<p>
</p>
<p>Feeder schools offer scholarships.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>A “commoner” who appreciates aston martin dbs…</p>
<p>I would agree that a polsci degree, for instance, from Berkeley does not weigh as much as an engineering degree or comsci or BME or Haas degree does. There is “discrimination” even within Berkeley programs. </p>
<p>An engineering degree from Berkeley, say, Civil Eng’g, is as respected as any degree from an Ivy. An EECS degree from Berkeley is as respected as any degree from HYPSM. I personally have more “respect” for a Berkeley EECS than a polsci or humanities degree from HYPS.</p>
<p>I think this is what usually happens when you deal with large schools. I believe this observation of mine holds true too at schools like Cornell, UPenn and Michigan.</p>
<p>
Yes UC Berkeley is prestigious, its about par with University of Southern California. Its often the third best school within the state followed after second USC, and the most notable Stanford.</p>
<p>
Yes, by all means, furnish us with a major-by-major ranking, RML.</p>
<p>Where does Assyriology at Yale stack up against Celtic Studies at Berkeley? Public policy at Princeton against political science at Berkeley? </p>
<p>What about double majors? Is their intelligence measured by their primary or secondary major? What about people with minors?</p>
<p>Inquiring minds want to know!</p>
<p>(Coolbrezze – You are smoking something if you think USC is as prestigious as Berkeley. Goodness knows I’m not a big fan of either school, but really.)</p>
<p><a href=“Coolbrezze%20–%20You%20are%20smoking%20something%20if%20you%20think%20USC%20is%20as%20prestigious%20as%20Berkeley.%20Goodness%20knows%20I’m%20not%20a%20big%20fan%20of%20either%20school,%20but%20really.”>Quote</a>
[/Quote]
Oh wow, what do you mean? USC is prestigious as Berkeley if not more.</p>
<p>IBClass,
If you don’t believe that a degree from Penn-Wharton is more prestigious than the one from Penn SAS, then there is nothing for us to talk about.</p>
<p>Coolbresse, what is USC? I have never heard of it before. ;)</p>
<p>I think most would agree that Berkeley is more prestigious than USC. USC is more like 4th or 5th in CA, after Stanford, Caltech, Berkeley and arguably UCLA.</p>
<p>Cal is a very good school. And has many smart students. But cc transfer students and the admission quotas that require a few kids from each California high school be admitted drags the student quality down. And it is very, very crowded at Cal. And crowded classes have a significant impact on the quality of an education.</p>
<p>I’d say the prestige ranking is this (caltech isn’t included because it’s a different animal):</p>
<p>Stanford (way ahead of the rest)
Cal (loosing ground with crowds and serious money problems)
USC (getting better every year)
UCLA (lower SAT’s than USC students and super crowded)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>No, don’t believe it. Penn Wharton trains the high-class call girls of the accounting world. Nice boys and girls get a proper liberal arts degree before they go slumming in trade school. Assyriology at Yale, now that is prestige.</p>
<p>
University of Southern California, California’s second most notable university.</p>
<p>In ranking California schools, Caltech shouldn’t even be in the discussion, the graduate and undergraduate population together is around 2000.</p>
<p>It should go:
- Stanford
- Berkeley
- UCLA
- USC (USC is not getting better every year, higher SAT /= better)</p>
<p>^^^^^Agreed!</p>
<p>Sorry, USC is not California’s second most notable university.</p>
<p>As I recall from a few years ago, USC allows you to report your best SAT scores for each exam section, even if from different test dates, while the UC’s require all 3 exam scores to be from a single sitting. This creates an upward bias in USC’s reported scores.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>lolwut</p>
<p>You’d have to be insane to think USC is more notable than Stanford and Caltech. You would also have a hard time arguing that it’s more prestigious than Cal or UCLA. But it is a private school :rolleyes:</p>
<p>(and don’t forget UCSD)</p>
<p>After having read the general trend of discussion, I felt it necessary to defend the name value and recognition of the University of California, Berkeley. There are many threads here that outrightly claim that Stanford University is “way more” prestigious than UC Berkeley and that Ivy Leagues should not be compared to UC Berkeley. However, whether you like it or not, this is downright incorrect. UC Berkeley is well known both nationally and internationally as one of the very best universities in the world. Its fame and reputation rival those of HYSPM. Just because it is a public institution does not signify that it is a second-tier university. In fact, the President of Stanford University Gerhard Casper described UC Berkeley as a university that is worthy of being placed in the “top half-dozen.”
([Criticism</a> of College Rankings - September 23, 1996](<a href=“http://www.stanford.edu/dept/pres-provost/president/speeches/961206gcfallow.html]Criticism”>Criticism of College Rankings - September 23, 1996))</p>
<p>For those who are still doubtful of Berkeley’s prestige, I want to tell you that UC Berkeley’s engineering programs beat all those at Ivy Leagues, including Cornell University’s. Stanford University and UC Berkeley are in equal levels in terms of prestige when it comes to the reputation of their engineering and science programs. This is true as major companies and banks such as Apple, HP, Cisco Systems, Wells Fargo Bank and etc offer ample internship and employment opportunities to both Berkeley and Stanford students. Although it should be admitted that MIT students do have the edge in the field of engineering.</p>
<p>As for Berkeley’s social sciences / humanities programs, I must say that Economics, Political Science, and Psychology are some of its most distinguished departments that are on par with those of Ivy League universities such as Harvard, Princeton, and Yale. The Haas School of Business is the second best undergraduate business school in the United States and is very well respected both at Silicon Valley and at Wall Street. Many rankings (including US News Subject Rankings, ARWU etc) support this fact. Moreover, UC Berkeley has won several Nobel Prizes in fields such as Economics.</p>
<p>Claims that suggest UC Berkeley’s prestige will decline in time are not valid as UC Berkeley had fought during tougher times of economic recessions in the late 1990s; it eventually turned out to be fine. I acknowledge that the current financial situation at the university is not very sound. Of course, there will be casualties but the university’s name recognition will continue to greatly impress employers and peers alike. Moreover, UC Berkeley continues to reduce its dependence on state funding and is moving towards private corporate sponsorships such as those from HP and BP. In fact, UC Berkeley only depends for 28% of its total annual budget.</p>
<p>Lastly, the quality of undergraduate education at the University of California, Berkeley should not be determined solely from the student-to-faculty ratio and from the large student body. It is important to keep in mind that a student at the university is expected to find the most suitable and appropriate methodology to achieve his or her goals. Berkeley’s undergraduate education may not be on the exact same levels with that of Harvard, Princeton, or MIT but it is certainly on par with them.</p>
<p>^beautifully written. completely agree with you</p>
<p>Quick comeback corrinder94. It has only been 2.5 years since the last comment was made. :-)</p>
<p>Old thread, but Cal = Stanford > UCLA >>>> USC</p>
<p>^not even close. Stanford >most ivies/other top privates (NU, JHU, UChicago) >>>>> Cal > UCLA > other UCs.</p>
<p>Cal at the undergraduate level has been admitting more and more out of state students because they need the funding (and it’s not a good thing). Cal even while offering full rides via regent scholarships still loses more than 9 out of 10 students to Stanford (the general Cal rate of losing students to Stanford is 99% without regents). UC’s are in a state of decline due to the budget cuts. And Cal frankly is not that hard to get into (most of the state of Cali applies, as opposed to a more accomplished applicant pool applying to the privates). You can count on most of the Cali students at the ivies and top privates as having turned down Cal as an option.</p>