<p>Berkeley is not prestigious in the U.S. because high school students know how easy it is to get in (2000 SAT, mediocre GPA, weak ECs). In this sense, Berkeley pales in comparison to any Ivy or top 10 school.</p>
<p>Berkeley is more prestigious internationally because those people are applying for Berkeley’s grad schools, which are much more competitive.</p>
<p>In other words, Berkeley undergrad = not prestigious/very easy to get in; Berkeley grad = much more prestigious</p>
<p>^ Many Cal undergrads feel prestige by being on the same campus with such world-class grad schools.</p>
<p>Awped, the problem with your insinuation is this:</p>
<p>Do people usually make the distinction between grad and undergrad?<br>
Not in my experience. </p>
<p>They’ll ask, “Where did you go to school?”
Me: “Berkeley.”
Them: “Oh wow. What did you study?”
Me: Chemical engineering.
Them: “Oh WOW!”</p>
<p>The conversation never continues like this:
Them: “Oh, for undergrad or grad?”
Me: “Undergrad.”
Them: <em>Scoff</em> “Oh, that’s not as good.”</p>
<p>UCB, it’s more like this:</p>
<p>They’ll ask, “Where did you go to school?”
Me: “Berkeley.”
Them: “Huh. You don’t LOOK like a hippie.”</p>
<p>;)</p>
<p>^ True. I am contemplating getting a Prius, but then I think how stereotypes would be reinforced sporting a Berkeley alumni license plate frame…makes me have second thoughts…plus, Prius drivers are usually the worst drivers on the road ;)</p>
<p>Awped, I see you go to Penn/Wharton. Is that for undergrad or grad? 
Both are impressive in my book.</p>
<p>Get a Prius. Great car. My wife…the Berkeley graduate …has one. :)</p>
<p>I’m very fond of Awped’s assessment of Berkeley undergrad. It captures well the essence of what I’ve been trying to say for ages to shameless fanboys like RML.</p>
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<p>Those sorts of “people” determine a school’s name recognition, not its prestige.</p>
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<p>Well, given that more than a third of graduating classes at the nation’s top schools are going on to graduate school, it’s not an unreasonable line of questioning. Especially when Berkeley derives a vast majority of its prestige from its top graduate programs.</p>
<p>–</p>
<p>An aside: I’ve seen this identical topic posted two or three times. The issue here is not Berkeley’s prestige, but the OP’s peculiar need for validation.</p>
<p>
According to Statfinder for 2008, of 3,737 applicants with an 1800-2099 SAT and 3.8 to 3.99 GPA the admit rate was 6.7%…I don’t think I’d call it easy to get into. But sure, it’s less selective than the smaller, top privates.</p>
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Heh. I think the operative word in the conversation for determining “prestige” was “wow”. </p>
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+1</p>
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<p>My mistake, I didn’t realize going to a prestigious school was about showing off in front of strangers. </p>
<p>I thought we were talking about job opportunities, grad school, etc where people do make that distinction</p>
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<p>I think you’ve been smoking too much weed at Cal brah–you left out the 2 in front.</p>
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<p>so…I was right?</p>
<p>Hate to say this, but I can only see Cal’s prestige, at least for undergrad, going down in the next decade or two with the way things are looking with all the budget cuts and significantly increased tuition throughout the UC system. Now’s not a superb time to get into the UC system it seems; that’s not to say Berkeley is going way down the drain, because obviously it won’t and will remain a world-class institution, but I would expect some declines overall.</p>
<p>Awped, my point was not to show off. My point was, in my experience, people don’t typically make a distinction between grad and undergrad. </p>
<p>
No, all you said was Berkeley’s undergrad is not as prestigious as grad.</p>
<p>
:rolleyes: yeahhhh, braaaah…</p>
<p>You said “mediocre grades and 2000 SAT”…6.7% is the admit rate for kids with those stats. </p>
<p>Kids with higher stats (i.e. 4.20 and above with 2100-2400 SAT) have much higher success getting into Berkeley…out of 4,151 applicants 76.5% were admitted. </p>
<p>Total admit rate is about 21%.</p>
