Berkeley or BU?

College Search & Selection
1

I attended UC Berkeley 2016-2017, but hated being there because it was so far from home (from Vermont). I took a year off to focus on self improvement, health, and life (didn’t work). I then applied to transfer to BU and I’m just starting here now, 2018-2019. My career aspirations are pretty huge - I think of Gates, Jobs, and Zuckerberg when I imagine my future. My goal is to start and run a tech company. I’ll do whatever is possible to get to that level. I’m a CS major. At BU I can have a business minor, which isn’t available at Berkeley. I’m planning on living and working on the east coast after college, and for the rest of my life. Harvard and MIT connections would be more useful to me than Stanford and Silicon Valley ones. A Berkeley degree has more caché than one from BU, but does that matter for my purposes? I also am considering an MBA, and getting into the best business school is higher priority than studying at the best college, as far as I’m aware.

So all things considered, should an aspiring Bill Gates make Harvard and MIT connections at BU, or go for the better degree at Berkeley?

2

You can always pursue an Executive MBA through Berkeley. Both programs (CS and MBA) are going to be way better than BU.

3

Your education consists primarily of what you make of your opportunities. Since you love the East Coast & since you do not like Berkeley after having tried it for a year, the answer seems clear.

As for MBA school, you need excellent grades, a high GMAT score , work experience & a career goal which can be succinctly stated in your MBA application. All of this can be accomplished at BU & in the Northeast.

4

I don’t believe Gates, Zuckerberg nor Jobs have ever majored, minored or even took a single course on business. I’m not sure what “connection” you have in mind between BU and those other two across Charles River except a geographical proximity connection. For folks like Gates, Zuckerberg and Jobs, they’d have become what they have turned out to be regardless of their choice of school. If you “hated” Berkeley, I just don’t see any reason for you to be there, since getting a degree Berkeley doesn’t automatically turn you into a future tech giant. What makes you think BU would turn out to be better? What if you end up hating the school even more so than Berkeley?

5

it seems like you are already at BU so just try it out - in the end it is all about what you make out of it and BU isnt a bad place to meet people