<p>These are the only two places that I've been accepted to. I plan to major in either biochemistry or bioengineering (I was accepted into L&S), or maybe both if I can. In many ways, I see Berkeley as preferable: it's in California which I love, is far away from home, and has both better engineering and biochemistry programs than Rice does. If I went to Berkeley, though, I would basically end up with $130,000 in debt by the end of my four years. This seems ridiculous and is right now making me very hesitant and depressed...anyone have any insight/advice?</p>
<p>Well I don’t know anything about Rice, but for Berkeley here’s some things you should know:</p>
<p>If you decide to major in biochemistry, there is no major called ‘biochemistry’ so you’ll need to choose between molecular and cell biology (known as MCB) or chemical biology (known as chem bio). MCB focuses more on biology while chem bio focuses more on chemistry. If you choose the chem bio route, you’ll need to transfer into the College of Chemistry, which is not the easiest thing but is doable.</p>
<p>If you choose bioengineering, you need to transfer into the College of Engineering, which is very difficult. I think there are some topics on here already about transferring into CoE so you should look into those.</p>
<p>And some food for thought about majoring in both. Because the two majors you choose would be in different colleges, you would pursue simultaneous degrees (rather than double majors). If you really want to do this, you need to decide early on because it takes a lot of good planning and organization. For simultaneous degrees, you need to fulfill both colleges’ graduation requirements (all the breadth classes/GE’s, whatever you want to call them) along with all the pre-reqs and upper-divs for both majors.</p>
<p>I hope I’m not scaring you away, because these are some world class programs at Berkeley, but I also don’t want you to choose Berkeley without knowing this and then be totally overwhelmed when you find out. I wish I could tell you something about Rice but I don’t know anything about it.</p>
<p>How much are you paying for Rice? </p>
<p>If you got into one of their insane financial aid programs, I would definitely go to Rice. It’s a private university so you’ll escape the “overcrowding” problem of public universities. No matter how highly ranked a program at a public university is, I somehow feel that its worth making a considerable sacrifice to escape this. Also, Rice is higher ranked than Berkeley as an undergrad institution so you’re not really losing out as much as you think.</p>
<p>Consider Berkeley only if the cost difference is small.</p>
<p>well…i wish i had somewhere to choose from lol jk if i did, my life would be a little bit harder. now i know im going to berkeley cuz that’s the only top notch school i got into. : ] but if i had a choice, i would probably choose a private school if it was equally good as far as academics…mainly because their are smaller classes and im shy. also the teachers write u recs that show that they know u. however, berkeley has office hours so u could also get to know teachers there. berkeley’s big, rice is small.</p>
<p>i was in the exact same situation last year, except i am in-state for Cal</p>
<p>just follow the money; also, don’t let a couple spots in the rankings affect you in any way. doing well, in either school, will bring you all that you will need.</p>
<p>$130,000 is a looooot of dough. Even that much debt for Rice isn’t worth it. How much would Rice be?</p>
<p>I’d pick Rice, since Cal is a UC and California is having a LOT of problems economically right now which will most likely adversely affect their public schools.</p>
<p>rice has a better bioengineering program, if its significantly cheaper, by all means, go there</p>
<p>berkeley’s bioe program is fairly new, although their chem programs are #1 in the world</p>
<p>If you want chem and the price difference with Rice is small, go to Berkeley. Just for the program, it would be insane not to, unless you’re really really wavering about going into bioengineering.</p>
<p>You should visit Berkeley before deciding. There are plenty of people who love California but do not love Berkeley.</p>
<p>FWIW, my girlfriend (at the time) transferred to Chem Bio and had no real problems doing so. But her GPA was decent, over 3.3 if I remember correctly. Rice is a good school, but I personally am not a huge fan of the Houston area…</p>
<p>Go with Berkeley. </p>
<p>I am originally from Houston, Texas, but chose to not go to Rice University because of the too-close-to-home, as well as the smallness of the class size. </p>
<p>In Berkeley you have a lot more opportunities for undergraduate research and it’s also a lot easier to get around than Houston (you will usually need a car there other than metro). The BART system here in Berkeley is really convenient to get you around to places, as well as the AC Transit bus system. Although Houston is my hometown, I feel really restricted.</p>
<p>I disagree with mars2008. You should visit Rice too before making your decision. Consider that Berkeley is a bigger school, more impacted classes, more administrative bs (especially if you are thinking about transferring into COE, that sucks), potentially poorer advising, potentially larger/less personal classes, public, Southside Berkeley is certainly not as affluent as the Rice-area neighborhood, not as car-friendly, etc.</p>