does being a Berkeley grad really open doors?

<p>Anyone have personnal experiences of how being a Berkeley grad gave them an advantage over job/internship/grad school?</p>

<p>yes, of course it does</p>

<p>It all depends on the person-- if he or she really has the energy and drive to do well.</p>

<p>But it always helps to have a nice looking university on your resume.</p>

<p>When you apply to comptetitive positions and the company goes through thousands of applications for a couple hundred positions, theyre not going to interview everybody. So, the question is, who are they going to interview? All they have to go by to decide who theyre going to interview is university, GPA (if you put that on yuor resume), work experience, and extracurricular activiteis. </p>

<p>If you go to a unversity like Berkeley, you instantly gain credibility b/c they know that a school with a reputation like Berkeley deemed you qualified enough to admit you to their school. </p>

<p>Now, say you went to a school like UC Riverside, an employer for a competitive company would probably not give you application much attention because they would question why you didnt go to a better school. They would probably question how hardworking and dedicated you are.</p>

<p>In sum, I would say Berkeley looks great to employers.</p>

<p>My personal experience can attest to this. I just finished my freshman year and was offered interviews at Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, and SmithBarney. I was offered positions as an intern at 2 of these companies. And this is just after freshman year. Granted i did have a 4.0, i nonetheless think i still would have had great opporunities even w/o the GPA, just the fact that i went to berkeley impressed employers i spoke to.</p>

<p>Thanks for you response. And congrats on your success!! I was accepted to Berkeley as a junior transfer student. But I have not yet decided to attend. I am still considering the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. Do you like Berkeley? Is there any commentary you can give me about the school/area?</p>

<p>I would take Berkeley over Chapel Hill, not even a difficult decision to make. But, it is not mind but yours to make.</p>

<p>I know of someone who's going to MIT now as a grad and who has said that he knows it was Berkeley that got him in. Another is going to Yale law, and agreed that Berkeley was what really pushed him to the top of the pile.</p>

<p>And what if my GPA is not as high at Cal as it would be at another school? I dont know whats more important..</p>

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Another is going to Yale law, and agreed that Berkeley was what really pushed him to the top of the pile.

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<p><a href="http://career.berkeley.edu/Law/lawStats.stm#school%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://career.berkeley.edu/Law/lawStats.stm#school&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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And what if my GPA is not as high at Cal as it would be at another school? I dont know whats more important..

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<p>I have no personal story about advantages given to Cal grads. I would like to give you some of my thoughts though.</p>

<p>No matter where you go if you apply yourself to your studies and pursue something that you love, you will most likely do well.</p>

<p>I'm sure that being a Cal grad helps, but when it comes down to it, it is what you did during your four years of school that will make or break your application.</p>

<p>Go where you feel that you will do best and learn the most, grades matter alot but they aren't everything. Practical skills are far more useful that only academic ones. If you are looking for a particularly easy university look elsewhere; if you are looking to learn alot and have a decent amount of access to research and "hands-on" stuff Cal is a safe bet.</p>

<p>People have been impressed by the fact that I'm attending Cal - I definitely think that (even here in Florida) it has a great, powerful name. Being driven and outgoing is obviously the key to success, though.</p>

<p>Being at Berkeley does help for Law Schools. For example, there are 48 Berkeley graduates at Harvard Law, and 16 at Yale Law. </p>

<p><a href="http://www.law.harvard.edu/admissions/jd/colleges.php%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.law.harvard.edu/admissions/jd/colleges.php&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p><a href="http://www.yale.edu/bulletin/html/law/students.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.yale.edu/bulletin/html/law/students.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>I guess it all depends on what your frame of reference is. There seem to be 79 Stanford graduates at HLS and 42 at YLS. Considering the fact that Berkeley has more than 3 times the number of undergrads that Stanford has...</p>

<p>On the other hand, there are clearly more Berkeley grads at YLS and HLS than there are UCLA grads. UCLA is bigger than Berkeley is.</p>

<p>Well you have to consider that a much smaller percentage of undergrad students at Berkeley are in Law compared to the ratio in a more liberal-arts oriented school like Yale.</p>

<p>Thanks everyone, if you think of anything else to add, please do..</p>

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Well you have to consider that a much smaller percentage of undergrad students at Berkeley are in Law compared to the ratio in a more liberal-arts oriented school like Yale.

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<p>Sure. But on the other hand, Yale has fewer undergrads than even Stanford does.</p>

<p>I heard NYU takes Berkeley students first for its dietetic internship. Is there some sort of alliance? People tell me that being a berkeley student opens doors. But I never really know what they mean</p>