<p>I am a transfer student and I can't decide between UCLA and UC Berkeley. I got into both.</p>
<p>I got into UCLA Arts as an Architectural Studies major</p>
<p>I got into UC Berkeley's College of Natural Resources as a Society and Environment major.</p>
<p>I want to go to business school after completing my undergraduate degree, and I think Cal would be better for that considering my major. Personally I am more interested in architectural studies. Both majors are relatively new and the UCLA Arts and Cal's College of Natural Resources are small departments. I have friends in at both places with those majors and they both tell me the average class size is 20.</p>
<p>I NEED HELP. I can't decide. I feel like Cal might have more prestige, but UCLA is more well known in Europe. Any advice?</p>
<p>I am sorry but you have been terribly mistaken.</p>
<p>You severely understimate Berkeley's reputation. Berkeley is without a doubt one of the top 10 best known schools in the world, many would debate even top 5 (Berkeley also has the 5th most Nobel prize winners of any university in the world after Columbia, Cambridge, Harvard, U Chicago). Berkeley's prestige is light years ahead of UCLA in every corner of the world.</p>
<p>UCLA would be lucky to be placed in the top 25, even 30.
That being said, do what you want. You CANNOT get into a business school without at least a few years of business experience. You want an MBA, you MUST work in the real world. They arent like masters or PhD programs where you can apply right out of college.</p>
<p>Disregard the posts #3 & 4 based on the irrelevance of Ph.D. programs ranking to the adcoms who will review your MBA application. Undergrad, UCB and UCLA are pretty closely ranked.</p>
<p>You did not say explicity that you want to go to MBA school in Europe, so not sure how that is relevant, and whether it matters that UCLA in your perception is more known in Europe. I am sure it is not to adcoms in Europe, or companies you may interview with in Europe.</p>
<p>Here is my advice: Since you seem to like Architecture more than "Society and Environment" (whatever that is), then study Architecture. Your chances with MBA schools are better if you have shown an enthusiasm for your undergrad study.</p>
<p>MBA schools will actually probably find Architecture an interesting undergrad major. Let me advise you to take several quantitative courses as well. MBA schools like untraditional majors, but they don't want to risk that a matriculant will struggle because of poor quantitative preparation. Take: Calculus, Statistics, Econ, and Accounting at a minimum if you haven't already. And get at least B+ in those quant courses.</p>
<p>DunninLA thanks for the advice... i like the bit at the end about MBA school...i hadn't thought of that.</p>
<p>if i plan on going to business school on the east coast does it make a difference whether i go to UCLA or Berkeley? my friends from the east coast say that the only UC they usually apply to is Berkeley so I don't know what their reputations are outside California.</p>
<p>also UCLA says that, "The UCLA name is the most widely recognized university logo in the world."</p>
<p>also does it make a difference that Berkeley was the original UC and modeled after Yale?</p>
<p>Top MBA programs will know UCB and UCLA. Where does UCLA say that it has the best known logo? Perhaps logo, but not name, as Harvard is undoubtedly most heard of, and Berkeley is one of the most heard of.</p>
<p>UCLA is known everywhere in the US. Applying to B school on the east coast wont be affected by going to UCLA. UCLA is an amazing school, as much as my boasting posts about Berkeley may have you believing that I am perhaps anti UCLA(which I am not).</p>
<p>Definitely ide say the best choice for you would seem to be UCLA because you are more interested in architectural studies.</p>
<p>UCLA's architecture undergraduate degree is B.A., if you want to become an architect, you need to go on for another 2-3years.
Berkeley's architecture is one of the top in nation.
BUT, you want to go to business school, then it does not really matter which school, since your GPA/selection of courses/GRE scores counts.
another thing to think about is:
UCLA is quarter systerm, UC-Berkeley is semester.
Both places are fun, but UCLA-rich neighborhood, Berkeley-can be dangerous.</p>
<p>yea...its tough...originally i was accepted to UC Berkeley's College of Environmental Design for Urban Planning freshman year...but it was too architecture career oriented, so i decided not to attend Berkeley. When I applied as a transfer, the College of Natural Resources seemed to make more sense, particularly the Society and Environment major because I would be able to specialize (during senior year) and choose an economics focus, biological focus, or law focus in the realm of society and environment.</p>
<p>UCLA Arts is supposed to be top-notch...The Arts department is one of the few at UCLA and within the UC system that requires additional supplements. They evaluated my portfolio before accepting me and I had to write 3 additional Arts-specific essays on top of the UC requirement. I like that the Architectural Studies major is more broad-based, and an examination of architecture from a social and aesthetic perspective, rather than from the technical and physical perspective.</p>
<p>this is also only like the second year Architectural Studies has been offered as an undergraduate bachelors...they used to only have an architectural studies master program...that being said i am reluctant to be a "guinea pig" so to speak...</p>
<p>also i think it is really tough to switch majors at berkeley if you are a transfer. within the department is easy, but outside is supposed to be nearly impossible (i would think this is the same for UCLA...)</p>
<p>
[quote]
I am sorry but you have been terribly mistaken.</p>
<p>You severely understimate Berkeley's reputation. Berkeley is without a doubt one of the top 10 best known schools in the world, many would debate even top 5 (Berkeley also has the 5th most Nobel prize winners of any university in the world after Columbia, Cambridge, Harvard, U Chicago). Berkeley's prestige is light years ahead of UCLA in every corner of the world.</p>
<p>UCLA would be lucky to be placed in the top 25, even 30.
That being said, do what you want. You CANNOT get into a business school without at least a few years of business experience. You want an MBA, you MUST work in the real world. They arent like masters or PhD programs where you can apply right out of college.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>This is some worthless advice if I've ever seen it. </p>
<p>First, Berkeley's prestige is only "light years" ahead of UCLA on the graduate level. On the UG level it's ahead but not by much. </p>
<p>Second, and most importantly, you don't need "business experience" to get an MBA. Why does Dartmouth enroll as many people in their MBA program who came from the peace corps compared to investment banking? The peace core is not what I would call "business experience." You can get into an MBA program doing anything: from the military to teach for america to the peace corps. </p>
<p>Also saying you MUST work in the real world to get an mba is also misleading. Though you usually need to it's not always the case, say if you have exceptional experience in UG (Think fulbright/rhodes scholar, set up a couple of non profits etc)</p>