Berkeley... Is it that good?

Colleges & Universities A-Z University of California - Berkeley
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<p>If you take the best verbal and best math score, you will have a much better picture of Berkeley. Berkeley's and the average UC SAT median is taken from best one sitting score. Like I said, you don't understand the difficulty of an Asian applicant from California who scores 1500+. We are like in the thousands. Maybe even millions (jk). </p>

<p><a href="http://www.highereducation.org/crosstalk/ct0104/voices0104-access.shtml%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.highereducation.org/crosstalk/ct0104/voices0104-access.shtml&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Berkeley turns away 600 applicants with scores above 1500. Now this is a one sitting analysis. So if you combine best math and best verbal, most likely that score is 1530-1550. So Berkeley in effect turned away 600 students with a 1540+ SAT Score.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.joannejacobs.com/mtarchives/013376.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.joannejacobs.com/mtarchives/013376.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>
[quote]
While 374 students in the 600 to 1000 SAT range were admitted, 3,218 students with SATs over 1440 were rejected.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I adjusted the SAT number to reflect the best verbal best math system that privates use. </p>

<p>In California, there is no love for the 1500+ scoring Asian. A lot of 1500+ scoring Asians actually end up at UCSD and if they are lucky at UCLA. If you think out of state competition is bad, you don't even know what its like for in state.</p>

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<p>"No student who gets into both will go to MIT, they will go to Cal Tech. Ask anyone. "</p>

<p>Oh, not necessarily so, you can ask me hehehe ... :).</p>

<p>"Ask anyone.
also, no one will go to Harvard for engineering, lets face it."</p>

<p>How could I possibly not know that LOL, they go to Harvard for science buddy.</p>

<p>"Like I said, you don't understand the difficulty of an Asian applicant from California who scores 1500+. We are like in the thousands. Maybe even millions (jk). "</p>

<p>Dude, you have no idea how difficult for us as international students to get into the best schools in US, SAT and SAT2 are really child play for us. Having SAT 1540, does not surprise us, Int'l students, who in majority have perfect score in A level / IB diploma. Anyway, I believe that EECS and someother dept like Haas do not look highly at SAT score. This means that there's high possibility that the students admitted to Berkeley (in-state) have high SAT but nothing much in other achievement. It's not really like outstater/international cases where they should have virtually perfect score in everything.</p>

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<p>^^^ My stats are 1600/800/730/700 4.74 weighted GPA. 7 or 8 AP's I forgot. Remember that my SAT score taken in 1994 would be higher than a 1600 today. </p>

<p>I didn't get into HYS, I got in at UPenn, Cornell, Berkeley, and UCLA. And I chose Berkeley in a heartbeat. I was undeclared, like most seniors, I had no idea what I wanted to do. </p>

<p>I have seen others with 1500+ and lots of AP's good SAT II's at Berkeley. Remember, you are speculating. The upper 25% of Berkeley and the upper 25% of Stanfurd are virtually indistinguishable if you look at all statistics. Admittedly, Berkeley has a soft spot for disadvantaged kids, kids who don't score so well on SAT, but study hard and are great people with great character. The diversity at school was awesome. It was a wonderful experience. I could not have imagined it any other way. </p>

<p>EECS is very very competitive. As competitive as Cal Tech, Stanfurd and MIT. You can't apply directly into Haas either. You have to apply after u get here. However, you are right, international students do have a difficult time getting into Berkeley. I did not know it was so bad. However, if it makes you feel any better, my school was a 91% Asian school in LA county, which is the most populated county in the US. So imagine how competitive it was for me as well. But good luck, and I hope you get into every school you wish for. =)</p>

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<p>"^^^ My stats are 1600/800/730/700 4.74 weighted GPA. 7 or 8 AP's I forgot. Remember that my SAT score taken in 1994 would be higher than a 1600 today."</p>

<p>Let's face it, your stats (at least when you enter Cal) is on the top 10%, err no, may be on the top 5% percentile and not 25%. May be you messed up your essay for HYS, since you told me you had no idea what to major in.</p>

<p>"EECS is very very competitive." --- EXACTLY what I was saying all along.</p>

<p>"However, you are right, international students do have a difficult time getting into Berkeley"
This is very true, you will certainly meet a bunch of int'l there holding olympiad medals or a kind.</p>

<p>" But good luck, and I hope you get into every school you wish for. =)"</p>

<p>Thanks, although I was lucky enough to get to Caltech 4 years ago and MIT now ^ ^
Also good luck to you for your grad study (if you intend to continue studying)</p>

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<p>Well, best education is all it matters... thnx for the contribution</p>

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<p>Of course Berkeley has the best EECS department in the country. Anybody who took the time to remember that BSD is the Berkeley Software Distribution of Unix would probably be able to figure that out.</p>

<p>You're very clearly basing your opinion of Caltech versus MIT only on California students, though. There are two major differences between the two schools. First, Caltech students are much more hardcore science-types. MIT students are much more open to taking non-math/science courses than Caltech students. Both schools' faculties are world-class, so this really comes down to a difference in personality.</p>

<p>But also, MIT is on the East Coast and Caltech is out west. I know multiple students who simply didn't apply anywhere on the West Coast. A friend of mine went to a Caltech admissions seminar, and apparently the admissions officer described MIT as the "East Coast branch of Caltech"... but everyone around here knows that Caltech is the West Coast branch of MIT. ;) I'm sure that every California student would choose Caltech over MIT, and I guess you haven't talked to enough East Coast people to realize that it's different out here.</p>

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<p>This is the same argument that I can use for science students picking Berkeley over Cal Tech. </p>

<p>However, it is well known that Cal Tech is even by the very slightest of margins, the best school for hard core science types. </p>

