<p>How well-known would you say is the University of California Berkeley?</p>
<p>Here's the thing--when I was talking with my mom about possible colleges she insisted that Cal was REALLY well known around the country--even more than many of the Ivies.</p>
<p>True?</p>
<p>True.</p>
<p>It's the public school version of Harvard (at least as far as California sees it!).</p>
<p>Your mom is quite correct. The name "Berkeley" is quite possibly the biggest name in education outside of Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford and MIT. Internationally, I would dare say that Cal is ahead of Yale and Princeton.</p>
<p>Well, I wouldn't go quite THAT far. I have a hard time believing that internationals would know Cal more than they would know Yale. Maybe Princeton is debatable, but Yale? I don't know about. From what I've seen, Harvard and Yale are still by far the 2 biggest worldwide names in US education, just like Oxford and Cambridge are the 2 biggest worldwide names in European education. Yale, if nothing else, has that aura of political power attached to it. 4 of the last 6 Presidents have Yale degrees. If Hillary Clinton or John Kerry wins in 2008, that would make it 5 of the last 7. </p>
<p>I think relatively most foreigners would be hard-pressed to actually name a famous Berkeley graduate. But many if not most foreigners can name the US President. They may like the President, they may dislike the President, but at least they can name him.</p>
<p>As far as I knew, Hilary Clinton is the world famous Wellesley graduate, I don't know nor care about her graduate degrees. Nor do most people because most of the big names come the from the same handful of elite schools.</p>
<p>Like Kofi Annan went to Macalester, that is something big, especially for Macalester. No one cares that he went to Sloan afterwards and minored in poetry, everybody goes to Sloan!</p>
<p>I know that Bill Clinton studied Foreign Service at Georgetown and then studied at Oxford (The Georgetown pennant alwys hung in his office ;)) The fact that he went to Yale down the road means little to me.</p>
<p>I really don't see big name grad degrees as a distinction for university because they have endless numbers of famous grads, UC-Berkeley has 54 Nobel laureate, behind only Cambridge, Chicago, Harvard, & MIT, go figure.</p>
<p>Sakky, most non-Americans have no clue where US presidents went to school. I would bet most Americans don't know either. But all that proves is that the US is not such an egalitarian society afterall. It does not translate to Academic excellence. Are we to assume that Michigan is better than MIT simply because it has produced more US presidents? Do Chicago and Cal suck because they never produced presidents? </p>
<p>However, it is a fact that internationally, Cal has a huge name. The Shanghai Jiao Tong University rankings and the Times rankings, although both severley flawed, are a pretty good indicator of what the international intellectual community thinks. And I never said Cal definitely and absolutely had a bigger name than Yale and Princeton. I said that I would dare say. In other words, in some circles, especially in international intellectual and scientific circles, Cal probably has a bigger name. </p>
<p>This said, I am by no means saying that Cal is better than Princeton and Yale, especially not at the undergraduate level. But we are discussing name-recognition, not quality of undergraduate education.</p>
<p>I agree w/ Alexandre. Cal is one of the biggest names on the planet, no matter where you are. Does anyone know how big the name of UCLA is across the country? Throughout the world? Thanks.</p>
<p>I dunno - on the East Coast, Berkeley (calling it Cal makes me think of CalTech) definitely does not have the prestige of a Princeton, as some others above argued. I think its just thought of as a very good public school.</p>
<p>In science/engineering circles Berkeley is one of the best known names in the world.</p>
<p>I agree with garrr, I grew up in Georgia, and Berkeley never really made it onto my radar until I came to this website. I would have never guessed it was anywhere near Harvard or Yale. Perhaps in some regions and foreign countries Berkeley is hot stuff, but I don't know if its popularity is nearly as universal as many of you think.</p>
<p>It is not a matter of "popularity". It is a matter of fact and contributions to science and most other disciplines. Berkeley is a giant with twice as many National Academy of Science members as Yale.</p>
<p>What I've got out of this - Top "Big Names (in no particular order):"</p>
<p>Yale, Harvard, Cal, Princeton, Stanford, MIT</p>
<p>So...Cal (UCB) and UCLA are the hardest UC's to get into and accept/reject the same students. How big is the UCLA name?</p>
<p>That's interesting! Thanks for your input--I had no idea. Growing up just a few miles from Cal, everyone knew about it, but I assumed that was just because we were so close.</p>
<p>How about in terms of...I can't think of a better word than "prestige" or "impressiveness"? For example, if you were applying from a job, would it be more impressive to say you graduated from Cal or from U Penn or something?</p>
<p>I think that's a bit of a different question.</p>
<p>ket:</p>
<p>depends on where your are applying....in many regions of the country, "Penn" is being coached by JoePa and will play in a BCS Bowl this next week. LOL Other great schools, such as Williams, Amherst & Dartmouth, are barely even known on the west coast by Joe SixPack. Of course, all are well known, as is Berkeley, by academicians and corporate recruiters around the world. You can wear a Cal hat anywhere on the globe, and run into someone who will yell: Go Bears! (Having elements on a chart works wonders for prestige.)</p>
<p>I agree with Alexandre that Berkeley is better known around the world than Yale. Not only does it produce a huge amount of research, but it has trained graduate students from all over the globe because its graduate programs rank at the top or near the top in just about every field. Its faculty is world class, like Harvard's, and its departments can offer much more depth than most because of the size of the faculty. </p>
<p>That doesn't tell you whether or not you should choose it as the place you get your undergraduate degree.</p>