in STANFORD, rejected BEREKELY!

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Berkeley
21

<p>At the PhD level, it's basically a wash, and in fact, there are a number of PhD programs in which Berkeley is clearly better than Stanford. (Vice versa is also true).</p>

<p>From a professional school level, the edge goes to Stanford. While Boalt and Haas are very good schools, Stanford Law and Stanford Business are probably better. However, while Berkeley doesn't have a medical school, I would say that UCSF Medical School has the edge over Stanford Medical. </p>

<p>At the undergrad level, I think the edge goes to Stanford. Berkeley tends to lose the cross-admit battle to Stanford. However, I agree with GentlemenandScholar that the programs are not hugely far apart, so personal feel comes into play. And of course cost may be a factor, although it is certainly true that financial aid is handed out far more aggressively at Stanford such that some people may find it is actually cheaper for them to go to Stanford than to Berkeley.</p>

22

<p>There can't be any difference, except maybe that you're babied more at Stanford. My undergrad classes so far have ALL been with great professors who I cannot imagine are any less brilliant than those in Stanford. They teach everything thouroughly and are somehow able to teach this material in a way that is actually entertaining and often funny. Berkeley students who work equally as hard as Stanford students will be just as smart and will have been exposed to a lot more in general, just from being in a big diverse city surrounded by all types of people.</p>

23

<p>Maybe he made some spelling mistakes on his BEREKELY application</p>

24

<p>
[quote]
There can't be any difference, except maybe that you're babied more at Stanford.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I would argue that there is a BIG difference, simply from a flexibility standpoint. For example, at Stanford, you can major in anything you want, without fail. For example, a guy who wants to major in CS is completely free to do so. If he later changes his mind to Mechanical Engineering, he is free to do that. If he then later changes his mind to Economics, he is free to do that.</p>

<p>At Berkeley, this is not true. Those majors are all impacted. So you can't just really 'try out' whatever major you want. You can't just say that you want to major in CS and then just declare it just 'like that'. If you want to major in CS, you have to apply to the major, and, depending on your performance in the CS prereqs, there is a significant chance that you will be denied. The same thing is true for economics or the other impacted majors. In contrast, at Stanford, you can major in anything you like.</p>

25

<p>another reason why Stanford's my dream school...</p>

26

<p>sakky, do you go to Berkeley? I have taken tons of courses from impacted majors. Sure, you may have to go in to the dean of the department once in awhile to make sure you get in, but the extra effort is worth it when you become friends with the deans and the professors. I am an ISF (Interdisciplinary Studies Field Major) and Journalism is one of the fields I am taking for my major and I have even been able to take courses at the UCB graduate school of journalism! That's why I love Berkeley! If you can dream it, you can do it!</p>

27

<p>Ahhh. So if I applied for major X at Berkeley, am I compared just against other applicants to major X (by staff members of department X?)?</p>

28

<p>Depends on the major. In engineering, yeah. In chemistry, i think yeah. Otherwise, generally not. For most people, major doesn't affect admissions.</p>

29

<p>haha so, astrophysics, no?</p>

30

<p>As far as I know, nope.</p>

31

<p>
[quote]
sakky, do you go to Berkeley? I have taken tons of courses from impacted majors. Sure, you may have to go in to the dean of the department once in awhile to make sure you get in, but the extra effort is worth it when you become friends with the deans and the professors. I am an ISF (Interdisciplinary Studies Field Major) and Journalism is one of the fields I am taking for my major and I have even been able to take courses at the UCB graduate school of journalism!

[/quote]
</p>

<p>It's not about taking courses. It's about being able to declare the major that you want to declare. For example, as I'm sure you know, plenty of people at Berkeley want to major in bus-ad at Haas, but are unable to get into the major. Every year, a good number of people try to declare the computer science major, but cannot. Every year, many people from L&S try to transfer into engineering, and are denied. And of course, even within L&S, there are a number of majors like Economics that are impacted, meaning that some people are not allowed in. </p>

<p><a href="http://www.haas.berkeley.edu/Undergrad/statsucb.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.haas.berkeley.edu/Undergrad/statsucb.html&lt;/a>
<a href="http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/Peer/lowerdivision/admissionsstatistics.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/Peer/lowerdivision/admissionsstatistics.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>I would say that people aren't just interested in taking courses. Instead, they want to be able to declare the major they want to declare. At Stanford, you can declare any major you want, without fail. At Berkeley, you might not. </p>

<p>However, maybe you're just satisfied with just being able to sit in the courses, without caring about whether you can declare the major. To that, I would say that you can do that at virtually any school. For example, even a non-Stanford student can just sit in on Stanford classes, or Harvard classes, or any other classes, as I doubt that anybody in the class would stop you, or would even know that you're not an actual student. As long as you don't hand in the assignments or the tests, I doubt that anybody will notice. (You can do the assignments and the tests, just don't hand them in.) </p>

<p>However, I doubt that people are really satisfied with that. I think that people want the freedom to declare whatever major they want to declare. This has to be true, as evidenced by the intense competition to get into Haas or get into CS or into engineering. After all, ask yourself, if it really doesn't matter what major you declare, then why are these people competing so hard to get into the major they want? Why fight so hard over something that doesn't matter?</p>

32

<p>Because they don't realize what majoring them does for them when compared to majoring in something else?</p>

33

<p>Yeah, well, even if that's true, you'll have a hard time convincing them of it.</p>

<p>The point is, at the end of the day, if you go to Stanford, you can major in whatever you want, whereas at Berkeley, it's not that simple. There are plenty of students at Berkeley who came in intending to major in a particular discipline and then find that they won't be able to.</p>

34

<p>Such a hard time! I think you know how hard.</p>

<p>Your point is true, but sakky, do you think stanford doesn't have a good idea of who's going to major in what? They can see from ECs and the type of classes you take what general direction that you're heading. They're not going to overload their CS department, for instance. Do you think Berkeley should let in fewer people, or make you major in what you put on the app, or what? What solution are you looking for? Or do you think that the current situation, although you might dislike it, is at least somewhat necessary, and you're just pointing out that for this reason, it's better to be at Stanford than Berkeley?</p>

35

<p>Berkeley sucks. Don't waste your time, you'll waste tons of times with useless bull*****.</p>

<p>Like arguing with some slumlord over rent, or getting your bike wheels stolen, or learning how to work with the tons of talentless idiots that make up the clubs.</p>

<p>For the love of god, don't go to Berkeley. You'll definitely not regret it.</p>

36

<p>
[quote]
You'll definitely not regret it.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>could I quote you on that? </p>

<p>Out of all the places in the world, only in Berkeley will you have to sometimes deal with annoying things.</p>

37

<p>"You'll definitely not regret it"</p>

<p>Freudian slip?</p>

38

<p>"You'll definitely not regret it" is not wrong.. just sounds weird. Stop correcting people on stupid grammatical errors in an effort to make yourselves sound smarter.</p>

39

<p><em>sigh</em> calm down, darkadvantage. I'm not trying to make myself sound smarter. I didn't even correct him. Neither did G&S. If you read over the poster's threads, you will realize how he or she probably deserves much worse in terms of direspect.</p>

40

<p>Does anybody have a grasp on where the financial cost tipping point is for California residents and for OOSers? My guess is that Stanford is cheaper for many out of staters and perhaps some Californians and not enormously more expensive for high income out of staters. (When I went to Cal it was more or less free).</p>