<p>I got accepted into Berkeley (Undeclared L&S) and San Diego (Bioengineering) and I have a hard time choosing which college to go to. Here are the good things and bad things that I have come up with.</p>
<p>BAD:
Berkeley: difficult courseload, competitive, mediocre dorms, mediocre setting, too close to home, weather not as good as SD
San Diego: socially dead, may have to commute to school during jr. and sr. year, too far from home, unattractive girls (so I’ve heard)</p>
<p>GOOD:
Berkeley: prestigous, name recognition, very strong programs, good food, better social setting, close to home
San Diego: nice weather, better dorms than Cal, right by the beach, less competition (?), generally more laid back</p>
<p>Besides the list above, I feel that the major is giving me the hardest time. Bioengineering at UCSD is ranked top 3 in the nation and it is supposedly the next hot job market. Undeclared L&S at Berkeley doesn’t really have anything I’m interested in, other than cellular/molecular biology. I eventually want to go to med school or grad school and I don’t know which one will help me more: the hype over my major at UCSD or the name recognition of Cal?
I’ve concluded that the hype over Bioengineering may die down over 4 years and I’ll be just like the many others with a degree in computer science now. However, the name recognition of Cal won’t go away in 4 years, and that may give me an advantage when applying to grad or med school.
Furthermore, I’ve been told many times that one’s undergraduate major doesn’t really matter, it’s the graduate degree that really counts. Anyway, can anyone help me with my decision?</p>
<p>Right now, I am sort of leaning toward Cal because it’s more convenient, but my first choice has always been UCSD.</p>
<p>Well, in case you didn't notice there's a post on this page that is dealing with this exact same topic.<br>
But if UCSD is your first choice why don't you go there? To go to Cal just because it's slightly more prestigious is not the best thing to do....a lot of people go to certain colleges just because they're more "prestigious" and then end up hating it. They're so close in "prestige" anyway that it's not that big of a difference in the end, and grad/med schools would not give a Cal grad a huge, if any, advantage over a UCSD grad....they mainly care about your grades, test scores, ECs, research/clinical experience etc......
Anyway, visiting definitely helps in this situation...make sure you have visited both places before deciding where to go.</p>
<p>TwylaBloo, that thread doesn't really help. The one guy who is admitted into Bioengineering: premed (not impacted) at UCSD got into Cal for spring admit. I don't have the same problem. I got into bioengineering (impacted) at UCSD and fall admit for Cal. We have the somewhat of the same focus on major, but he has a different dilemma altogether with the spring admit.</p>
<p>bioengineering is gonna be really tough at UCSD since SD is top in the nation for this. Plus, if you final goal is graduate school, then id go to Berk since you'll have a higher gpa than SD bioeng.</p>
<p>is bioengi:premed goign to be hard at ucsd? i know its not impacted...but its under the same deparment and all. do you think its going to be harder than L&S at berkeley?</p>
<p>i was always been told that berkeley people are unattractive...EXTREMELY unattractive. I visited calberk a couple of times and I can personally vouce for the berkeley = "unattractiveness." (but that only applies for males...).... hmm but i'm also biased becuase i'm giong to ucsd.</p>