Does a Berkeley degree have the wow factor of HPYSM in America?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Berkeley
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<p>@JeeGee, both undergrad academics and prestige.</p>

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<p>To add on, this is why Cal students continue to insist their rivalry with Stanford extends to academics when the rivalry should be one of sports only. They are led to believe their undergrad program is just as good as Stanford’s and HYP when that is clearly not the case. And when you have 5500+ students graduating every year with that same mindset, it tends to stick.</p>

<p>Nothing against Berkeley – it used to be my dream school – but I just wish the administration could be more honest and transparent and not falsely promise its undergrads that they’ll get to be involved with world-changing research, when the majority of those opportunities are for grad students only. I actually visited the campus a few months ago and my friends were complaining about something called URAP and how you have to go through an intensive application process to get research with professors…not exactly what they touted in the brochures.</p>

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<p>“Cal students continue to insist their rivalry with Stanford extends to academics when the rivalry should be one of sports only. They are led to believe their undergrad program is just as good as Stanford’s and HYP when that is clearly not the case”</p>

<p>This is a good point. I’m on the Stanford campus a lot, and there’s a ton of respect and collaboration between Stanford and Cal at the graduate and professional school level. But that respect doesn’t extend to Cal’s undergraduate programs.</p>

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<p>This is not true. The UC system as a whole aims to take the top 12.5% of California high school graduates (currently using formulas to approximate the top 9% statewide and the top 9% of each high school) as frosh, but that does not require any individual UC campus to take anyone from the top whatever percentage.</p>

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<p>Here’s an expert to answer the OP’s query: the NYTimes Nuptial’s scoring system as summarized by Katie Baker in [Matrimonial</a> Moneyball](<a href=“http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/6769919/matrimonial-moneyball]Matrimonial”>» Matrimonial Moneyball)</p>

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<p>You don’t seem to be ecstatic about Berkeley. If you’re wanting to go to school for engineering, Berkeley is one of the best (just behind MIT and Stanford). It’s got a significant amount of prestige and people on the East claiming to never have heard of it probably live under rocks.</p>

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<p>@TheBanker,</p>

<p>Could you explain how taking in J.C. students diminishes Berkeley’s prestige?</p>

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<p>^ Because in many cases it is much easier to be admitted to Berkeley as a J.C. student than as a freshman. For example, a number of students from my high school who had virtually no chance of getting into Berkeley or LA as freshmen (UW GPA < 3.7) decided to go to J.C. for two years, got their easy 4.0, and got into Berkeley or LA as transfers. Since the prestige of a school is generally correlated with how difficult it is to be admitted, Berkeley’s policy of admitting a large number of transfer students diminishes its prestige. </p>

<p>However, as TheBanker pointed out, it is fully within Berkeley’s obligations as a California public university to accept students from community colleges.</p>

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<p>The whole “prestige is lower because of transfer students” thing seems to be promoted mainly by those who want to base their status on their high school achievements, rather than their college achievements. That students who may not have been able to show top level high school achievement but get serious and do well in college (CC) and are considered for transfer admission to four year universities is a good thing in terms of educational opportunity for all.</p>

<p>CC->UC transfer students include some very good ones, including those who graduated from Berkeley and later went on to top PhD programs in their majors.</p>

<p>Here is a publicly known example:</p>

<p>[Top</a> graduating senior a rags-to-academic-riches story](<a href=“http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2011/05/10/medalist2011/]Top”>http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2011/05/10/medalist2011/)
[Aaron</a> Benavidez | Department of Sociology](<a href=“http://sociology.fas.harvard.edu/people/aaron-benavidez]Aaron”>Aaron Benavidez | Department of Sociology)</p>

<p>Note that although Stanford does not admit that many transfer students, 18 of the 31 it admitted for last fall came from CCs, so Stanford apparently agrees with the UCs that CC students can be worthy students.</p>

<p>[Stanford</a> welcomes Class of 2016 and incoming transfer students](<a href=“You've requested a page that no longer exists | Stanford News”>You've requested a page that no longer exists | Stanford News)</p>

