"I'm choosing UCIrvine over Cal. Am I out of my mind?!"

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Berkeley
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<p>I'm posting for someone else.</p>

<p>Friend got into these 2 schools, though ironically was rejected from UCLA and USC. Under normal circumstances, my friend would choose Cal over UCIrvine, but there are a few things to consider now.</p>

<p>a) Friend got accepted to UCIrvine as a Business Administration major under the Paul Merage School of Business. My friend's goal is to become an accountant and hopefully get recruited by a Big 4 firm. Being in this major GUARANTEES that my friend will get the accounting classes she so desperately needs by junior year, which will be perfect for the on campus interviews during recruiting season. This offers a sense of security, especially since the Business Administration program is a bit prestigious compared to the Business Economics and regular Economics major. The major was also pretty difficult to get into.</p>

<p>b) Without a doubt, UCIrvine is going to be a bit easier than Cal. It's just a fact. Since competition for Haas is insane at Cal, I would imagine trying to get that 3.4+ GPA needed for Big 4 recruitment is going to be that much harder at Cal relative to UCIrvine.</p>

<p>Overall, UCIrvine offers a "comfort zone." My friend is guaranteed in her major and is guaranteed in her accounting classes. Done deal.</p>

<p>On the other hand, Berkeley offers major uncertainty...</p>

<p>a) Haas is ridiculously competitive. If my friend is accepted to Haas, well that's great. But the looming question is, what if she isn't? Being a regular economics major doesn't really mean much and without the accounting coursework, Big 4 firms are not likely going to offer you a position as a summer associate. There is a sense of insecurity and even stress by choosing to attend Cal. It's almost as if my friend's fate is riding on the ability to get or not get into Haas. While it is possible to get into Haas, it isn't guaranteed and quite honestly, the typical GPA of an admitted student hovers between 3.6-3.7, which is simply ridiculous, especially at Berkeley.</p>

<p>b) Naturally, Cal is harder and more rigorous. Economics is a capped major because everybody wants to try and do business at Cal. If my friend can't even muster the grades to get into Haas...then it's like..."Now what?" Even if my friend were not to get hired by a Big 4, it's still ideal to have Business Administration w/ accounting emphasis. It's basically an accounting degree and she can still work for smaller firms around the area. A regular economics degree at Berkeley won't take you too far and it's more than like one would have to go to graduate school to make any use of it.</p>

<p>So yes. Do you think those are legitimate concerns? Or is my friend a pure fool for not choosing Cal?</p>

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<p>

But the acceptance rate is still ~50%. We are not talking about something like 10%. Being in the top 50% is not a matter of intelligence, but rather a matter of maturity and/or setting priorities. Being in the top 50% is far from “ridiculous” in my opinion, considering how many students slack off and get lost in drinking, greek life / whatever. If she doesn’t think she can handle it then she may have made the right choice.</p>

<p>Also, as far as I know, once you’re in Haas getting a good GPA is relatively easy. A 3.4 most likely won’t be a problem asumming she gets into Haas.</p>

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<p>“But the acceptance rate is still ~50%. We are not talking about something like 10%. Being in the top 50% is not a matter of intelligence, but rather a matter of maturity and/or setting priorities. Being in the top 50% is far from “ridiculous” in my opinion.”</p>

<p>The 50% is from the applicant pool itself. There is arguably a considerable amount of Pre-Haas students that gave up during their freshman or sophomore year and decided to forego the application knowing they just weren’t going to cut it. These students may have also changed their majors and whatnot.</p>

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<p>That’s true, I would argue that the number of those people is relatively small. Assuming you did not make a <em>huge</em> mess in your freshman year, there’s a always a little hope that you may get in, and applying doesn’t hurt you in any way. Thus I would say that even people who think they don’t have a decent chance end up applying, for the heck of it.</p>

<p>It might be wrong though. Maybe more people than I think do make a huge mess in their freshman year ; )</p>

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<p>But what if, in the event, my friend is among that minority? Let’s face it, Cal is a difficult school. Maintaing a 3.7 GPA is…well…difficult. Very difficult if I might add for emphasis. Without admissions into Haas, it’s going to be extremely difficult for my friend to enroll in the necessary accounting courses. This will ultimately impact her short and long term career goals.</p>

<p>I guess the question really is, “Is attending Cal worth it so much that it’s worth this monumental ‘all or nothing’ risk to get into Haas?”</p>

<p>And to be fair too, my friend does like Cal a lot. In fact, the lure and prestige of Cal is so much more enticing than UCIrvine. To be fair, I’ve only met a handful of people who chose the lower UCs over the upper UCs. Of course they turned out just fine and all, but I guess this is an interesting dilemma.</p>

