<p>i has been accepted to UPenn and Berkeley (my top two choices), along with Cornell, UCLA, and UVA. With Berkeley and UPenn being my top two choices, i can't seem to choose which would be the better place for me. I will be majoring in Biology and plan to go into medicine (neurosurgeon) or veterinary medicine (specializing in horses.) My father likes the Ivy League prestige that comes along with UPenn. My mother is just interested in the best place for me. However, i am not sure which place would provide me with the best experience. I currently live in the DC area, so a different environment away from the East Coast would be nice. However, it is hard to turn away an offer from an Ivy League school.</p>
<p>any opinions are appreciated :)
thank you.</p>
<p>ps - financial aid has not arrived from either of the two schools, so for now that is not an issue, although i am expecting both places to give good financial aid, as UCLA offered me about $9,500 next year in scholarship money.</p>
<p>Assuming $ isn't a huge issue, here are a couple of things I'd consider.</p>
<p>Both schools will have terrific academic preparation for premed. But how about class size, especially in those all-important weed-out classes?
At Cal, being as huge as it is, it can be sometimes difficult to get into the classes you want. How much would that be an issue at Penn? What about research/internship opportunities at either school? Do you have any other academic/extracurricular interests where one campus would be better at than another? For example, if you play squash, Penn would be vastly better; Cal would be more tennis/hiking-friendly. Penn is more urban, Cal a bit more peaceful, with many nature-y places a stone's throw away. </p>
<p>Consider housing: it can be tough in Berkeley. How would your post-freshman year options at Penn compare to Cal? </p>
<p>Consider student body: bigger at Cal, very diverse and very international. In pre-med both student bodies will be competitive - but the overall campus feel of Cal may well be more relaxed. </p>
<p>You have two great options - two different places - but you can't go wrong with either. Congratulations on all your acceptances.</p>
<p>Penn has a vet school (a darned good one). If you decide to go the pre-vet route, this would be a huge bonus. DVM applicants are usually expected to have several hundred hours of veterinary-related experience.</p>
<p>Definitely Penn if you are interested in vet med- particularly horses. Altho New Bolton Center is not on the Penn campus (it's in the horsey suburbs) you could try to get a job there over summers to get experience.</p>
<p>Very different campus feelings. Very different physical environments. Both with very diverse student populations- Berkeley has a much higher % Asian American population, however. Both with high % international kids. Very different weather. Both 'prestigious'- only one with a med/vet school on campus. One will expose you to the California lifestyle, the other keeps you in cheap shouting distance of your family without being in their backyard. </p>
<p>These are of course very broad strokes so it might be helpful to you to think about why you were able to eliminate UCLA, Cornell and UVA from consideration. What don't they have that you feel you need/want? How big a school do you feel you want to be at? How important is it to you to have smaller class sizes? How do you learn?</p>
<p>Both are dream choices for some, congratulations on having such nice choices.</p>
<p>to tell you the truth, the reason why i eliminated UCLA, Cornell, and UVA were because of the prestige factor, which is extremely important to my father. My dad was most happy with me going to Berkeley or UPenn. Also, i am pretty much adaptable no matter where i go. I've been to 6 different schools in my life, lived here, then lived in Korea, then lived here again, so different environments don't really bother me. Also, i am Korean, so both universities are fine really, in relation to the Asian population. As i said again, i am very adaptable - my learning style will adapt to where i am. Also, my family is planning to move with me to college, because i only live with my mom and my younger sister (dad is in Korea working), so we are extremely close.</p>
<p>ps - i am planning to attend Penn Previews and also the Berkeley Open House day in April</p>
<p>as i said, that is what my father feels, not me. I feel that Cornell, UVA, and UCLA are probably just as prestigious as UPenn and Berkeley, but these are the two schools my father is happy with.</p>
<p>I doubt there is a significant difference between the 2 in terms of med/vet school admissions...but probably you would want to check this out. Beyond this, given what you have said, I am sure that after visiting the answer will be clear to you. You can't go wrong, but probably will be able to 'know' what feels right. It will be cheaper for your family to leave near Penn than Berkeley....</p>
<p>Penn is an amazing place to be if you are a preprofessional. Penn is has very good advising for premeds. I don't know if I can say the same for Berkeley (someone else may). Because both places will have many premeds and it will be competitive (well Penn is competitive, Berkeley may start to border cutthroat) so having a good adviser should help you through the process. Also, Penn has better med school admission numbers. Not only is the admission rate higher, but Penn students get into med school with lower stats than the national average (this is a good thing). Penn has freshmen seminars (not sure about Berkeley) so you can have an intimate learning environment as a freshman. Also, I'm not sure about the offerings of Haas to non business majors, but Wharton offers a lot to the CAS and SEAS students, and the Health Care and Management has some very good classes for premeds to take. Finally, Penn strongly encourages premeds to perform research and there are many opportunities to do so. Berkeley has many great labs as well, but you will have to check elsewhere to see how many undergrads are able to gain positions at those labs. At Penn, you can start as a freshman.</p>
<p>Hope this slightly biased view helps you decide to go to Penn.</p>
<p>wow all these replies have been so helpful and greatly appreciated by me. As of now, my family and I are leaning more towards Penn...we loved the campus when we visited, and there is a big bonus to having both an excellent med AND vet school located at Penn. </p>
<p>I'd choose Penn if I were you. Better prestige in terms of pre-med, cheaper living cost, more connections to medicine and veterinary medicine and less cut-throat environment. Oh and don't forget there is more grade inflation here at penn than in berkeley. </p>
<p>go for Penn all the way (of course I'm a bit biased because I'm also at penn :D)</p>
<p>Venkat.... I'm not sure why you're responding to these threads when you're not even a student here. I'm not saying the points you make are necessarily wrong, but...</p>
<p>In response to the OP.</p>
<p>Check the archives of Penn's student newspaper (<a href="http://dailypennsylvanian.com%5B/url%5D">http://dailypennsylvanian.com</a>) for coverage of the Penn veterinarian school treating Barbaro. I'll assume that if you are planning on specializing in horses I don't need to explain any further. In terms of Medical schools, Penn's is better respected than Berkeley's but for Biology, I believe Berkeley has a better graduate biology program. </p>
<p>Penn also has a very strong pre-professional bent, but that shouldn't be a problem if you're pursuing the pre-med track.</p>
<p>Personally, I would shy away from Berkeley because of the incredibly large asian population there. Yes, you are Korean...but Penn is a much more diverse environment, with a large enough Asian minority that you shouldn't feel isolated. </p>
<p>But, if you're deciding by weather, pick Berkeley hands down. Today was just a miserably gloomy day in Philadelphia.</p>
<p>If you're sure of pre-vet route, go with Penn. It is extremely hard to get into Vet school, so having the undergrad at Penn will give you a bit of a push if you apply to their Vet program.
A relative is at Penn Vet now & it took her two tries to get there because it is so selective in admission. If she had had Penn as her undergrad it may have given her an edge the first time she applied.</p>
<p>PhatAlbert, I respond to these threads because the OP will be in my class. For some reason, I want near a 100% yield rate and for the class to be overcrowded. Also, I try not to make any assumptions and try to present Penn in the best light I can. Is that wrong?</p>
<p>Nope, nothing wrong with that if you are a marketer for Penn. But both Berkeley and Penn have wonderful professionally prepared promotional materials.</p>
<p>Posts on these boards I think, are supposed to be more honest perspectives gathered from first hand experiences. I think for someone who hasn't seen other of your posts around this board they might be misled into thinking you are a current student.</p>
<p>Not saying you shouldn't post, and I'm glad that you're happy to be coming to Penn.</p>