<p>Pretty much its:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Caltech</p></li>
<li><p>Berkeley/Stanfurd/MIT</p></li>
</ol>

<p>and only Berkeley and maybe Stanfurd can draw the hard core science types from Cal Tech. If a Cal Tech acceptee is interested in a bigger, more diverse type of university with similar science strengths, he/she would obviously pick Berkeley/Stanfurd over MIT. But MIT is a fine school. Its the one school that got away from the California matrix. How, is still puzzling to me.</p>

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<p>Whoops. forgot to incorporate this into my answer. Yes I suppose there must be some east coasters who are brainwashed into believing that California is a land full of orgies and heathens and "the sun makes you dumb". LOL!</p>

<p>However, no one here feels compelled to make up lies about the east coast to prevent some mass exodus... so I hope everyone can in the end judge for themselves, instead of relying on biased perspectives to do the work for you.</p>

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<p>I actually don't think I am making up lies about the West Coast. I have, numerous times, said that Berkeley, Stanford, Caltech, and the Claremont colleges are fine schools. In fact, I have already sent in my application to Berkeley, and I may be applying to Stanford and Pomona if I don't get into Brown ED (it depends on whether or not I get a BU full-tuition Greek scholarship).</p>

<p>California isn't a land full of orgies and heathens, the sun does not make you dumb, and any lies about the East Coast obviously haven't been enough to stop the mass exodus. In terms of domestic migration, the Northeast has been losing people for a long time now. If not for international immigration, Massachusetts, New York, and many other Northern states would currently be losing population. Clearly, most people agree with you.</p>

<p>Still, you can't possibly tell me that the East Coast and West Coast are identical. They're different. I like them both; Vancouver is (tied with NYC) my favorite place on earth. But there are a lot of students who simply want to go to schools on the East Coast. This isn't because the East Coast is somehow better, it's just because that's what they're used to, and they figure college will be enough of a culture shock without moving across the country.</p>

<p>One last note: Please spell Stanford correctly. It has an 'o', and you know it does, because you spelled it correctly in older posts, and anyone who tries to go to <a href="http://www.stanfurd.edu%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.stanfurd.edu&lt;/a> will not find anything. I'm continuing this conversation for the benefit of other people on this forum, who might conclude from your posts that applying to LACs on the East Coast is a waste of their time. Still, if you continue misspelling Stanford, I can only conclude that you're a troll.</p>

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<p>LOL!!!</p>

<p>Well. I guess someone has finally shut me up. LOL!!!!!!!!</p>

<p>We got the axe, so we can spell it anyway we want. </p>

<p>If someone wants to know about Berkeley's rivalry then please go here:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/%7Ekatster/farmsuck.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~katster/farmsuck.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>purpletransience - Stanfurd (with a u) is how many folks in Cal "affectionately" refer to that other school across the bay. It's a rivalry thing. I don't know where it originates from - but maybe it comes from the fact that it's so similar (in many ways) to Stan"turd"? :)</p>

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<p>Ah, I see. Thanks for telling me. :)</p>

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<p>I'd make a reply in this thread but I'm running late to an orgy. Later.</p>

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<p>Wtach out guys. When Berkeley runs out of money and Stanford takes over the school we are going to rename UC Berkeley and call Berkford Extension School.</p>

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<p>or you could call it stanley…</p>

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<p>Well, I don't know that I can agree that Caltech is the best school for science types. That's a pretty strong claim. Case in point - look at the Intel Science Talent Search winners (formerly known as the Westinghouse competition) and look at how many of their winners indicate that they want to go to Harvard, with MIT a close second. Caltech and Stanford make their appearances, but not as much as Harvard and MIT do. And you hardly ever see Berkeley. But the point is, if Caltech really is so good for hard-core science types, and I think we would all agree that Intel STS competitors are hard-core science types, then why don't more of them want to go to Caltech?</p>

<p><a href="http://www.sciserv.org/sts/63sts/winners.asp%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.sciserv.org/sts/63sts/winners.asp&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p><a href="http://www.sciserv.org/sts/62sts/winners.asp%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.sciserv.org/sts/62sts/winners.asp&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p><a href="http://www.sciserv.org/sts/61sts/winners.asp%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.sciserv.org/sts/61sts/winners.asp&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>That's certainly not to say that Caltech is not a good school. Indeed, it is an elite one. However, to say that it is the best for hard-core science people is a pretty strong claim to make. In particular, you really have to ask yourself why is it that all these Intel STS'ers want to go to Harvard, if Harvard isn't good for science.</p>

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<p>Sakky,</p>

<p>There're two strong reasons:
1. Most people need glamor, and everybody will agree that MIT and Harvard, by name, are more glamorous than Caltech and Stanford.</p>

<ol>
<li>Caltech is 'really' too nerdy, and its social life only evolves around study. A typical party at Caltech is merely a free distribution of beer and free snacks while the students are talking about their projects during the party hour.</li>
</ol>

<p>Having experienced both schools, I would say that you will find the best students at MIT, but overall, Caltech's students are better/stronger than MIT student, even when you only take Engineering/science dept at MIT.</p>

<p>Hope that answered your question.</p>

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<p>How is MIT more glamorous than Stanford? There are tons of people here who chose Stanford over MIT simply because of the name. Harvard I can understand.</p>

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<p>does anyone know how smart/rich william hung is? isn't he at berkeley? he is international too, so he must either be smart or rich right?</p>

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<p>The wheels of change are in motion. You can only hold on to the past for so long...</p>

<p>According to London Times</p>

<p>Harvard > Berkeley > MIT > Cal Tech > Stanfurd</p>

<p>Only Berkeley and Harvard beats MIT on worldwide peer rankings. But Cal Tech friggin had 400 Citations/Faculty! That is absolutely an AMAZING number.</p>