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<p>I am a graduate from Vanderbilt and my kid is an undergraduate from Berkeley.
I talked to a long time professot at Engineering school at Vanderbilt and he classify Berkeley Engineering school one of the best if not the 1st , oand at least on the same range of MIT and Caltech.
He finalizing saying well some of people may argue with my point of view and may say Stanford.
the person writing this me ,I did not do any research and I am not trying to open a can of worm I am just printing what one of the tenure engineering Vanderbilt professor said.</p>

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<p>I am from Germany/Brazil. What I can tell you is that internationally Berkeley has a much better reputation than here in America, definitely on par with HPYSM. All my 4 Brazilian friends here at Berkeley chose Cal over some other Ivy school, as did some of my European buddies. In fact 2 of the 4 got into Yale and Princeton respectively but they came to Cal. I think what happens is that internationally nobody is looking at USNWR. What really matters is the number of famous faculty, prestige in academia, etc all of which are really reflective of grad school instead of undergrad. In Germany everyone was impressed when I said I went to Berkeley, but I was surprised that that did not hold true here in the States. In a sense I did fell fooled, but on the other hand I don’t know what many of you are talking about when saying Berkeley’s name doesn’t give you interviews at top Investment Banks/Consulting firms. I know a big number of people here at Cal who are far from top academic performers who got offers from top firms such as Goldman-Sachs, Blackrock and Citi to name a few. Maybe it’s because top students don’t want to work for these firms anymore, you tell me.</p>

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<p>Yup, and this really sucks for Asian students in California because they tend to get pushed by their family to attend Berkeley over non-HYPSM schools that they’d rather attend. (Speaking from second-hand experience).</p>

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<p>Really, the U.S., and especially California, is probably the only place where this sentiment holds true. You’ll be fine. And if you decide to go back to your home country, you’re golden. International students who go back to their home country get the most value from attending Cal (though they also tend to pay the most). </p>

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<p>Hopefully they are in engineering/CS…I think Cal has a higher global ranking, but Princeton doesn’t even have med/biz/law schools and Yale’s biz school is a bit weak. So I don’t know about that, but meh. </p>

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<p>You can go anywhere you want from Cal, but it’s just harder to do so because of how many students there are with the exact same university on their diploma competing for those same spots.</p>

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<p>GARGGAURAV: You have got it right! Berkeley, in the USA, is not a “bragging point” for undergraduate education. The reason being, a typical American student, considers many factors while selecting the list of schools to apply for! Academic rigor is just one of them:) In Asia, the admission is purely based on “scores” and hardly any importance is given to the other qualities the prospective student may bring to the institution. In my opinion, the 4 year of your undergraduate education, in the USA, is so very unique that academic reputation or prestige is hardly discussed by the student. Trust me, which ever university you decide to join, you will find the campus life, the learning opportunities (beyond the core subjects of your choice), and the overall experience of “College Life” will give you an experience you are most likely to cherish throughout your life. </p>

<p>With regard to dinner table discussion, about the prestige factor, I don’t think the top public universities like Berkeley, Michigan, Virginia, get the same kind of attention like the private universities. Duke may not be so well known in Asia, but in the USA, it has a different standing. Duke is just an example only:)</p>

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<p>Where would Notre Dame stand in all of this?</p>

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<p>Not really on the same level. You never hear people talk about the ivies and ND in the same phrase</p>

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<p>ND is virtually unknown outside America. I only know it’s a good school because I am on CC and have been in touch with US news and rankings.
But I don’t think that should make any difference practically, unless you wish to work abroad. I heard it’s highly respected in the east and has an amazing business school.</p>

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<p>Even the most ignorant people in India recognize Berkeley…however they don’t even know where It is in the US…Berkeley is a hot brand guys :D</p>

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<p>The way I look at it - In California, or rather in the whole of west, the only schools that can justifiably call themselves better than Berkeley are Stanford and Caltech. So we are pretty good!</p>

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<p>^What about Harvey Mudd?</p>

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<p>Hmmm… It’s debatable. I did not apply to Harvey Mudd but I know that I would have chosen Berkeley over it. One could argue for either side. Objectively, I would say that Harvey Mudd and Berkeley are in the same league. So it will be wrong to call one better than the other.</p>

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<p>What is caltech’s position in the international stage? I know here in the us (Esp the east coast) a lot of people haven’t even heard of it before</p>