Cal vs. U of Chicago

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Berkeley
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<p>My youngest daughter just got into Cal - got into Chicago EA a few months ago. She's very excited about Cal. I'm a little concerned though that she's not doing a proper analysis of the two schools. From what I've read her classes will be much larger at Cal, teaching will be more impersonal, and she'll have to fight the bureaucracy to take the classes she wants and to make any changes in major, etc. Her overriding concern about Chicago is that it's where "fun goes to die". </p>

<p>I'm totally confused - I'd save some money if she goes to Cal (even though we're OOS) but I want her to get the best education - academically and socially. When I read the comments from students at <a href="http://www.studentsreview.com%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.studentsreview.com&lt;/a> Chicago gets higher marks but I know the site isn't scientific in any way. </p>

<p>Help! Any thoughts!!!</p>

<p>P.S. Her third choice is McGill - which would save me a boatload but her older sister is graduating from McGill this year and my youngest wants "her own school."</p>

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<p>My daughter is a Chicago graduate. She had a great 4 years, worked like crazy, but also had a wonderful social life. The threads about where fun goes to die or about ugly girls are just not true! The city is also a lot of fun!</p>

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<p>I really wanted to go to UChicago; it was my dream school and I would have gone to it in a heartbeat over any Ivy that accepted me. In the end though, I'm in state and my parents couldn't justify spending $20k more per year on UChicago. I've had a good experience at Berkeley, of course, but sometimes I still wonder what it would be like if I'd gone Chicago. </p>

<p>One reason I am really glad that I ended up at Berkeley instead of Chicago was realizing that it might not have been that great for me to have remained in this academic intellectual ivory tower. In high school, I was really dedicated to the idea of a liberal arts education, learning for the sake of learning, holing up and doing research all day long, intense intellectualism, etc., etc. Hence wanting to go to Chicago. I'd also gone to private school all my life. Coming to Cal was definitely eye-opening and I think gave me a better sense of the 'real world' more than Chicago would have. </p>

<p>I never thought of Chicago as the place where 'fun goes to die'. My best friend from hs goes there and she loves it. But I think it's a certain type of fun that people are referring to when they use that phrase. There definitely isn't much of a party scene and I do think kids there are a bit more reserved than at other schools. But my best friend always tells me about going out with her friends to the aquarium, the opera, playing flag football, etc., and that all sounds like fun to me. </p>

<p>Yeah, the bureaucracy and hugeness sucks at first. I was a class of 250 students in high school with 8 deans who basically solved any bureaucratic problems we had, I was used to 15 people classes. But I think beyond those huge scary intro courses, most courses aren't too bad in size, and there's always freshmen seminars that are great to sign up for and get to know a really good professor. Bureaucracy is terrible, yeah, but you end up really learning how to take care of things, get stuff done, and not rely on people, which we'll all have to be doing in a few years anyway. </p>

<p>I didn't have the best time adjusting to Cal and sometimes I'd look at my UChicago acceptance packet sadly, but ultimately, I think a different experience was good for me. </p>

<p>Sorry for such a long answer, I kind of got wrapped up in my own reflections :)</p>