<p>A case can be made that Berkeley is the finest university in America. At least one magazine ranking tells us as much ([Washington</a> Monthly](<a href=“http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/college_guide/rankings/national_university_rank.php]Washington”>http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/college_guide/rankings/national_university_rank.php)).</p>
<p>It is hard to bring that argument home, however, because we Americans expect so much from our colleges. Historically, we’ve expected them to bring light to the heathen. They must be engines of innovation for the industrial economy (and now, the knowledge economy). They entertain us with sports extravaganzas on a Sunday afternoon.</p>
<p>But I think they serve two essential mission functions: knowledge-discovery and character-formation. The great research universities, born in the heyday of the industrial revolution, are the nation’s knowledge factories. Small liberal arts colleges focus a little more on character-formation (a throw-back to the days when colleges existed to train ministers and lawyers for the frontier nation.) The greatest prestige goes to old institutions that seem to achieve the best balance of both functions. Namely, the Ivy League colleges.</p>
<p>The best poor Berkeley can do is to crank out seminal publications, Nobel prize-winning discoveries, and cures for diseases. Any old genius can do these things. But the prestige of a Harvard, a Princeton, or a Yale rests on its people. Because truly, it takes a village of yearbook-editing, valedictorian, one-armed juggling team captains to educate one *Donald Henry Rumsfeld<a href=“Princeton%201954”>/i</a>. </p>
<p>How could anyone find the inspiration to be a future Cabinet Member, let alone POTUS, if your average classmate couldn’t even crack 2100 on the SAT?</p>
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<p>…in the same way that Penn pales in comparison to Wharton.</p>
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<p>Prestige and selectivity are not the same thing.</p>
<p>It’s unfair to compare selectivity between private and public schools. They have different admissions policies and philosophies.</p>
<p>Also, it’s ironic that someone who goes to a school (University of Pennsylvania) that is often mistaken for a second-rate public school (Penn State) would underestimate the prestige of the best public school in the country.</p>
<p>That being said, some CC members do overestimate UC-Berkeley and the UC system in general.</p>
<p>^nah I underestimate it because 37 people from ****ty, ranked 800 high school got into berkeley. I also underestimate it because they gave me regents even though I was too lazy to type up half my ECs. Finally, I underestimate it because the average SAT score of students there is around 2000 according to <a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board. Selectivity has nothing to do with it</p>
<p>By the way, it’s like I said earlier, I care about how prestigious a school is to employers and grad school admissions, not the average American that never went to college</p>
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<p>I have no idea what that means, but good thing I go to Wharton right?</p>
<p>^ Funny, that’s the sort of thing that kids from my NYC hs say about Penn (and Cornell)…</p>
<p>Naviance data show that these schools take almost anyone from my hs who graduates in the top third and most anyone who graduates in the top half.</p>
<p>UC Berkeley is prestigious in the US, it’s even more prestigious abroad because only Americans care about stuff like % class under 20, alumni giving rate and average sat score.</p>
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<p>I mean that Wharton provides a more prestigious (albeit less well-rounded) education than non-Wharton Penn.</p>
<p>Personally, I am no fan of undergraduate business degrees, but if you’re going to get one, it might as well be a Wharton degree. So I guess it’s a “good thing” you go there. </p>
<p>HYPS would’ve been better, but to each their own…</p>
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<p>Good to know your parents sent you to an expensive feeder school. For the rest of us commoners who go to cheap local schools that send 3-4 kids to Ivies each year, getting into a top 10 school is pretty difficult. </p>
<p>I would also agree that maybe 5% of the students at my hs that got into Berkeley/UCLA also got into an Ivy. If you are from NYC then it might be harder to get into UCB (I have no idea), but I can assure you that UCB is not nearly as prestigious as an Ivy here in California</p>