<p>My daughter was admitted to both schools. We live in Orange County. Both are great schools. Berkeley has a great reputation. She told us today she has decided on San Diego. I couldn't help but feel like I should steer her to go to Berkeley. She is young having skipped a year so maybe they weighed on her decision. She is going to be a Bio major. Just thought I would throw this out here and see what everyone thinks. I told her to think about it for the day and see how it feels and then we will send in the required paper.<br>
Any help would be much appreciated...
Thanks</p>
<p>My daughter made the same choice. Also a bio major. My daughter just didn’t like the area around Berkeley or the San Francisco area. And she liked the college system at UCSD. Better for some personal attention and making a group of friends. Both are excellent schools. The kid has to live there for four years. A happy kid is a kid likely to do better.</p>
<p>The Berkeley environment can be a huge culture shock for a sheltered kid from Orange County.</p>
<p>UCSD is known for their bilological programs.</p>
<p>Her decision is not out of the ordinary.</p>
<p>If she wants to go to UCSD, she should. There will be no limits to her future either way. Limitless possibilities.</p>
<p>Well, here’s the thing. I REALLY want somebody to tell me that the UCSD student reviews I found at the website: students review dot com are faulty data. </p>
<p>I have read each and every one of the 100+ uncensored reviews, as well as those of other colleges like UCLA, UCB, Tulane, George Washington, Villanova, UCSB, BU, and others on the short list for applications for next year. Those UCSD reviews have led me to dismiss UCSD out of hand… I cannot imagine attending a college described so vituperatively by current students – many of them BIO majors. If the 57% dissatisfaction rate were an isolated statistic, I would simply conclude somebody compiling the data made a mistake. Problem is, that dissatisfaction stat is backed up 100% by the written current-student reviews co-located on that website.</p>
<p>Can someone please tell me that website was hacked by some disgruntled anti-UCSD student/alum? I’m serious. UCSD seems like a beautiful campus with highly ranked academics, but after reading those student reviews, I would be deathly afraid of what an undergraduate student’s experience would be there.</p>
<p>“The Berkeley environment can be a huge culture shock for a sheltered kid from Orange County.”</p>
<p>VERY true, but I would still try to talk with her fully about it and have her consider Berkeley. It’s not a horrible decision obviously to go to UCSD, but I think parents need to step in a little more in these circumstances.</p>
<p>Well, crayfish, maybe there is comfort to a parent in knowing that your daughter will probably be safer in La Jolla than in the south side of the Berkeley campus. UCSD is still the 14th best university in the world, not a second-rate U.</p>
<p>14th best university in the world??</p>
<p>Yes, fallen, according to <a href=“http://www.arwu.org/ARWU2009.jsp[/url]”>http://www.arwu.org/ARWU2009.jsp</a>. Yes, criteria were research based, but still you’d be taught by an outstanding faculty.</p>
<p>UCSD is a fine institution. It is no way the 14th best university on the planet. That is ridiculous, but numbers can be skewed in many a direction.</p>
<p>The last NRC study seems to agree with ARWU, putting UCSD in 10th place in the U.S. for overall quality of all its rated programs. </p>
<p>[NRC</a> Rankings](<a href=“http://www.stat.tamu.edu/~jnewton/nrc_rankings/nrc1.html]NRC”>NRC Rankings)</p>
<p>Of course, research quality may or may not be relevant to undergraduates, but my point is that UCSD and UCB are both outstanding institutions that either choice would be an excellent one.</p>
<p>Its funny in the last round of UC budget cut debates. The UCSD faculty tried to draft a letter to tier the UC system comparing themselves with UCLA and UC Berkeley and would constitute the “top tier” of the UC system.</p>
<p>They were laughed out of the proverbial room, but it’s always hard to argue with a homer.</p>
<p>Yeah, be careful saying things like it is the 14th best university in the world. I looked at their methodology, and not only is it only for the hard sciences, it is a very suspect set of criteria in any case, and certainly nothing pertaining to undergraduate quality.</p>
<p>Look, guys, I’ve never been affiliated with UCSD. I’ve merely presented two highly reputable rankings that academics tend to use and am impressed by the research/faculty/academic quality of the school. Many seem unaware of this quality, and I’m just giving credit where it is due. </p>
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<p>Where did you get this information? Can you provide a link to an article?</p>
<p>^ Here you go:
[UC</a> San Diego profs come up with budget fixer: Close UC Merced - UC Merced - MercedSun-Star.com](<a href=“http://www.mercedsunstar.com/2009/07/09/942002/uc-san-diego-profs-come-up-with.html]UC”>http://www.mercedsunstar.com/2009/07/09/942002/uc-san-diego-profs-come-up-with.html)</p>
<p>Well…she decided on UCSD…I made her wear the decision around for 24hours and she annouced today that she is standing by it and is really happy…So I am really happy for her…She got in the Honors program…So now I have one at UCI and one at UCSD…two more to go…Thanks for all the advise…I think it helped her…</p>
<p>Techie -We are not beating up on you, just saying that neither study (ranking) addresses undergraduate quality at all. And as a veteran of the undergrad/grad systems, there is little to no correlation between the undergraduate experience and the graduate one. So the ARWU ranking only takes into account Nobel Prize and Fields Medal (Math) winners at a school along with publications in two journals, Nature and Science. Honestly, even for grad schools this is a laughable way to rank universities. What about Chemists who publish in the various journals of the American Chemical Society, or German publications such as Angewente Chemie (don’t quote my spelling on that one)? These are considered, along with a couple of others, the premiere journals in the field. Very few publish in Science or Nature. Probably the same situation for Physics, and certainly for mathematics. And the Fields medal is only awarded to 2-4 mathematicians under the age of 40 once every 4 years! I don’t think I need to go on for people to get the flaws in this one for ranking anything, much less for a school to go to undergrad.</p>
<p>Similarly, the NRC study is for doctoral programs only. Enough said.</p>
<p>I agree that the undergraduate experience and especially the individual student’s experience can be hard to quantify. Students’ comments on websites like the one suggested by Dunn earlier can vary wildly from one individual to another within the same school and major. I hope the OP’s daughter has read those comments (and others in similar sites)–biased and personal as they are–and has made a more informed decision.</p>
<p>crayfish, glad it worked out for your daughter. Forewarned is forearmed. Make sure she understands the importance of finding some way to develop a small group of friends, even when it seems she may be swimming against the tide (I refer to the student reviews I posted about). The Honors program sounds like it might facilitate that!</p>