Berkeley vs UVa vs UCLA

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Berkeley
1

<p>I've been offered admission to UVa, Berkeley, and UCLA. It looks like these are the schools that I will be having to decide on for Fall 2013. I know all three schools are really good institutions, and I'm just trying to find anyone who can provide reasons/knowledge as to which college I should attend and WHY. I'll be looking at other threads for each college (as well as each college's website) to help make my decision easier.</p>

<p>Some background info about me:</p>

<p>I am a first generation, Mexican-American student. I live in California, so obviously the cheapest would be to attend either Berkeley or LA. However, I am the type of kid who loves to see new things and venture out. The farthest place I've gone is Las Vegas, Nevada. I have a passion for seeing and learning new things. Being an open-minded kid, I'd love to go out of state to UVa. I want to meet different people from a different lifestyle. I believe the East Coast would expose me to a many different cultures, lifestyles, people, and ideas. I want to gain new perspectives of life! Also, I'm still waiting on a financial aid offer from Virginia. Because of my family's income, I SHOULD be offered a package with a small loan amount.</p>

<p>ALSO: I'm hoping to study Business at whichever college I end up attending. I'm very interested in Investment Banking, so a good idea would be go to UVa (if money allows). And if I don't end up going into IB, I know UVa has connections with many Fortune 500 Companies.</p>

<p>*I put in an enormous amount of studying and time in applying for out of state schools. My mind was set on going out of state for college, hoping to take in the whole college experience. Due to only being accepted to one out of state college, I slightly feel that if I ended up in-state, I would have done so much work for nothing. But my optimistic personality reminds me that all those essays, all that time studying for the SAT, has taught me to set goals and do whatever it takes to reach them. I've become a better and brighter writer. I yearn to see bigger and better things. I've lived in the Central Valley my whole life, have not traveled much. I go to a school where half of the students don't even know what the SAT is. Most students here end up at our local CC, and drop out eventually. And about half end up not even going to CC, and just go straight to work. Those that go to college are all set on a UC. As for me, I prefer not to go to a UC. I want to be different. Also with California budget cuts, it seems that UVa would offer more for me. My tuition deposit is waived for UVa and currently waiting for verification from Berkeley and LA for waivers. Also I get to partake in the special Spring Fest/Blast for UVa because I'm Hispanic. I feel that UVa is calling my name. But I will be visiting each school as well.</p>

<p>So what I'm hoping to find out are answers to these questions:</p>

<p>What are the pro's and con's of each school?
Why should/shouldn't I attend UVa? UCLA? Berkeley?
Having only lived on the West Coast, how do East Coasters perceive UCLA? Berkeley?
What if I don't get accepted to McIntire? What else does UVa have to offer? (I Know the two UC's have other strong academic areas)
Is there a business program that provides more opportunities than the other two schools?
How's the weather at each school?</p>

2

<p>Here is an old post about investment banking recruiting:</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-berkeley/1321246-economics-investment-banking.html#post14204944[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-berkeley/1321246-economics-investment-banking.html#post14204944&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>What kind of net price after financial aid grants and scholarships are you looking at for each school?</p>

3

<p>Can you afford UVA? </p>

<p>Berkeley or UCLA are much different than the Central Valley… And a reasonable distance from home. </p>

<p>Berkeley’s Haas School of Business for undergrad is one of the top programs in the country. Hard to beat in-state tuition. </p>

<p>Passage of Prop 30 has stabilized funding.</p>

4

<p>@ucbalumnus If i do work-study for either LA or Berkeley, I’ll be looking at 5k in loans per year, with no initial contribution from my parents or me. Still waiting for UVa’s offer. Also, just been offered admission to NYU Stern.</p>

<p>@UCBChemEGrad Still waiting for an offer of aid.</p>

5

<p>Thank you, ucbalumnus ! love the link. son not wanting I.B., but in Econ to find a heavy math major -same as many engineers is the math in lower levels, which he can do, but does love the politics, history, humanties, philosophy , lobbying. hugely helpful thread, thank you all.</p>

