<p>For those students who chose UCLA over Cal (past or present) please tell me your reason for doing so. My dilemna is that Cal is more renown for their political science department, yet UCLA seems so much more inviting. If any of you are pre-law and attend UCLA please offer some advice. Thanks so much.</p>
<p>I'm in the same situation as you are right now. However, my decision is coming down to location. I just can't see living 40 minutes from my home town. It's basically my compromise over not going to the East Coast. But I would be curious to see why others chose UCLA over Berkeley. I'm still slightly unsure...</p>
<p>I turned down Cal for UCLA. But thats cause I got rejected from Cal.</p>
<p>Honestly though, I would have chosen UCLA over Cal anyway. I like the atmosphere and environment down there. I think I'd fit in.</p>
<p>blehhech...this same topic is in about five different places on CC right now.</p>
<p>since you're planning to go to grad school, I would argue that the difference between Cal and UCLA is pretty minimal when it comes to applying for grad school. both will get you into wherever you want to go...assuming you keep your GPA up, of course. so because of that, I say you should go to the school that fits you better. </p>
<p>UCLA, all the way.</p>
<p>Right now I'd probably say 80% UCLA for me, one of the primary reason is that it's much closer to home (I live in Orange County), and as saxshackdan said, undergrad schools don't make that huge of a difference. Unless Berkeley gives me better financial aid offer ... Oh my major is Biochemistry, so I'm still not sure which one is better for my particular major. Plus, UCLA honors sounds really tempting! I went on the Berkeley website and saw that they have honors beginning senior year with the completion of a thesis?</p>
<p>"D" got into both and is opting for UCLA. She doesn't like the Berkeley area or the dorms. She's been there twice. Plus, she can drive home on any given weekend if she likes. We will be visting UCLA Wednesday and I think she will fall in love with the area once she sees it. Also, CAL doesn't have a neuroscience major and UCLA does. :)</p>
<p>yeah...i went to berkeley in the summer and it was really depresseing...bad weather, dirty city...just didnt feel right</p>
<p>cal's pros: great public university, good grad school (so that means good TAs), great variety of food, near SF, great sports program, greek life, filled with students who were smart enough to go to ivies</p>
<p>UCLA's pros: great public university (basically same as CAL), great athletics, great weather, great community, great opportunities due to location, filled with students who could have gone to ivies, great value, and much more.</p>
<p>its strange but some of the people ive talked to from CAL seem to not speak as highly of their university as UCLA students.</p>
<p><a href="http://ls.berkeley.edu/ugis/cogsci/%5B/url%5D">http://ls.berkeley.edu/ugis/cogsci/</a></p>
<p>Bad weather? Few places on Earth have what most people call "better" weather, and sure, LA is one of those places (southern california as a whole). you shouldn't judge weather on a short visit, but do what you will.</p>
<p>Your pros and cons list excludes Greek life from UCLA, when really more UCLA students are involved in Greek life than Cal students.</p>
<p>actually.. i don't think he necessarily had a cons list to speak of. I guess greek life is another pro for ucla?</p>
<p>You're right, there was no con's list. I'm just pointing out that the Greek life is more prevalent at UCLA than at Cal, where it is still somewhat prevalent. I don't think the list is very exhaustive or thorough. You could easily include Berkeley as having great opportunities because of SF and the Bay Area (and it's much easier to get to much of SF from Berkeley than much of LA from UCLA, especially without a car), but it wasn't on there. <em>shrug</em></p>
<p>acutally la is very accessible due to the busing system.</p>
<p>LA is so spread out, what do you mean when you say LA is very accessible? I'm not saying you can't get from place to place, but getting from Westwood to most places is much more difficult without a car than getting to most places from Berkeley to SF with public transportation. It's the nature of the cities and their geography.</p>
<p>yeah its probably easy for berkeley students to get to sf...im just saying that la has a great public transportation system also, so to get from part to part is not hard for ucla students if theyre knowledgeable about the routes. either way, cal and ucla are great portals of opportunity. drab, do you go to cal? im just asking cause if you do i would appreciate it if you could tell me about your overall student life there.</p>
<p>I'm sorry be a criticizing sitckler, but LA's public transportation system, but i don't know if it's great. Perhaps it's good, but people don't call it "great" very often. I agree, both are great portals. I go to Cal, and would talk about it more later.</p>
<p>I'm also having a difficult time choosing between Cal and LA. At first when I visited LA I thought it was so great... but then I just did the overnight stay program at Cal and absolutely loved it there. As a result, I'm making a last minute re-visit to LA so I can try and compare the two equally... sigh this decision is sooo difficult.</p>
<p>And I can attest to the fact that Berkeley's transportation (free busing, but particulary the BART) are outstanding transportation systems. The BART was so convenient. Going to San Francisco (while it does cost $6.50 round trip on the BART) is very fast and easy.</p>
<p>jasonx, what quesitons did you have in particular?</p>
<p>i dont have any questions regarding cal anymore, thanks anyway. submitted my sir for ucla a week ago. drab, i dont know if this is a personal question and if it is you dont need to answer it: are you pre-law or pre-med? just in case you are, i would appreciate if you could tell me about the opportunities at the UCs and what you plan/planned to do during your 4 years. thanks.</p>
<p>Potentially pre-law. If you're pre-med, I advise volunteering at UCLA's hospital, or one nearby, to get as close to seeing what being a doctor is really like. There are pre-law frats and what not, but a good bet is to intern at a firm, talk to lots of different lawyers about their job, get a stellar GPA, and ace the LSAT. A few jobs doesn't hurt. If you like policy, UCDC and UC Sacremento (not sure if UCLA has this) are there. Take a logic class or something. Really think about why you want to go to law or med school- don't just fall into it.</p>