<p>Only you can figure out the money issues. In Harvard’s favor are the house system and getting to know another part of the country. Harvard is also diverse in different ways than Cal. Educationally I don’t know - Harvard doesn’t have impacted major and if you don’t choose one of the really huge majors you can have a great experience with tutorials in your major and getting to know your professors really well. The profs in my major all knew me by name and I worked with two of them on a senior thesis.</p>
<p>All things being equal financially, you might choose Harvard because of the prestige (the H-bomb; there is no comparable Cal-bomb, but this is superficial stuff) and the out-of-state location, but you need not feel that your daughter will be disadvantaged by going to Cal, which is a great university. And students at Cal don’t envy Harvard; they take pride in being at the best public school in the country, and the fact that it is public. At either school, your daughter’s success, including through getting to know faculty and following her extracurricular interests, will depend on her effort and her personal drive and talent. Cal is very diverse (just take a walk on campus) except geographically (most students are from California). I don’t think the educational opportunities would be all that different; the faculty at both are tops, and at both, there are TA’s doing a lot of the grading and running labs and small sections of courses. UC’s have great study abroad opportunities at amazingly low cost. What would be most different, apart from the glorious weather in Berkeley vs. the freezing cold of Harvard winters, would be the housing situation; at Cal, students tend to live in dorms only for a year or two and then move to apartments, though a Regent’s scholar can stay in dorms for 4, I think. So there is possibly less ongoing contact with the same group of friends students meet in their first year (at Harvard, they can choose to room together for the next 3 years, in Harvard housing).</p>
<p>I think the matter was decided at the time the OP’s D was encouraged to apply to H. Now, it’s her turn to decide.</p>
<p>Harvard’s great for Econ/PoliSci/Social studies. If you told me she was planning to do engineering at Harvard, i’d have guided you toward Berkeley. especially with regents which give her first dibs on classes she desires.</p>
<p>But for Econ/poliSci – go East. You do know that Harvard students also enroll at MIT and across harvard schools. MIT also has a great Econ dept. Plus she can take courses at Sloan School of Management.</p>
<p>Just don’t count on access to professors. Harvard is not a LAC. it is NOT focused solely on undergraduate education. </p>
<p>All in all, this is easy. Harvard without hesitation.</p>
<p>Easy for someone on an anonymous board to say Harvard, easy, without hesitation or that the decision is totally up to the daughter. Who is paying the tuition? Who would have to pay back loans? Are they worth it? That is what the OP is struggling with. These are legitimate concerns for anyone asked to pay Harvard’s tuition instead of Cal’s.</p>
<p>mamenyu: I think it is an easy decision otherwise in case of such ties > 90% won’t choose Harvard over UCB.
If you take the $$ out of equation then there is no pros in attending UCB over Harvard in this case.</p>
<p>But money is apparently a factor here. Given that choice, one might be hard pressed to justify the additional cost when looking at the bottom line trade-offs. Harvard is a great school. It is very prestigious. Cal is a great school. It is also very prestigious. A Regent’s scholarship makes it even more so. A kid who got into either one or both is likely to do very well in either place.</p>
<p>Yes indeed and OP should work with DD to come up with a mutually acceptable way to find that $$ instead of sending her to UCB.
I think it was known to begin so this should not come up at this point. DD should be able to choose Harvard now.</p>
<p>deleted…</p>
<p>Actually we did not interfer with her initial applications and thought we should get some aid from Harvard based on their new middle-income initiatives even we are in the high end of that scale. But it turns out we are just out completely based on their formula. It looks like if we had own more than one fancy houses (ours are very medium level home) and take on big debt or squander the money away, we would then definitely get the aid. </p>
<p>I have read in CC some one own two houses and 1 mil investment and still get $20k grant per year from H. Don’t know how that works. In our case we just happen did not buy any so called investment and have some cold cash (which is for our retirement even if it’s not in tax-deferred retirement account).</p>
<p>The cost for study abroad is the same as being at Harvard for any term.</p>
<p>Middsmith, a fraction of Cal’s students would get into Harvard. I would find it hard to believe this young woman will have any problem getting into Haas.</p>
<p>The cost of study abroad is usually less than being at Harvard, especially since Harvard has the means to (and often does) subsidize semester/year/summer abroad.</p>
<p>
Are you saying those at Cal with comparable stats to Harvard students didn’t get into Harvard couldn’t handle the same course work?
If you’re not saying that, then this young woman will have a lot of problem competing with Harvard caliber students to make the top 50%. It’s not that hard to believe.
130k is a lot of money.</p>
<p>If you don’t qualify for aid from Harvard it is because your family is blesses – in other words you are doing well. If your D got into Harvard, congrats. For Econ/Govt, Harvard is excellent. They get a flow of just outstanding speakers for their clubs, brown bag lunches etc. The experience, the networking, the peer group – these are all priceless.</p>
<p>It is really hard to say this. But of late it has become fashionable for Parents earning over $ 180,000 (the upper level to qualify for Harvard aid) to suddenly feel queasy about paying full freight. They feel they too deserve aid. Well, if you don’t qualify for aid at Harvard, you are unlikely to qualify anywhere. I, for one, cannot sympathize.</p>
<p>Count your blessings. A Harvard education is an investment.</p>
<p>Many of these comments are not helpful. Cal is also a good investment. And I can entirely sympathize with the OP, who has saved money for retirement and would find it tough to fork out over $50,000 a year, rather than less than half of that for what is an equivalent educational experience. Yes Harvard is prestigious, but so is Cal. Yes many would chose Harvard over Cal all things being equal, all things here are not equal It would be a perfectly sensible and respectable decision to go to Cal. Or Harvard. For the major the student here is contemplating, she would do just as well going to Cal as an undergrad and an Ivy for graduate programs in business or law. And she could afford to. Law schools do not generally give fellowships.</p>
<p>I take it – mamenyu – that anything that does not agree with your point of view is considered unhelpful. Last time I checked this was a discussion forum where people could share insights and experiences. </p>
<p>Cal may be great, but Harvard is well, Harvard. Sorry, nothing you said counteracts that.</p>
<p>Finally it is not as if OP cannot afford Harvard. The very fact that OP’s D did not qualify for aid says something about their financial health. Great!</p>
<p>Finally, the OP asked “Is going Harvard really worth the $120k than going to UCB?
Your insights/opinion is greatly appreciated.” I am responding to that.</p>
<p>Who knows middsmith, I would think a typical Harvard admit should have no problem getting into Haas. However, if you’re correct, she should definitely go to Harvard. A non Haas Berkeley grad would not have nearly the access to elite business jobs as a Harvard grad.</p>
<p>If I’m correct as in if this young woman couldn’t crack the top 50% at Cal, then she should definitely not come to Harvard because she’ll be graduating at the bottom of the class at Harvard. There aren’t any elite business jobs left for even the top Harvard grads.</p>
<p>If I’m reading this correctly:</p>
<p>Cal: $80,000 for four years.
Harvard: $200,000 for four years.</p>
<p>Perhaps it is just me, but that last number just blows me away.</p>
<p>westerndad:
Cal: Oakland
Harvard: Cambridge</p>
<p>Perhaps it is just me but that alone is worth $120000 for me.</p>