6

<p>The economics major at Berkeley has a math intensive option (Economics 101A, 101B, 141, requiring Math 53 and 54). Economics majors intending to do PhD in economics are advised to take more math than engineers do, including Math 104 and 110.</p>

<p>There is also a less math intensive option for the economics major (Economics 100A, 100B, 140, requiring Math 1B or 16B).</p>

7

<p>Reading your bio, I got the tingles and almost wept, reading about what you’ve done for yourself. Hats off. !!! You so deserve a wonderful life.</p>

<p>$5k loans is just fine. The Pell u know, is grant, not loan. You just don’t want to leave ugrad with more in loans than say, the low-bar income-average for new grads: $35K to be safe. You’ll need money for grad school. If the money is right, i say U VA. Live your dream, you earned it.</p>

<p>[Shop</a> for Used Textbooks, New Textbooks, Rental Textbooks & eBooks: Direct Textbook](<a href=“http://www.directtextbooks.com%5DShop”>http://www.directtextbooks.com) (buy books three weeks in advance adn pay .25 cents on the dollar of college bookstores. and buy yourself a used copy of Ben Kaplan’s “Almost Free to go to college” or some variation of this title, brain farct. I know two people who got $500K for ugrad and had to give scholarships back. Every $500, $1500, $2000, $10k adds up.And they’re tax free. Don’tdrive up your expected family contribution by working too much over the summer. Work/study money doesn’t come off your expected family EFC contribution. While doing lower level courses, see if you canknock some off at your local central CA community college, but check with registrar with course descriptons and get syllabus, old one or current to registrar at U VA toclear it for transfer. will only work for breadth and lower level major requirements, obviously.</p>

<p>You are my hero, ComeUpKid, and I get goosebumps reading your success story and the adversity you overcame. lots of similarities for my son,but he’s white.</p>

<p>My son took all state of Virginia schools off his common app after I read on CP or College Confidential from several parents that the state of Virginia has a new revenue source: rich kids in frats driving to their off-campus housing parties and it’s just roulette whether a kids, who’s reallynot a drinker will end up with a MIP (minor in possession). We removed U VA, William and Mary, and Wash Lee. Rich people’s kids have no worries: pay the $10,000 to $20,000 in attorney court fees and the arrest, charges go away. Not so for people like you and me. And I told my son, even tho he’s not a druggie, drinker by any means, that it’d be his dumb luck. </p>

<p>Second, my son’s very into Econ, to find somethignsort of humanities with a big math component: schools hve several math tracks, the better ones, such as Princeton (whose low-end econ track , not the mathy one is still higher thanmost regular ones such as lowbar Claremont-the-joke McKenna (caught padding scores adn GPG’s toraise themsleves in the rankings game similar to Emory.) I read Econ, which is part of a business degree, the classes are impacted and kids can’t get what they need. i read this in early fall 2012. may be true, may be worse, may be better? Only way to find out is visit and randomly interview around campus or these threads. We are worried terribley about not finishing in 4 at CAL or UCLA or UCSD (top econ program at UCSD -rated #15 nationally, adn the best in CA for biochem and #5 for this nationally). </p>

<p>Your loans and scholarships mostly all expire after four years. Very important is to attend a school with very high 4, four not six, year graduation rates which speaks to many things: the caliber and focus of your peers which will influence you, the focus and support and resources of the college. Princeton is #1 at 91%. and then it’s down hill from there. CAL is the higheset in the CA system with 69%, UCLA, …CalPoly SLO is a scary 24%. You and us, cannot afford to be in college ugrad more than 4 years: the grants and most scholarships dry up after four for us, and the colleges are more than happy to sign you up for loans. U VA is 84.5 % in 2010 (the most recent year I can find these stats online). U VA is a Questbridge.org school: there is a healthy campus and admin acceptance and support of people like you and me: disadvantaged and more so you with your not being White - my heart really goes out to Blacks and Native Americans knowing what the white man did to build their fortunes on their backs and now it seems Latinos too. </p>

