<p>I've heard that Berkeley's education is slipping. Their educational level does not seem to be as good as it used to be. I'm not disparaging Berkeley... but I've been wondering about this for some days now. Especially since I'm trying to decide what college to go to next fall. What do you guys say? Is there any bear-student who agree on this?</p>
<p>where are you hearing this from?</p>
<p>It's an educational counselor of mine. He expect Berkeley's rep to drop about 4 years from now, which is approximatedly when i 'll be graduating. That's why he told me to take that into consideration while i'm trying to decide where to go.
My other colleges are U chicago, Cornell and Notre Dame.</p>
<p>Haha, your educational counselor doesn't know what he is talking about. He flipped open a couple editions of US News ranking guides, noticed that over the last few years, Berkeley "slipped" from being the "20th best" university to the "21st best" university (according to the bizarre, arbitrary ranking methodology), and he thinks the educational quality at Berkeley is slipping.</p>
<p>If you are really concern about this, you should go else where. That way you will not regret your decision for the rest of your life.</p>
<p>Hmm, I actually disagree. I think Berkeley has been steady improving its education since 10, 20 years ago. It went from no guaranteed housing to one-year guaranteed housing for undergrads to two-year guaranteed housing recently. DC food used to be horrible but the past few years it's gotten a lot better. I see more advising programs being set up, the grade deflation isn't as bad as it was years ago, and I think med school admission rates have gone up, and starting salary for graduates have gone up as well. What I think makes Berkeley seem like it's slipping is that first, other schools have improved at a faster rate, probably because they had more room to improve. A lot of schools that were unknown years ago are now starting to catch up and become "elite" while Berkeley's struggle with cuts in fund means that it can't keep up. Also, I think the US News rankings have gotten more accurate since it first came out when Berkeley was ranked #5 in 1981. Now, I don't think it's that accurate now, but I'm not sure if Berkeley's undergrad can really be ranked #5 either. I think more people are evaluating it based on its undergrad and not just the university as a whole (since its grad programs are clearly stronger). Anyway, a multitude of reasons, but I really think its education has been improving.</p>
<p>Did your counselor actually provide reasons for his argument?</p>
<p>Well, our conversation on this subject was short in that we only talked about Berkeley's slipping status the last 5 or 10 min. of our meeting. He somewhat mentioned that info he got comes from Berkeley insiders... he also considered what undergrad students do after their graduation.</p>
<p>I'm leaning heavily towards Berkeley out of the 4 colleges i'was trying to decide though. Among Cornell, U Chicago, Notre Dame and Berkeley, Berkeley is the only one that gives me pretty much a full ride.</p>
<p>"Berkeley insiders?" Slipping status? Sounds like speculation to me.</p>
<p>Berkeley's rankings overall are pretty much where they've been for decades.</p>
<p>I suggest you do your own research on the university's status and come to your own conclusions. It sounds to me like your counselor is basing his argument on a lot of hearsay and speculation.</p>
<p>What the heck is a Berkeley insider?</p>
<p>Berkeley acceptance rates have "fallen" to 22%. Your counselor needs a pink slip.</p>
<p>Psht, your counselor is just jealous that you got into Berkeley.</p>
<p>i laugh.</p>
<p>(10 characters)</p>
<p>Berkeley insider - Berkeley educators, administrators, current students, etc...</p>
<p>Aren't acceptance rates "deflated"? I mean... since the number of applicants increased, (and also the number of unqualified students who gives it a shot anyways)... wouldn't that certainly cause a decrease in acceptance rate?</p>
<p>My counselor's son studied in both princeton and harvard, and his daugter went to both harvard and MiT... the jealous person is me :/</p>
<p>Ask him why the hell he failed in life and became a measly guidance counselor.</p>
<p>Also, the year-to-year trends are completely irrelevant. A school's status takes decades to change unless you have some crazy incident like the Virginia Tech one. </p>
<p>That said, the school is not reflective of your own capabilities as a recent admit. Go where you see fit and get back to us on the academics when you've finished taking a few courses.</p>
<p>Going to a great school doesn't make you a great person. Both of his children could be complete jerks for all you know.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Aren't acceptance rates "deflated"? I mean... since the number of applicants increased, (and also the number of unqualified students who gives it a shot anyways)... wouldn't that certainly cause a decrease in acceptance rate?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Sure, but this happens at many top schools. Why complain specifically about Berkeley? </p>
<p>Additionally, [lenty of out-of-staters don't apply to Berkeley (or any UC's at all) because they are only really interested in one, generally Berkeley or UCLA, and know that it's hard to get in, especially from out of state, thus why should they even try?. So this likely makes fewer out of staters apply compared to Berkeley. Ultimately, is it a wash? Who knows. Speculate away.</p>
<p>Education getting worse? It's possible. One thing we might want to distinguish between is purely university related academic things (classes and what not) and education experience (the kinds of things that vicissitudes focused on, such as food and housing), as well as possible consequences of going to Berkeley (jobs after graduation, salary, graduate and professional school admissions, etc). Which sorts of things are you asking about?</p>
<p>If you want to argue the education has gotten worse, perhaps you would want to see if class sizes have increased or decreased, if student to faculty ratio has increased or decreased if teaching is more or less emphasized than it used to be, whether or not it has improved. These sorts of things. Some things point to Berkeley's getting better- more freshmen and sophomore seminars, say. But others, in my opinion, probably point to it being worse. Larger numbers of capped majors, I believe a trend towards a larger student to faculty ratio. I would argue an increased number of capped majors fits in here, although I'm sure some students that made the cut or feel differently for another reason would disagree. Some might have stayed the same, such as the emphasis on teaching (I'm not sure).</p>
<p>I wouldn't worry about this sort of slippage as much as where you feel you will be happiest and where you feel most comfortable, as where as where you think you will do best. All are great and would provide somewhat different experiences.</p>
<p>What might you major in, and what factors matter most to you about college?</p>