<p>Hey guys, so here's the deal: I was admitted off the waitlist at Midd, though I've SIR'd at Berkeley. I am really, really torn. Help please?</p>
<p>They are very different schools but both great. You really can’t lose either way. </p>
<p>What did you do to let Middlebury know how interested you were once you were placed on the waitlist?</p>
<p>@coucollcou: I sent a letter of interest, an additional letter of recommendation, and a comic book.</p>
<p>What do you want to study? Where do you want to live after college?</p>
<p>I think I want to study Econ, but I recognize that this could change in the next 4 years. I don’t know where I want to live after college, just that I want to make a lot of money and be successful.</p>
<p>You should decide based off of the environments of the two schools. You can study econ and be successful after either school.</p>
<p>Some more information:</p>
<p>I’ve taken these APs (5s on all): Literature, Language&Comp, Econ Macro, Econ Micro, European History, US History, Comparative Gov’t, US Gov’t, and Calc BC. I’d get credit for many of these classes at UC Berkeley.</p>
<p>I’m considering majoring in Econ, but I’m not sure, so I don’t want to limit my options–I may switch to Poly Sci. I’m very interested in Linguistics, so Midd is a great fit there.</p>
<p>I don’t play any sports, but I’m an avid backpacker, hiker, and biker.</p>
<p>I live in CA, so I’d pay in-state tuition for Berkeley.</p>
<p>Middlebury is an awesome school, awesome educational experience. </p>
<p>However, if credit for AP courses and in- state tuition are a consideration… check the Middlebury website for AP course credit – and credit in your selected major. Also, consider the travel time and expense from California to Burlington and then the transit from Burlington to Middlebury.
CAL and Midd are such different schools. CAL; large enrollment and classes, urban, a stones throw away from San Francisco and all it offers. MIDD; small (but not too small), intimate, you really get to know your professors and they you, far away from New York or Boston.
Both offer a great education - just very different experiences.</p>
<p>I got accepted to Berkeley and Midd too! I chose Midd though, and I’m not having any regrets.</p>
<p>If you’re unsure of what you want to major in, I’d choose Midd.
If you want good professors that are there to teach you and a small number of other people, (i.e. If you want professors that actually teach students, not a “class/course”), I’d go with Midd.
If you want the beautiful outdoors opposed to smog, I’d choose Midd.
If you want a safe campus, Midd.
If you want to attend a lecture by the Dalai Llama in October, Midd.
If you want to be in a new environment away from home and everyone you know, Midd.
If you want to be surrounded by extremely nice+talented+attractive people (according to CP and everyone who’s at campus), Midd.
If you can afford it, Midd.</p>
<p>Also, you could always go to UC Berkeley for grad school. </p>
<p>I’ve heard stories of the quality of education in the UC schools drastically decreasing due to California being broke, but don’t quote me on this!</p>
<p>I honestly can’t think of a reason why you would WANT UC Berkeley more than Midd (clearly, I’m biased), but if finances are an issue, then that’s a reason why you should go to Cal… </p>
<p>Yeah, I’d say Midd>Cal any day.</p>
<p>Boy, that’s tough. UCB is a name school and will open doors as well.
Can’t go wrong.
I think it is more like this: my H went to MIT undergrad, sat in lecture halls of 200-500 students and clawed his way to a degree. No one really cared what happened to him til his Junior year when he got a good advisor. But he got a great(albeit painful;) education and it opened many doors. I went to Bates where I felt like the whole college community wanted to nurture me and help me reach my goals. I got a great education and it opened many doors.
So can you do it by yourself? Are you self-motivated and tough-skinned? If so, if UCB is cheap, I would probably go there. If you want professors as friends, and mentors as as undergrad, go to Midd.</p>
<p>Hey guys, just an FYI, I just got into Williams this morning and will be attending. :))) Thanks for all your advice though!</p>
<p>Wow, nice job! Off 2 wait lists!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>If - and only if - you will end up at the very top of the whole graduating class at Middlebury.</p>
<p>^ umm, RML, any facts backing your statement? I find it hard to believe because you are somewhat implying that MIDD kids rarely gets to good grad school.</p>
<p>RML, that’s a ridiculous statement. In my class alone, I knew of four people who were admitted to UCB grad school. Only one decided to attend because the rest of us were accepted to much better grad schools. I was FAR from the top of my class.</p>
<p>urban, tell me, which grad schools do you think are much better grad schools to Berkeley. Berkeley is a solid top 5 school for grad/postgrad level.</p>
<p>Middlover:</p>
<p>
No; that is absolutely incorrect.</p>
<p>There are way many more Berkeley grads at Harvard, Yale, Stanford and JHU now that there are from Middlebury. At Yle Law, for example, there is no proof that Middlebury grads are more proffered than Berkeley grads are. What we do know, however, is that Berkeley grads would way outnumber Middlebury grads there. </p>
<p>Columbia - 17 (Ivy League)
Berkeley - 16
UPenn - 14 (Ivy League)
Cornell - 11 (Ivy League)
Michigan - 8
Amherst - 7
Pomona - 6</p>
<h2>UCLA - 5</h2>
<h2>-</h2>
<p>Middlebury - 3
[Yale</a> University Bulletin | Yale Law School 2011?2012 | Law School Students](<a href=“Welcome | Office of the University Printer”>Welcome | Office of the University Printer)</p>
<p>Now, don’t ever say that we need to adjust that for size of the schools because that is wrong. I’d say we adjust that based on the number of applicants at Yale Law. And, while we do not have the numbers of applicants, I’m inclined to believe that Berkeley would perform better than Midd.</p>
<p>At JHU Med School, the 2nd most prestigious medical school in the world, Berkeley has 17. Columbia has 10. Dartmouth has 9. MIT has 14. Princeton has 12. UCLA has 6. And Middlebury??? It only has 1.
