<p>anothercrazymom, if your son will still be able to do a semester (or year) abroad at St. Andrew’s if he really wants to experience it. He will still pay his regular tuition to W&M and go to St. Andrew’s, which is a really good deal for in-state students. I think for out-of-state students it is actually cheaper to directly pay tuition to St. Andrew’s, I could be wrong on that though.</p>
<p>S is hoping to go abroad, he is just very disappointed to miss out on this opportunity. He would like to be an IR major with a minor in history or economics.</p>
<p>Berkeley is definitely less rigorous overall it seems. They give credit for 3s on AP exams…for W&M they only accept 4+ it seems, bio requires a 5+. That was important for me since getting a 3 on an AP exam is cake and I’d prefer there to be fewer students with 30 credits before even taking a college class. Berkeley will be more focused compared to W&M, but for IR I think you’d benefit more from a more overall approach which W&M offers. W&M also has ~80% of their students graduating in 4 years…Berkeley is down with 60-65%. Berkeley also routinely admits students with 3.0ish GPAs from community college over students in UCs with higher GPAs (UCSD student with 3.4 being rejected in favor of a CC student with 3.2). </p>
<p>In the end it is up to you, but W&M is truly fantastic for IR (berkeley is a very good school, but partially because there are quite a few great students in the entering class. Berkeley seems a bit better for engineering/science)</p>
<p>anothercrazymom, we realize that missing this opportunity is disappointing for incoming and current students but your student can absolutely major in IR and minor in history or econ at W&M and like another post said, study abroad at St. Andrews through W&M.</p>