<p>Our daughter was excited to find that she has been admitted to Berkeley for Fall 2010. However, she was also admitted to Occidental and Lewis & Clark, both with enough financial aid to make them similar in cost to UCB. We live 40 minutes from Cal and she is familiar with the campus and the city. But the small class size and excellent reputation of Occidental appeals to her as does the crunchy granola feel of LC and it's proximity to Portland. </p>
<p>I am a public school teacher here in California and know that UCB has experienced budget cuts but remains an excellent, though somewhat demanding school. Our D plans to major in English and minor in Art. So is a great public university like Cal a better choice or should she do undergrad at one of these smaller LACs? And how academically rigorous is Lewis & Clark?</p>
<p>My son will be going to Oxy, so I obviously was okay with that choice. That said, I think the choice between Cal and the LAC options is more about the campus experience (a big university or a small and more intimate environment). If she feels that the LAC alternative is attractive, I would recommend Oxy over L&C. Not only do I believe it to be a superior academic institution, but I have real reservations stemming from the very high freshman attrition rate – either L&C is taking kids who are not ready for the experience, or a goodly percentage of the students don’t like what they find when they arrive on campus. Either way, extensive freshman attrition is a bad sign.</p>
<p>Our daughter loves everything about Cal but the size. Her choice is between Cal and Wellesley (approx 2,300 students). She’s visiting both in the next few weeks. My gut says she’ll pick Wellesley, but we’ll be thrilled with either option.</p>
<p>My D had to choose between Cal and Pitzer, though Cal would have been OOS for us. She chose Pitzer and has been very happy there. I think Cal might be the best choice if one is majoring in engineering, but for an English major I personally would choose the small LAC route.</p>