<a href=“http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/sebin/u/p/SOMCatalog0910.pdf[/url]”>http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/sebin/u/p/SOMCatalog0910.pdf</a> - page 460</p>
<p>At Harvard Law School. Berkeley has a whooping 48. Columbia has 46. Cornell has 45. Dartmouth has 35. Williams has 17. Amherst has 19. And Middlebury??? It only has 6.
[HLS</a> : Undergraduate Schools Represented in 2006-2007](<a href=“http://web.archive.org/web/20070531213708/http://www.law.harvard.edu/admissions/jd/colleges.php]HLS”>http://web.archive.org/web/20070531213708/http://www.law.harvard.edu/admissions/jd/colleges.php)</p>
<p>
TOP UNIVERSITIES BY REPUTATION 2012
[Top</a> Universities by Reputation 2012](<a href=“http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2011-2012/reputation-rankings.html]Top”>World Reputation Rankings 2012 | Times Higher Education (THE))</p>
<p>1 Harvard University United States 100.0
2 Massachusetts Institute of Technology United States 87.2
3 University of Cambridge United Kingdom 80.7
4 Stanford University United States 72.1
5 University of California Berkeley United States 71.6</p>
<h2>6 University of Oxford United Kingdom 71.2</h2>
<h2>-</h2>
<p>-
University of Michigan United States - 23.2</p>
<p>BU, Hawaii and most specially Middlebury are not in the top 100 of the world’s most reputable schools. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Both Berkeley and Middlebury has about the same yield rates – in the 40+. </p>
<p>Both have about the same admit rates. </p>
<p>Here are the stats of the admitted students at Middlebury: [Class</a> Profile | Middlebury](<a href=“Apply to Middlebury College | Middlebury College”>Apply to Middlebury College | Middlebury College)
1950-2240
Test Scores – 25th / 75th Percentile
SAT Critical Reading: 640 / 740
SAT Math: 650 / 740
SAT Writing: 650 / 750
Average HS GPA: ??? - I bet lower
% of students in the top 10% of the HS Class: ??? - I bet lower</p>
<p>Here are the stats of the enrolled students at UC Berkeley. Please take note that enrolled students have usually lower figures than admitted students. <a href=“http://students.berkeley.edu/admissions/freshmen.asp[/url]”>http://students.berkeley.edu/admissions/freshmen.asp</a>
1930 - 2260
Reading: 620-740
Math: 660-770
Writing: 650-750
Average HS GPA: 3.88
% of students in the top 10% of the HS Class: 98%</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>The WSJ table was biased to East Coast schools. WSJ does not publish new version of such data.</p>
<p>And, again, the data have already spoken. Berkeley grads are way, way represented at the top grad schools in the world. At Cambridge (my alama mater uni) I have never bumped into someone who graduated from Middlebury. But Berkeley has a huge and active student-run club at both Oxford and Cambridge. So, please, let’s not kid ourselves here. It would be harder for a Middlebury grad to get onto a postgrad program at UC Berkeley than from someone who graduated from Berkeley undergrad. And Berkeley grad programs are some of the very best programs in the world. </p>
<p>Now, for me, education is an investment. Students attend prestigious schools to become marketable. That said, here’s what Forbes has to say on this:</p>
<p>University of California, Berkeley $51,400 $102,000
[Top</a> State Universities By Salary Potential](<a href=“http://www.payscale.com/best-colleges/top-state-universities.asp]Top”>Best Public Colleges | Payscale)</p>
<p>Middlebury College $47,400 $92,500
[Top</a> Liberal Arts Colleges By Salary Potential](<a href=“http://www.payscale.com/best-colleges/top-liberal-arts-colleges.asp]Top”>http://www.payscale.com/best-colleges/top-liberal-arts-colleges.asp)</p>
<p>And, finally, Colleges Worth Your Investment - Full List for 2011
[Average</a> Cost for College - Compare College Costs & ROI](<a href=“http://www.payscale.com/education/average-cost-for-college-ROI-2011]Average”>Average Cost for College - Compare College Costs & ROI)</p>
<h2>UC Berkeley - 14</h2>
<p>-</p>
<h2>huge gap</h2>
<h2>-</h2>
<p>Middlebury College - 116</p>
<p>In addition to the above, Middlebury is not considered a feeder school to top bulge bracket firms. That school hardly send someone to top management consulting firms either. Berkeley, together with Stanford, is a top feeder school to top bulge bracket firms, and top management consulting firms.</p>
<p>
