<p>There are plenty of non-Haas students at Berkeley who get Big 4 accounting offers. Non-Haas students can still get into all of the accounting courses as long as they stay on the waitlist. What’s most important is to maintain a decent GPA and to take the basic financial and managerial accounting courses before intern recruiting season begins for the Big 4.</p>
<p>Guess the thread should be labeled “agree with me or don’t post here”. Mistook it for a request for ideas. Dialing out.</p>
<p>“Guess the thread should be labeled “agree with me or don’t post here”. Mistook it for a request for ideas. Dialing out.”</p>
<p>Bye, don’t come back.</p>
<p>A lot of non-haas students get heavily recruited by the Big 4. You only really need a 3.2 to get recruited. The rest is gauging how well you would fit in the work environment. </p>
<p>I honestly say it’s up what ever school she finds to be more suitable. If she likes Irvine’s environment better then go for it.</p>
<p>Rider730 is probably the least trollish person on the Berkeley forum.</p>
<p>^agreed. Pretty clear this is more of a self-affirmation thing.</p>
<p>Anyway from MY anecdotal experience, Berkeley matters. OP, from YOUR experience, it doesn’t. Nobody’s wrong here.</p>
<p>well, i would also like to note that every year a bunch of people with no intention of going to haas apply just to see whether or not they would get in(some of these ppl actually do get in)</p>
<p>What your friend needs to do is figure out how difficult it is to get a Big 4 position from UCI. </p>
<p>If she needs to be at the top of the class at UCI to get an accounting job, then there’s not reason to go there. She would be in the exact same sort of competitive environment that Berkeley has (gunning for that 4.0) with no guarantee of the job she wants. The average Haas student has NO problem getting a Big 4 position. If you want it, and you have a ~3.5 and aren’t a social ■■■■■■, they will give you the job. If have to be a gunner, go for the sure thing!</p>
<p>On the other hand, if most students in her program at UCI get Big 4 offers, then she should go there. It’s a safe bet, and it sounds like she isn’t a high-stress, Type A competitive person, as is the Berkeley stereotype. Haas gives you incredible opportunities. But if you just want to enjoy college and take a 9-5PM accounting job after graduation, it’s foolish to kill yourself for 4 years in a high-stress environment when you don’t have to. If this is the case, UCI is the right choice.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>But the caveat here is that UG institution is very important for grad school admissions (not sure about professional schools). It varies by school and department as to how much UG name matters, but it’s incontrovertible that it does matter. When they can be certain of the caliber of your school, they’re more willing to admit you. When they know that the curriculum is rigorous and the professors you were exposed to are stars, it puts them at ease, esp. compared to those whose UG they aren’t familiar with. Harvard CS, for example, is very explicit about the importance of where you went for UG.</p>
<p>I didn’t go to Berkeley, but I do know the role that UG prestige can play post-graduation. Berkeley is definitely more highly regarded than UCI and I think that difference could matter, though it depends on what path you take after graduation. Like grad admissions, the role of UG prestige can matter in employment, varying significantly by the sector that you go into (e.g. many firms in finance can be very snobbish about where they recruit and for which positions), the company that you apply to, etc.</p>
<p>I’m not saying that this is the way it should be, or that many of these points aren’t debatable. But it’s definitely untrue that Berkeley and, say, UCR would be equivalent in post-grad opportunities. There are tangible differences, because there are tangible differences in the student bodies and the academic quality. Employers and grad schools are well aware of these differences, and there’s no shame in admitting this reality.</p>
<p>I have a lot of friends here with below 3.5 GPA but were getting Big 4 interviews/offers left and right. In contrast, I knew two people from UCI with 3.7+ gpa that had no interviews at all.</p>
<p>Was I out of my head? Was I out of my mind?
How could I have ever been so blind</p>
<p>^ Fastball? Some old lyrics man good **** haha.</p>