<p>Hands down if the money is making sense, I’d go to U VA, and be very careful to not be in cars of frat people with booze or their homes till you’re of age. The south is frat football nutty mania: cherry picking for the Virginia State Police budget builders busing college drinkers. </p>

<p>Live your dream: U VA. !!!awesome, so happy for you.</p>

8

<p>don’t go to NYU for many reasons. Columbia, now that’s so something special -but maby only for grad school? law? dunno, but you can’t have enough money and social standing in Manhattan is my fantasy. </p>

<p>but my infor is very limited and I’m likely all washed up. WOW, even tho I’d not want NYU, no matter, they want you. Who knows. I don’t like what they’re doing to the Village.</p>

<p>Last year i contacted a top prof, tenured, teaches grad students, may have been chair of International Relations to ask him how do we evaluate the best Ugrad I.R. school. he had plenty of ideas to share. Do the same . go to where u want to end up and find out who they want from where. Too bad this Columbia guru said, "have your son call or email, I’d love to share."but junior couldn’t be bothered. You’re running out of time, but they’re all there and Spring break is over for colleges.</p>

<p>typical high bar math track Econ: four semesters of calc, multivariable diff and integral calc (two semesters after the BC level of high school AP), Linear Algebra, DiffEq, calc-based stats, econometrics and then I’m guessing endless math is a big component of upper division Econ. These are the classes taken and background of the Wall Street Math quants who destroyed, engineered the biggest economic worldwide melt down in human history, far surpassing the English and Dutch civilazation’s downfall as they became financiers, not manufacturers, creators of tangible products and services. I here, so big is the swarms to finance/banking that some Ivies have let go of their Civil engineering programs to meet the demand.</p>

9

<p>oh, and Analysis, and proof-based work. lots of proofs, think back to geometry proofs and imagine , oh so, much more.</p>

10

<p>WOW. I really don’t know what I’m talking about when it comes tosummers and probably more. Just read all of ucbalumnus’s link. summers are not for doing high school AP work at a community college. sorry about that.</p>

11

<p>@corneliasusie Your words are so kind. To be honest, that adversity doesn’t come close to what I’ve faced throughout my years. My brother was diagnosed with cancer at a young age, and after that my mother had supernucleopalsy or whatever. but anyway, taking the city bus, being evicted from multiples houses/apartments, sucked. I remember one time looking into my mother’s eyes and seeing her choke up because I asked her one night how are we going to eat. (Dead broke). She said i don’t know son. I recall finding a quarter on the ground, and telling her how about some top ramen (at the time, bags were ten cents apiece). My brother and I got to eat that night. I don’t want to write a sob story, but that’s just a little more insight. theres a lot more too, but yeah. I’ve started at the bottom and the only way I can go is the top. I refuse to let anyone or anything stop me from reaching my aspirations. My adversities have shaped a strong mentality for me. As long as I stay humble, diligent, and remember where I’ve come from, I can make it to the top. I may not be the brightest, but I guarantee you I will do whatever it takes to be successful. :slight_smile: And thanks for the advice/insight. I’ve had to research all the college stuff/financial aid on my own for 13 colleges, stay up long nights studying for the sat, with music and my mom as my only support. It’s people like you that make it easier for me and remind me that I am doing right in this world. It’s amazing how music has helped me so much.</p>

12

<p>Also just been offered a transfer option to Cornell’s AEM major. I can go to any college for one year, take four classes they want me to take, and if I get a 3.5 i can transfer. and it’s non binding, so If i go to UVa or Berkeley and fall in love with the campus there, I can stay. Or if i dont get the gpa, I can still be at a good school. Never thought I’d get an opportunity to go to an Ivy league school. Nearly just about cried when I read the email. I guess dreams can come true.</p>

13

<p>Wait until financial aid offers come. (And note that while you are keeping the transfer option to Cornell in your back pocket, you need still need to see if Cornell will give you good financial aid if you want to exercise that option.)</p>

<p>But it looks like you have good affordable choices in Berkeley and UCLA (though be aware that investment banking is very competitive, as the linked thread above notes).</p>