<p>
[quote]
Cons
-Huge classes, huge school
-Career services aren't superb
-No real alumni connection
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Actually, look at the recent rankings of undergrad b-schools in Business Week (two or three weeks ago). Berkeley was ranked third because recruiters ranked Haas undergrads as number 1. A lot of this kind of ranking typically has to do with career services, which have been dramatically improved in the past few years at Berkeley (and that specifically is underscored in the article).</p>
<p>My question for you would be academic: in addition to or apart from your stated interest in Haas, do you plan on taking quantitative economics, if you go to Berkeley? And can you handle the math that would be involved? In case you don't know, at Berkeley, there are two economics tracks: one quantitative and the other not. Because if you take the quantitative track, I would argue that Berkeley would not be almost as good academically but better than Dartmouth. It has one of the top econ. departments in the nation and the department really respects (I have heard anecdotally) the students in the quantitative track (not that they disrespect the others, but they know that the quantitative economics folks if they do well are going to become peers in a few years if they go into academics).</p>
<p>Having spent a fair amount of time with a fair amount of Dartmouth and Berkeley grads (and being one of the latter myself), I would say that there is a sense of alumni affiliation much greater with Dartmouth folks. One of my best friends is a Dartmouth grad, and though it's tough to make generalizations, my impression is Dartmouth is much stronger among the Ivy League schools in having a Greek-like mainstream, sometimes intolerant streak. My friend is a great person, though pretty buttoned down. Of course, generalizations don't always hold and maybe my experience is exceptional. Off-beat people seem not to have as much fun there. </p>
<p>Berkeley has all kinds, from conservative to liberal, mainstream to offbeat, as I am sure you are aware. For me, this was great. For others it is confusing or annoying.</p>
<p>I think the financial comes down to how heavy your budget constraint is (is 50K something you'll have to work hard to make up or is it just a bit of skin off your family's teeth?) If it's not a big deal, I would probably recommend Dartmouth for the following reason: I always have a bias towards people getting into something culturally (and perhaps geographically) far afield from where they grew up. </p>
<p>If you go to Berkeley, I think you'll have a great experience, but I would recommend starting early finding out the things you need to know to make the experience a great one. Berkeley rewards those who have their stuff together and take a very active approach to organizing their education and lives there. Some early questions would be: go Greek or not? live on South or Northside? how to make yourself a good candidate for admission to Haas? Etc. Get some mentors quickly. And you'll do just fine.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>