<p>Acccepted by both, which one is the choice?</p>
<p>whats ur major?</p>
<p>wqcc, It truly depends on what you are looking for. What are thinking of majoring in? Would you be happy at a very small school? Or do you want a bigger school? Do you want a busy, urban campus? Or would you prefer a quiet campus? Do you want to be taught most of what you need to know in class? Or do you want to learn on your own? Do you want to be able to take a wide variety of social science and humanities courses or would you be happy with a small choice of classes for hum? you might also want to consider the difference between a traditional dorm & the hovse system at Caltech. </p>
<p>For my son the choice was Caltech. He'd taken classes at Cal as a high school senior. He's a sophomore now at Caltech and is happy with his choice. He's on spring break now and his mantra this break seems to be "Caltech is HARD". He'd found classes at Berkeley a breeze. Its been a huge adjustment, coming from high school/UCB where he was the best in math & science in all his classes and now at Caltech he's an average student. Will you be happy if you find yourself at Caltech "an average student"? </p>
<p>Go to prefrosh weekend at Caltech. See if you feel like you fit in. If you've never spent time on the Berkeley campus, go hang out there (I don't know if they have any prefrosh activities). They are two very different places. </p>
<p>Congrats on your acceptances & good luck with your decision.</p>
<p>If you can fit in at Caltech, go there; else Cal ftw.</p>
<p>It's a lifestyle choice. Let's say you go to CalTech. You're going to be in a dorm with people just like you, studying the same stuff you are. It's mostly male. It is incredibly intense. (This is what I hear.)</p>
<p>If you go to Cal, you'll be in a dorm with a wide variety of people, wide variety of talents and interests and personalities. </p>
<p>Classwise, you can choose what you want at Cal. Physics has an Honors sequence for the introductory classes, Math has Honors almost all the way through. So you could take it easy, or you could really challenge yourself. From what I undestand CalTech is all hardcore all the time.</p>
<p>If possible I would take a long hard look at both campuses and figure out where you think you'll be happiest. If your interests are not so focused, Berkeley is better. If you want to study foreign languages or humanities, etc., Berkeley has so much to offer, while CalTech is going to be limited in those areas.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the suggestions. Actually it is my son, not me, got accepted by both colleges. He will be major in chem or something similar. based on his interest and personality, I think Caltech fits him better, but Cal is closer to home. We will pay a visit to Caltech in April.</p>
<p>my bf rejected caltech for berkeley because he thought cal tech was too small. his graduating senior class was larger than the undergrad population at caltech. he thought berkeley would be much more of a learning experience. (and there are far more girls here and people do stop studying to see the sun once in a while, haha.)</p>