Intended majors:
Berkeley: chemical engineering, college of chemistry
UCLA: CS with bioinformatics focus
USC: Biochemistry
-Premed for all
I am strongly leaning USC because of the sheer amount of scholarship aid they are giving me. USC may be a bit less prestigious than UCLA and Cal, but I’ll get more personalized advising/attention, won’t be sitting in jam-packed 1000 student auditoriums, struggle to get the classes I need.
I’ll be posting this in all 3 school’s forums so I get a more nonbiased idea. Which school would you guys recommend? Any reasons I should attend Berkeley (or UCLA) over USC?
UCLA doesn’t have classes that large. The largest pre major courses are about 170-210. GEs can be 300ish but that’s classes like history or poli sci. The largest lecture hall can maybe seat 500 max but we don’t have any classes that large. The overwhelming majority of classes are less than 60 students. They offer so many classes and sections I haven’t heard of anyone not getting a class they need. You mention you were admitted for CS, Engineering majors are guranteed their classes. Engineering as a built in “minor” called a technical breadth. Pre med is an option so your pre med classes would be built into your CS degree so you won’t take extra classes to graduate. The benefit of choosing UCLA is that if you decide to not go to or don’t get into medical school, you’ll have a CS degree witha. Bioinformatics minor at a top ranked engineering school. UCLA engineering students are also assigned a faculty advisor. Something normally only seen at the grad level. Everyone has to meet with their faculty advisor once per year at least. They’re super helpful and will do things like write letters of rec. you can choose any Professor to be a faculty advisor provided they aren’t already full but most are not.
Also all UCLA stem classes are taught by PhD holding faculty not grad students. Grad students are only TAs. Cal has some grad students teach intro classes. Assuming usc gave you full tuition and nothing else the net costs should be somewhat similar. Something to keep in mind since usc only admitted you to bio chem which has lower career opportunities than CS with just a bachelors degree.
Regents “meets need”, are you sure you didn’t get any aid? Also regents has lots of perks (priority registration, faculty advisor, etc…). I had a son go to UCLA and a son go to Berkeley (Regents). Neither had any trouble getting classes, or talking to academic advisors. Maybe they don’t hold your hand as much as a private school, but the resources are there if you seek them out. I would recommend going to all three admitted students days.
You have to look at it in a different way potentially. Instead of seeing all the money they gave you, think of how much you will actually be paying. The cost difference will be $14K a year. That’s not really all that much in reality depending on what you are looking for. Maybe that $14K will tip the scales maybe it won’t.
Classes at Berkeley won’t be that big except for a few lower division classes.
USC is an absolute mess at the moment as you know, president resigned due to a doctor selling meth, a scandal from an OBGYN at the health center 25 years ago, and most importantly - cheating on admissions. Hard pass. I am a Trojan myself (with inside access) and my son is going to Cal. Schools that offer merit money are not on the same level as public ivies or ivies - hence the incentives. I learned all about the merit aid strategy at an admitted students weekend at Minerva @KGI. Minerva is the future and they think any school with a merit aid is not worth attending. Lastly, USC has many TA’s teaching classes to hundreds of students. Like all other schools, the most popular classes go to seniors.
@momtwin if you read the fine print it’s tuition only that’s free, which is $50K. So if you think USC is giving away $50K, then UCB and UCLA is giving away $36K. Now does it sound like that great a deal?
If you are just paying for room and board at USC, that should be much less expensive than full cost at a UC (at least 30 to 35K for living and tuition). USC’s tuition is 55K and they are raising to 57K next semester.
UCB is not immune from some of the recent scandals. Recently in the news, a Canadian was found to have paid a large sum of money to up his son’s SAT score which got him admitted… I thought I read he also lied on his application about playing on a sport team. This student graduated last year from UCB. Also, there has been recent sex related charges on the UCB campus (football last week, and the past few months and recent years, numerous professors being accused of sexual advances).
I am not selling USC, but countering some of the comments above. At USC, there is more accessibility to professors and you can get classes easier and graduate in 4 years. The last point is, you can still get into a top graduate school from USC. Personally, I believe it is extremely competitive at UCB and other top public schools because of the steep bell curve. At UCB, the professors make the tests very difficult and if you graduate with a near 4.0 GPA, it is truly impressive.
do not try and bring UCB into the admissions scandal. Having some guy cheat to get admissions into a school where the school has no knowledge of the cheating (Berkeley) is way different than all these parents bribing school employees for admissions and buying off administration with buildings (USC).
And as far as cost goes, it doesn’t matter if USC charges $57K or one million dollars a year for tuition, the out of pocket difference for the OP is still only $14K a year between USC and UCLA/UCB. The OP is still paying for room and board at USC. I’m seeing a thread where people are debating whether $75K a year is worth the difference between Stanford and Wake Forest, so $14K a year is chump change compared to $75K.
With Regents they will have priority registration, so getting classes will be easy. My kids and all thier friends graduated on time or early from the UC’s and Cal States. I feel like this “not being able to get classes” line is something private schools like to say, but I have seen it happen at private schools. At a school like Berkeley, or UCLA, you might not get the exact time you want, but it is a big enough school that you can get all the classes you need, you just might have to take a class at 8am, or on a Friday.
All fine choices, but I would be concerned first with getting the classes, and grades, you need for medical school. If USC has TAs then my daughter has not encountered one in her 4 years at USC. Lots more TA teaching at the publics.
Is a TA a big deal? Both Stanford and Harvard have over one thousand TAs. At Berkeley, yes almost every discussion section is led by a GSI but rarely do I see a lecture conducted by one. I would bet the house that USC has tons of TAs as well.
I brought up the admission and sex scandals only because the other poster bought up the same issues as a consideration in where to attend. The Canadian did pay about 100K to have his son’s SAT rigged. I am not downgrading Cal as I am an alum there.
I don’t want to engage in this tick for tack, but UC’s do have buildings named after wealthy and affluent alumnus. Off the top of my head, i.e., Haas, Samueli (UCLA), Anderson (UCLA) come to mind… I am sure there are other buildings but not as many as the private schools as the privates don’t get as much CA state funding as public schools.
The 14K difference is the UC yearly tuition (assuming the other costs between the 3 schools cancel) and multiply times 4 or 5 years, would be significant for some or many families.
In fact, EECS (I don’t know about other colleges/departments) does not allow GSI to deliver lectures, except for summer classes. I know that because my D once was a GSI, teaching a summer class.
CS and EECS have UGSIs which is weird, since you can be in the same class with an UGSI as a classmate, and have this same person as a TA in another class. But then again, there is no other way around with so many people applying for CS courses every enrollment period.
I have to say, though, that many UGSIs are outstanding and far more helpful than some “true GSIs” or even instructors who are doctoral candidates or PhDs who keep whining about students wasting their precious time. So, the fact that we have UGSIs just means that some of our undegrads are truly remarkable, in my opinion.
The Regents Scholarship at Berkeley “meets need” without loans. Per the website: Scholars without financial need receive a $2,500 honorary award per year. Scholars with financial need are awarded a scholarship up to their full need as assessed by the Financial Aid and Scholarships Office. Also, Berkeley has a Middle Class Scholarship that is available for all students: The Middle Class Scholarship program is available for new, transfer, and returning undergraduate students with family incomes and household assets up to $177,000 per year who attend the a University of California campus. So dot228 will get a minimum of $2500 per year. And may be eligible for more financial aid. And if the family is making more than $177,000 per year, maybe 14 K tuition difference is not significant to them.