools than the public schools and is extremely hard to get into.</p>
<p>If a Japanese firm will recognize these schools but not others then that is based on name recognition, not prestige. I wouldn’t use that criteria to choose a school.</p>
<p>Berkeley plusses: more dynamic atmosphere, larger variety of classes, SF Bay Area, leading world class research institution, top ranked public university.
Berkeley minuses: sink or swim environment; need to be a self-starter to utilize all resources available.</p>
<p>CMC plusses: smaller, more intimate environment, access to a world class leading consortium of liberal arts colleges, warmer climate, larger teaching focus.
CMC minuses: major and potential for research offered?, need a car to see Los Angeles sights, hot & windy fall, Claremont what?</p>
<p>If I had to choose between prestige (that would make my future job easier) or atmosphere…and assuming both are of relative academic strength and financing my education wasn’t a factor, I would choose prestige. This sounds shallow, I know. But I figure that I’m going to love any college I go to, and I’ll manage to make the most of the experience. Employability, for me, is worth the sacrifice of what my high-school self sees as the ‘perfect’ college for me. Especially if I were planning to work in Japan.</p>
<p>Wait until you see where you get in and then come back to us. Also look to see which school has the best exchange program in Japan and where it is, credits transferred etc, and which school has the best job placement in Asia, either with japanese companies or american companies.</p>
<p>UCBChemEGrad: I plan on studying Business/Econ and Japanese. Berkeley obviously has Haas, an extremely well regarded business school so that’s a big plus. Both schools essentially have what I’m looking for…despite the fact they are very different schools. I could see myself happy at either one.</p>
<p>Greekfire: I completely 100% understand where you are coming from. When I went to my father’s company in Japan and talked with American/British people who worked there, they all attended a “brand name” school like McGill, Cambridge, USC, UCB, Princeton. There were no Swarthmores, Pomonas, Amhersts or Williams graduates anywhere. Which further leads me to believe prestige, or name recognition as someone stated is more important.</p>
<p>The schools you have listed vary widely based on the perception of prestige. Six of them are public schools. Four of them are private, one is from the Ivy League. The big state schools are similar to each other. The smaller private schools are similar to each other. The lone Ivy League school has more in common with the private schools than the public schools and is extremely hard to get into.</p>
<p>If a Japanese firm will recognize these schools but not others then that is based on name recognition, not prestige. I wouldn’t use that criteria to choose a school.“”</p>
<p>So now we have experts here in America about perceived Japanese prestige. Look, schools like Michigan, UCLA, UCB are very well known around the world. The parochial attitude here often on CC is that only the top U.S. private elites and smaller colleges are worthwhile. For internationals, the poster demonstrates that this is not true.</p>
<p>Do you know anyone who works in Japan who can confirm that it would be hard to get a job if you don’t go to a well recognized college? If not then it would be worth it to try to contact some companies in Japan and ask them some questions regarding their recruiting/hiring process and if college prestige really plays a big factor. I don’t know how much information they will actually give you, but its worth a shot.</p>
<p>I believe you missed to mention two other prestigious academic institutions in Japan that are very well respected by top employers: Tohoku University and the Tokyo Institute of Technology.</p>
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<p>Berkeley vs CMC is a bad example. Because not only is Berkeley way more prestigious than CMC is, it also is the better academic institution, bar none. Remember that Berkeley is world-class and FAMOUS. It employs the best faculty members you can find anywhere on earth. It has also an amazing academic facility that is rivaled only by HYPSM. Berkeley grads are scattered all over the world, are paid more, earn more, and they enjoy living in the higher social and economic strata, not only in America but anywhere in the world. Many Berkeley grads hold high posts in government and large, multi-national companies. Etc. Etc. Such things can’t be said to CMC, but CMC is also a good school. though not quite up to par to Berkeley’s status and fame. </p>
<p>Maybe the best example would be Berkeley vs Williams or Berkeley vs Amherst.</p>
<p>How do you know? I happen to know more CMC grads than you, and I assure you, all have done very well, financially and socially. CMC grads may do better than Berkeley grads by virtue of their smaller numbers. There are an awfully lot of Berkeley grads in the Bay Area waiting tables or unemployed. I hope you are not confusing with Berkeley grad school.</p>
<p>How can you argue that Berkeley is a better academic institution? Have you attended both? Just because Berkeley has high-profile research doesn’t mean these same researchers can teach. Being brilliant and being gifted at teaching are not synonymous. I have always viewed Berkeley as a huge school that has derived most of its prestige from its research discoveries; I wouldn’t want to go there for undergrad because as UCBChemGrad has stated, it seems more like a “sink or swim environment” (however, I think that UVA, UNC, and Michigan offer a superb undergraduate education). It seems to me that professors at CMC are more dedicated to teaching than at Berkeley; one can also get a lot more personal attention at CMC than Berkeley.</p>
<p>Sure, Berkeley is more prestigious and an excellent university, but you need to stop arguing how it is better than schools such as Emory, Vanderbilt, Claremont McKenna, etc. because they are all peer institutions, plain and simple. I believe Stanford offers a better undergrad experience than Berkeley. I wouldn’t be surprised if the quality of education at Berkeley goes down slightly with all the funding cuts in California. I believe it is rightfully ranked on USNWR.</p>
<p>As a whole, or are we comparing the undergraduate division of Berkeley’s College of Letters and Science to Claremont McKenna? That would be the proper comparison.</p>
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<p>Say you’re an Average Joe Berkeley student who’s curious about a field of study. Can you have the complete and undivided attention of any given faculty member, despite being one of god-knows-how-many undergraduates?</p>