farkula, But Berkeley is not just some “good grad school”. Berkeley is one of the very best school for grad/postgrad school on the face of the earth. So, to say that a Midd grad can just go to Berkeley for grad school is a statement based on hallucination. People at Berkeley grad school do turn down HYPS for it. For example, the English grad program at Berkeley is ranked top 2 in the the US. Most of their students there turned down other top schools for it. The engineering programs at Berkeley is only bettered by MIT and Stanford. Same is true for Berkeley’s computer science. Do you think when you graduate economics at Midd you can just enroll postgrad econ at Berkeley? You’ve got to be fooling yourself if you sincerely believe that.</p>
<p>Ok, so 3 amazing things occurred to me after reading your post:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I can’t believe I wound reading the whole thing given my extreme laziness to read anything longer than 20 words.</p></li>
<li><p>You’re an alumnus of Cambridge… While I have deep respect for the university, the way that you deal with statistics really makes me surprise. Correct me if I am wrong but from what I know, undergraduate population at UCB is 10 times that of MIDD.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>-Number of students: 36,142 students as of Fall 2011 including 25,885 undergraduates and 10,257 pursuing graduate degrees.
[Facts</a> at a glance - UC Berkeley](<a href=“http://berkeley.edu/about/fact.shtml]Facts”>By the numbers - University of California, Berkeley)</p>
<p>-How many students attend Middlebury, and what is the size of an entering first-year class? About 2,450 attend the College. We enroll about 575-600 students in September at the beginning of Fall Semester and 80-90 in February at the beginning of Spring Semester.
[Frequently</a> Asked Questions | Middlebury](<a href=“Apply to Middlebury College | Middlebury College”>Apply to Middlebury College | Middlebury College)</p>
<p>I am no stats expert but my common sense tells me that for every 1 MIDD kid represented at top grad school, there should be at least 10 UCB kid to make everything proportional. And of course, you can say that grad school admission number per college (whatever the thing is, IDK) doesn’t scale linearly, but even if u have a ratio of 1:6/7/8, MIDD kid will still be proportionally more represented. </p>
<p>As for the admit rate:<br>
UCB:
"This yearÂ’s admissions rate was 21 percent: 61,695 students applied, and 13,037 received offers to start school in either the fall or the spring of the 2012-13 academic year. Last year, that combined admissions rate was 26 percent.</p>
<p>For students offered admission starting in the fall, the admissions rate was approximately 18 percent — the lowest on record for UC Berkeley. Last year, the fall admissions rate was 21 percent."
[Campus</a> releases 2012-13 freshman admission data](<a href=“Berkeley News | Berkeley”>Berkeley News | Berkeley)</p>
<p>MIDD:
Class of 2015
Applications 8,533
Total Number of Admitted Students 1,519
Applicants Admitted 18% (17.8%)
[Class</a> Profile | Middlebury](<a href=“Apply to Middlebury College | Middlebury College”>Apply to Middlebury College | Middlebury College)</p>
<p>Class of 2016
I am not so sure yet but I think it was at 15%.</p>
<p>Now:
</p>
<p>For example class of 2015, If you SOMEHOW claim that 26% (total admission of spring and fall) is approximately = to 18% (total admission of spring and fall), then i can say that 18% is the same as 10%, making MIDD as selective as MIT and all those similar… In other words, it’s not true. Also, given that UCB admission rate is higher, the fact that it has similar yield shows that MIDD is more attractive for it’s applicants.</p>
<p>Finally, perhaps you have this British thinking (assuming since ur from Cambridge) that college is only an investment, the prestige is important etc. I understand, but if I were to think that way (and I did the A-levels myself), I would have gone to the UK unis that accept me like UCL or Cass or maybe I would even try to apply to LSE, Oxford or Cambridge. But I won’t… because college to me is a place where you live, learn and love. Obviously, I want to go to a place that treats me as a significant individual, not lost is the flood to thousands of students where ppl are known by their numbers, grads or w/e e.g UCB, UCL etc.</p>
<p>Ultimately, I don’t see a point in doing this whole thing anyway…</p>
<ol>
<li>TLDR? Bottom line, I don’t think it’s right to start comparing schools that are incomparable in the first place. Also, I am shocked I defended MIDD when I didn’t even attend yet. LOL. But who cares, you like UCB, I like MIDD. WE’RE ALL HAPPY! YAY! hahahah everything cool?</li>
</ol>
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