You’re in the Berkeley subforum and you’re bound to get a plenty of Berkeley bias. Berkeley students, from my experience on these boards, tend to be some of the most enthusiastic about their school. (They could easily win the school with most school spirit on CC.)</p>
<p>Here’s my perspective. If you go to the Northwestern boards or any other uninvolved university, they will not say such rosy things about Berkeley. Back East, they have great respect for their Eastern schools. Northwestern is bound to better received. Here in the West, Berkeley is perceived to be easy to get into. A lot of the student body at Berkeley is not that impressive. Internationally, foreigners generally only respect big, major universities. Hence small schools very well received domestically such as Dartmouth do not get as much attention.</p>
<p>What I’m saying is that, from my experience, what you heard prior to this thread is the more objective perception of Berkeley; but don’t just take my word for it. Get second and third opinions from many different sources. Go out there and ask people! And not just people on the internet but real-life people.</p>
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Those rankings would not be well respected by a student attending MIT or another high ranked school. Top university students don’t need “rankings” to reinforce that they are in the best university. Rather, they will laugh at rankings that seem to insinuate that they’re not at the top.</p>
<p>That’s true, a lot of good smaller schools aren’t as well known by foreigners as major universities… So yeah the way people regard schools in different regions definitely differs. But since Berkeley is perceived as easier to get into in the West, how does that reflect on employers in the West Coast? Would companies in Cali be less keen on hiring Berkeley undergrads because it’s not as highly regarded there?</p>
<p>Also, I was wondering if there really are a lot of jobs available for Econ/Business undergrads from Berkeley? I know it’s located in Silicon Valley, which is a big plus for people interested in Engineering, but it doesn’t seem to help much for people doing Econ… I mean of course there are probably tons of banks in California, but since most of the headquarters of financial companies are situated in NY (and Wall Street is there too), would someone like me have better job opportunities after going to a college closer to the East Coast in that case, like Northwestern?</p>
I think you’ve got things mixed up. Berkeley is more respected on the West Coast than the East Coast. Despite these students pushing departmental rankings on you, Berkeley is still pretty much regarded as a rank #21 university to many people.</p>
<p>On the East Coast, due to their superfluous number of high ranked colleges, many people look down on “public education”. The situation is exacerbated by the fact that many universities such as Duke and Cornell have deals with their home states to make it easier to admit their students. </p>
<p>In terms of Berkeley’s prestige:
International > West Coast > East Coast </p>
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Haas is well respected on Wall Street; however, there are some business students who do use your logic and choose East Coast schools to get closer to NYC. Some students dislike Econ at Berkeley because they consider it a fallback major for those not admitted to Business at Haas.</p>
<p>EDIT: Now that I think of it, most people do choose a comparable East Coast school over Haas if they are OOS. What I said is more applicable to in-state students who are more concerned with budgets. While Haas is well respected, there are probably more Wall Street connections at schools such as Kellogg. I’m going to give you the generic advice to go to the university closer where you intend to work.</p>
<p>(And now that I look at the Grad school ranks, Kellogg is actually higher ranked then Haas 3 to 6. You should go to Northwestern. The school is better in your field.)</p>
<p>OP: why would you ask this question on the UCB board…there is MAJOR bias.</p>
<p>And I agree with sentiment. Berkeley is more respected on the west coast than on the east. I’m from an asian family, and my parents and other asian parents always want their children to go to berkeley because most Asians are from the west coast, and Berkeley is most famous there. But when I ask people from the east coast, the majority would prefer NU over Berkeley. (just anecdote though~) And NOW is definitely not the best time to go to a UC because of the budget deficit…</p>
<p>My friends who go to UCB have said that it’s quite difficult to graduate in 4 years because there are so many students that it’s hard to get into the classes you want…</p>
<p>I’m not disagreeing with the things said here, I believe Berkeley would probably be better regarded in the West Coast, and obviously NU for the East Coast since there is bound to be regional bias. So there’s the prestige difference for you.</p>
<p>Honestly though, I would say go for the school you really prefer in terms of atmosphere, surroundings etc. I’m enrolling in university myself this year (so take my advice with a pinch of salt, because…yeah. Hey, at least I gave you a warning.) but to be honest, go with your gut feeling. Going to NU might give you a slight edge over Berkeley if you’re planning to stay around the East Coast and vice versa, but a lot of my seniors in both NU and Berkeley have had little trouble with landing internships/jobs regardless of geographical location because the truth is, when you’re already attending a top notch university, I’m honestly wondering how much would that bit more of prestige will help you in terms of getting a job. As far as I know, people don’t necessarily go, “Well, I think XXX is more prestigious/well-known, therefore XXX’s econ students must necessarily truimph YYY’s.” </p>
<p>What I’m trying to say is, discerning employers should be able to evaluate whether you are a suitable candidate for the position not only by your school (even if it is their alma mater or something), but also by your portfolio as a whole, so if I were you, I would go to the school I feel most comfortable with, grab hold of opportunities and don’t slack off.</p>
<p>Also, I heard that double majoring, especially in L&S, shouldn’t be a problem as long as you keep your grades up and fulfill the prereqs and everything.
As for classes, I (personally) think that class size is pretty overrated, but maybe that’s because I’m used to big lecture-style classes, plus I believe they also have small classes to supplement these lectures. As for whether you can get the course you want, it was also a major concern of mine, but many people have assured me that if you bother to spend a bit of time to do some planning/research for your courses and fiddle around with your schedules, there shouldn’t be any problem graduating within 4 or even 3.5 years. Of course, it’s best to seek out more opinions on this. :)</p>