<p>The sample included students from 43 states plus the District of Columbia. States missing from the sample were Alaska, Delaware, Iowa, Mississippi, North Dakota, South Dakota, and West Virginia.</p>
<p>“Go to whichever is cheapest” is pretty good advice if you are choosing between schools you think are reasonably close in quality. Referring to findings as “totally bogus” or “totally crap” is not, if you haven’t made any effort to understand the approach, its strengths and weaknesses, and simply have an emotional aversion to the findings. If you have some principled objection to the idea of rankings in general, well, o.k.</p>
<p>You will not feel out of place in San Francisco area.
I am from the Midwest (not Chicago). When I visited Stanford and Berkeley it was VERY refreshing to see Asian policemen, bus drivers and store clerks and so on. However, you will be a minority in Providence.</p>
<p>I will probably go back to work in China.
UCB has much better international (especially in Asia) reputation than Brown.</p>
<p>Also, dont forget about the weather. Northern California weather is so nice!</p>
Nobel Prize winners teach undergrads at Berkeley.
Smoot recently taught Physics 7B when he received the prize.
Perlmutter will be teaching his “Physics & Music” class to undergrads next semester.
A buddy of mine had McFadden for mathematical economics.</p>
<p>Robert Reich (though not a Nobel Laureate) has taught undergrad courses.</p>
<p>The myth that star faculty don’t teach undergrads does not apply at Berkeley.</p>
<p>Rankings are based on the assumption that one size fits all, and that is why they are total nonsense.</p>
<p>Figure out what’s important to you, and use those criteria for your own college search. Do you crave small class sizes? Look at LACs. Do you want a huge variety of classes? Look at big state Us. Do you want to be far away from home? Do you want a Greek life? Do you want a big sports scene? Do you want to study a particular less-common subject? What’s the budget, and what kind of FA do you need? Do you thirst after prestige? How important is the style of architecture on campus? What about the political environment? Study abroad opportunities or interesting internships? How important are your parents’ preferences?</p>
<p>No school is strong in all these areas. The only person who can “rank” schools for you is you, based on your own criteria and diligent research.</p>
<p>Actually, Table 6 of the Revealed Preferences study isolates the preferences of students from each of 9 regions. Students from every region preferred Brown over Berkeley. Among students from Region 9 (CA, OR, WA, HI only), Brown was the #7 preference, Berkeley #25. Harvard was consistently preferred at #1 for all Regions; Yale was consistently preferred at #3 for all regions; Brown was consistently preferred at #7 for all regions. Preferences for all others varied by region. Berkeley achieved its highest preference (#22) in Region 7 (AR,LA, OK, TX). </p>
<p>
I don’t see that. The survey questionaire did ask where the student’s parents attended college or graduate school. However, the ranking only covers undergraduate programs. I don’t see any references in the September 2004 paper to grad schools at those institutions. Not sure what your point is here.</p>
<p>Basically, this survey suggests that students who get admission offers from both schools rather consistently choose to attend Brown, regardless of where they live. Of course, like any other survey, it is subject to the limitations of the data sample (the professional adcademics who authored it are candid about this). And of course, the preferences of others may or may not be a good model for your own preferences. But, you might want to at least ask yourself why many top students who have the choice do choose Brown, even though the sticker price is slightly higher for CA residents and much higher for non-Californians.</p>
<p>^ correction to that last sentence:
… even though the Brown sticker price is slightly higher for non-CA residents (OOS students) and much higher for Californians.</p>
<p>^ I don’t think you’ve seen the OC enough. Sure, Brown was mentioned. But Brown was mentioned only in 1 or 2 episodes whilst Berkeley was mentioned almost the whole time. Four of the main characters have Berkeley connections. Kirsten Cohen went to Berkeley undergrad and eventually managed her dad’s real estate’s empire. Sandy Cohen went to Berkeley undergrad and Law proper. Sandy, a very proud Berkeley alumnus, was convincing his biological son, as well as, his adopted son to follow his footstep and enroll at Berkeley. The introvert, Seth, didn’t apply. He thought that with his wimpy and anti-social character, he won’t fit in Berkeley’s very social, vibrant and dynamic campus scene. Both Ryan and Marrissa Cooper applied to Berkeley and both characters are two of the most intellectually gifted kids in the TV series. Ryan Atwood finally went to major in Architecture at Berkeley. His adopted parents were extremely proud of him. As if the whole story was a cut for Berkeley’s characters. Go watch it again so you can see that Atty. Sandy Cohen wears a Berkeley shirt almost all the time. lol</p>
<p>I have to agree though that the large majority of people in most countries have no clue about schools in the US except through exposure to media or the tag Ivy League even people associated with academia. </p>
<p>I always crack up when people talk about international reputation. All you need is to say that Brown is ivy league and you are set. No issues:</p>
<p>As I’ve indicated, that study made a concerted effort to examine regional differences in college choice. Indeed, this appears to be one of its strengths.</p>
<p>Revealed preference theory was developed by a respected economist (Paul Samuelson). This particular application was co-authored by scholars from the Harvard Kennedy School, the Harvard economics department, and Penn/Wharton. Yes, those are all East Coast institutions. Is that your evidence of EC bias? Its top 25 is pretty much the same set as the USNWR top 20 universities + USNWR top 5 LACs. Two different rankings, using completely different methods, came up with nearly identical sets of top schools. This one ranks Brown 8 positions higher, Berkeley exactly 1 place lower. This reflects the biases of the sampled students who make these choices.</p>
<p>Just had to pop in because somewhere in this thread it was suggested I was jealous of Brown and duke(?!$&@). I spent Freshman year at Harvard. Didn’t care much for it and transferred to Berkeley. Only other transfer options I considered:Yale and Columbia- which I got into as well. Why would I be jealous of Brown or Duke, when I am Harvard material. Ridiculous. I am not jealous of a lessor Ivy League or a hillbilly Ivy. The point that so many here are making is that from an international perspective, Berkeley - with its plethora of Nobel Laureates- has tremendous pull. Lesser Ivies and schools like Duke -less so. It may not be fair or fully justified- but that is how it is.</p>
<p>I was raised in a Bruin household. Bruins, then Golden Bears. Worst enemies:Trojans. Never would have considered Stanford. My family would have abandoned me and left me to be raised by feral wolves. Might have gone down differently-the feral wolves may have forced me to attend USC or Duke…</p>
My comment about your supposed jealousy was a joking jab at the ranking rather than you personally - any ranking that lists a school twice cannot be taken seriously. Anyone familiar with my posts knows I have great admiration for all top colleges and a good many others besides. </p>
<p>Alas, I had no idea my quip would be poking the (Golden) bear, resulting in a truly admirable show of classiness. Perhaps I should conclude such statements with smilies. On second thought…nah. ;)</p>