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<p>I usually tell people to go to Berkeley. Berkeley gives you all the opportunities in the world, but doesn’t give you a guarantee. The admissions process is supposed to select the smart and motivated kids who will be successful here, but sometimes people get in for weird reasons. </p>

<p>If you went to an average/bad high school and still had to struggle to get good grades, you probably will be towards the bottom of Berkeley’s grade distribution. This won’t be a big problem in humanities or social sciences and it can be overcome by hard work. But you have to be motivated to do it and it doesn’t seem like your friend is.</p>

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<p>^I disagree with your last few statements. I think OP’s friend made the right call. Who is to say that she is not motivated when she clearly stated her goal was to become an accountant and be recruited by a top firm.</p>

<p>I say she made the right call for herself. No wasted opportunity here.</p>

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<p>I meant that she probably isn’t motivated enough to put in all the work required to be successful at Berkeley. Why would she even consider Irvine over Berkeley is she was? Haas is in the top 3 business programs in the country…</p>

<p>So yeah, Irvine’s probably the right choice for her.</p>

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<p>Except why try to work for a big four accounting firm - the competition is tough and so is the work. Why doesn’t she set her sights on doing tax returns at H&R Block? It is the same attitude as she is using with colleges and frankly if easy is the top priority, UCI is too much work and too risky when there are degree mills out there. After all, if the school you go to has no effect on your future job prospects, why take the risk when you can be assured of a 4.0 at a truly bottom rung school?</p>

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<p>Here is another link
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/uc-transfers/944015-uc-riverside-uc-berkley-only-ucs-offer-accounting-major.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/uc-transfers/944015-uc-riverside-uc-berkley-only-ucs-offer-accounting-major.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>I think your friend should go with whatever she thinks is a good ‘fit’ for her.</p>

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<p>Working at a Big 4 vs. H&R Block is not comparable to attending UG. I don’t know how old you kids are, but for the most part, it doesn’t matter “too much” where you went to UG (there is a difference between going to DeVry and UCLA, but that’s another topic. The gap between UC Irvine and UC Berkeley is almost negligent for UG). The most important things are your work experience and GPA. I can tell you right now that I personally attend UCLA, and contrary to all the stuff I heard coming in as a freshman, a UCLA name on your resume means nothing. I’d rather be a UC Riverside alum with a degree in Computer Science with a 3.5 GPA than a UCLA alum with a degree in History with a 2.3 GPA.</p>

<p>As for the Big 4, if any of you are familiar with accounting, the Big 4 is the best thing to have on your resume for an entry level job. A lot of people I know that are successful in accounting start off working a few years at a Big 4, but they usually quit and move on to a smaller firm. It’s easier to get a job once you have that Big 4 name on your resume. Also, the Big 4 is one the easiest ways to get a job if you’re good for it. For crying out loud, they do on campus interviews. You don’t go to them, they come to you!! If you are fortunate enough to get a summer associate position, you make around $25/hr in the summer, and you get to go to “training seminars” in Disney World. Starting salaries are between 50k-60k with a nice signing bonus too. I say this is REALLY good for a 21 year old.</p>

<p>But that’s the thing…it is really good…and one school, at least IMO, offers a better chance of getting it. And even if you don’t get into a Big 4, still having an accounting degree is extremely marketable. Yes, you could end up working at that lousy H&R Block, whereas if you have a regular economics degree, I say good luck trying to find any relevant job.</p>

<p>But that’s my opinion for my friend (and obviously this thread isn’t about my opinion, it’s about yours and I want to hear what you all say). The only thing I think is heresy is the fact that my friend is choosing Irvine over Cal. I told my friend had she been another major, especially an easy humanities major, she should have totally chosen Berkeley. But like I said, when taking into consideration her major and her career goals, the risks associated at Cal are greater than Irvine.</p>

<p>Negatives about Irvine: less prestige, arguably not as “fun” (but that depends on what friends you make), you might reminisce about how cool life would have been like at Cal.</p>

<p>Negatives about Cal: no matter how “fun” it is, it won’t be fun if you get rejected from Haas and are struggling to get a B- on in your econ classes, more stress since there is no assurance you will get into your major, even more stress if you don’t get into your major and have to consider alternative career plans (holy crap…), you might reminisce about how you would have been more relaxed and less stressed had you chosen Irvine and if it was really worth it to come to Cal</p>

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<p>She seems to dislike the idea of a challenge, which IMO is a poor quality to have if you want to go to a top university, whether that’s Berkeley or Harvard. So I think she should just go to UC Irvine. Schools like Berkeley are not for the faint of heart.</p>

<p>OP, you seem to have your mind made up on this and just want people here to agree with your viewpoint that Berkeley’s name doesn’t matter all that much. You’re free to believe this, but I don’t think you’re going to get much agreement here, especially when you throw around patronizing stuff like “I don’t know how old you kids are.” ;)</p>

