<p>Prospective Econ/Gov't major...</p>
<p>any thoughts?</p>
<p>Unless money is an issue, without a doubt Columbia. I love berkeley, but Columbia is kind of like a berkeley with grade inflation, new york city, and a little less hippie. The funny thing is, a lot of the California kids I talk to here say that their second choice was Berkeley...as was mine. The smaller classes here and the grade inflation here will help you if you want to go to grad school/law school/etc and NYC is fabulous. Berkeley has lectures with 1000 people. That's like, the entire freshman CC class.....</p>
<p>It depends on your perspective. Personally, I would have significant trouble accepting the scattering of students through NYC rather than have a unified campus.</p>
<p>Also, I personally extremely like the patches of forests and streams throughout Berkeley. That's my personal preference though.</p>
<p>Depends on what you want to do with your Econ/Government degree. Wall street, then Columbia would likely be better. Silicon Valley, Berkeley. Government, as in national government, Georgetown, if that was a selection (in this case, Columbia, because it's on the East Coast).</p>
<p>The economics and government department in either school has about equal renoun and quality of professors (unsure about Columbia, since their new professors in economics are relatively new at their jobs, but considering who they are, I expect they shouldn't have any problems).</p>
<p>The "scattering of kids" mentality that's being thrown around is such propaganda. Just because Columbia is in New York doesn't mean that there is no campus unity and that students spend college years wandering aimlessly and disjointedly through NYC. What is campus unity anyway? Is it something that Berkeley has, where one would be lucky to make eye contact with a fraction of his enormous graduating class in four years?</p>
<p>Berkeley is fabulous. My sister went there for undergrad. But as I've stated again and again, there is not nearly as much "scattering of kids" in Columbia as everyone assumes there is. Berkeley itself is huge as a school, and from what I hear, its easy to get lost (in all the people). Also, Columbia's class is about the sixth about the size of a Berkeley class, so there's much more unity in the sense that you'll know more people that go to the school. The campus is also much bigger than Columbia's which means there will be people that you run in and never see again. At Columbia, generally you will always run into people you've met, over and over and over again. That being said, Berkeley has GREAT rallying spirit for causes, more so than Columbia from my observation, the campus is, while scattered, beautiful (well so is Columbia but Berkeley is much more outdoorsy and funky), and a really cool assortment of people, so I don't want to discredit Berkeley either.</p>
<p>I am also considering between both: Columbia 1st and Berkeley 2nd. Does anybody know what scholarships/honors opportunities are offered by each?</p>
<p>Both great schools, obviously, and the top students at both go on to excellent law schools or phD programs. The difference is the type of undergraduate experience you are likely to have. And, obviously, the cost if you are a California resident. They are similar in that both are places where a student has to be good at gathering information and at pursuing the opportunities. Berkeley has lots of opportunities -- including the UC education abroad program which is fabulous (for a California resident planning on a year abroad or thinking about taking five years instead of four to graduate, I would recommend a UC). But in crowded majors, like econ, I think you need to look into the size of the upper division classes and talk to students about whether they get the classes they need.</p>
<p>collegehunter -- If you're talking about merit aid, Columbia doesn't give it and Berkeley gives a Regent which is just a token $1000 or so. If you have financial need and win a Regents, you will get whatever you need. If you have financial need and get named a John Jay Scholar at Columbia, they will give you your aid as grants rather than loans.</p>
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What is campus unity anyway? Is it something that Berkeley has, where one would be lucky to make eye contact with a fraction of his enormous graduating class in four years?
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<p>Perhaps you are right that the scattering is possibly a large fraction hype. At the same time, so is your statement. It's amazingly simple to insert yourself in various groups around campus and strike up a conversation. The dorms are built in a way to be very condusive to this sort of thing as well.</p>
<p>The realities at either school are probably not as serious as their stereotypes. I'll concede that and say I'll take the stories of Columbia students scattering into the four winds with a grain of salt.</p>
<p>Realize that as tiring as it is for you to keep defending Columbia from unreasonable statements, it is just as much annoying to have to clarify the situation at Cal constantly on forums relatively hostile towards it (in general, not specifically referring to the Columbia forums).</p>
<p>Go Bears! :)</p>
<p>hey i had the same choice, and i ended up choosing cal. anyone else make the same decision? my main reason is that berkeley is better for a few of the majors i'm interested in, as well as both campuses are beautiful but berkeley does have the whole trees and streams thing and i loved that. just as well, the price made a difference.</p>
<p>I just made this decision, and I chose Columbia. These were my reasons:</p>
<p>-- undergrad population at Columbia is significantly smaller
-- Core Curriculum
-- money was better (I'm out of state)
-- NYC, although I love the Bay Area too</p>
<p>Besides those, Columbia is my "dream school" and I knew if I went anywhere else I'd regret it later, EVEN if I wound up having a great undergrad experience (which I'm sure I would have had at Cal). Whoa, run-on sentence. I really love Cal, though, and it was a hard choice! I want to go there for grad school. :)</p>
<p>So now that it's May 1... I wonder where the OP is going?</p>
<p>i picked columbia !</p>
<p>My friend chose Berkeley over Cornell and Columbia. He's majoring in some sort of engineering.</p>