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<p>"OP, you seem to have your mind made up on this and just want people here to agree with your viewpoint that Berkeley’s name doesn’t matter all that much. You’re free to believe this, but I don’t think you’re going to get much agreement here, especially when you throw around patronizing stuff like “I don’t know how old you kids are.”</p>

<p>Well first, you’re right. I have made up my mind. I want to hear what others have to say as I am posting for someone else. And I feel like I have to give a proper response so people aren’t just saying stupid things like “Dude pick Cal cuz it’s Cal, yeeeeeee baby”</p>

<p>I’m a UCLA alumnus and it didn’t matter if I went to UCLA or UCB or UCI or UCR for my undergrad, I can tell you that right now. Nobody looked at my UG when I applied to jobs. All my interviewers saw and said was, “Oh I see you did AmeriCorps for a year and worked at so and so. Tell me more about that.”</p>

<p>UCLA and Berkeley alums are a dime a dozen. Now if this were UCB or UCLA Engineering vs Cal Poly Pomona Engineering, I might have a different opinion about that.</p>

<p>Oh and your UG institution is completely irrelevant once you go to graduate school, especially if it’s a professional school like law or medical school.</p>

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<p>Good job disguising this as an advice thread!</p>

<p>You have your anecdotal experience saying your UCLA degree didn’t help. I have my experience saying going to Berkeley most definitely helped me get into grad schools. I was offered interviews at Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Stanford, UCSF, Cornell, UPenn, & Johns Hopkins. I met a lot of students from Ivies, lot of students from Berkeley, and one or two from UCLA/UCSD. Not a single recruit or current student went to one of the lower UCs (or USC).</p>

<p>Stop spreading stupid lies, please. If you are an average student, maybe the college you go to doesn’t matter. But for anyone intelligent who actually cares about their education, it ABSOLUTELY matters what college you go to.</p>

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<p>“Stop spreading stupid lies, please. If you are an average student, maybe the college you go to doesn’t matter. But for anyone intelligent who actually cares about their education, it ABSOLUTELY matters what college you go to.”</p>

<p>No, you stop spreading your horrible stupid lies. I am 2nd year law student at Duke and I can tell you right now there were only 2 things that factored into my admissions: GPA and LSAT score. I had a 3.89 GPA and a 174 LSAT. I have classmates that come from all over, some from UT Austin, some from U Washington, and some from SUNY (yes, that’s the Cal States of New York). I can tell you right now your school doesn’t matter at ALL if you are planning to go to graduate and ESPECIALLY law school. They only care about your numbers. On average, students from top schools are better students than students from lower ranked schools, but that doesn’t mean it was the school’s name that factored into your admission. It’s all about the individual, and not the school per se.</p>

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<p>Law school is not graduate school. Law schools don’t care what you majored in, they don’t even care about what classes you take. It doesn’t matter whether or not you got an education or if you learned anything at all as an undergrad. Everybody knows GPA and LSAT are all that matter for law school, and most think that’s a flawed system.</p>

<p>That isn’t nearly enough of a reason to tell someone to go to an inferior school. Most high school seniors don’t have a clear idea of what they want to do, and will end up changing majors anyway. The priority should be to get the best education possible, surround yourself with high-achieving professors and students, and be on the best track for whatever path you may want in your future.</p>

<p>If your “friend” wants to settle for Irvine, that’s fine. Hopefully that’s her own decision and not a result of your pessimism.</p>

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<p>■■■■■ alert - took a while to recognize it.</p>

<p>every year around decision time people advocating for other schools hop on here to talk Cal down.</p>

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<p>Why not go to UCB and apply to transfer to UCI? Not sure how likely that is but it’s still an option.</p>

<p>The more relevant question is, what type of student is your friend? The fact that she was somehow accepted to UCB while rejected from UCLA/USC might signify that she is not as strong as other, more typical Berkeley students. Keep in mind Berkeley’s admissions are more holistic than UCLA’s, which is more quantitative. Thus, there are students who do get into Berkeley for reasons other than academics (for example, awesome EC’s). However, I believe Haas places a high emphasis on good grades. Also, I imagine that many Haas students are already top Berkeley students, just to get an idea of the competition. So maybe UCI really would be the better choice.</p>

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<p>rider730, please shut up. The only person who is trolling is you, trying to turn this entire thread into crap. If you were actually a prospective Haas student, you’d recognize these are legitimate concerns. Others in the past have compared Pre-Haas to (for instance) USC Marshall before.</p>

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<p>Good question loldanielol. Um…no offense to my friend, but I don’t think she’s a typical Berkeley student. She had a really strong GPA and was ranked high in her class, but had a low SAT score (let’s just say under 1800).</p>

<p>And yeah, we were shocked she got into Berkeley. We thought UCLA and USC were high reaches and we thought Cal was a long shot. Apparently not though.</p>