<p>I got into Cal and UCLA as an out-of-state tranfer student. I have to pay nearly $40,000 a year! Do you guys think they are worth the money? I know that it's the number one public school.</p>
<p>depends, which state and school are you transferring from? Also, what are your other alternatives?</p>
<p>i don’t know yet. NJ.</p>
<p>How much would your alternatives cost?</p>
<p>–
I live 50 minutes away from Cal and the tuition will cost around ~$10,000 a year. So I’m willing take the risk of having mostly Graduate Student Instructors teach (minimal professor to teacher interaction), cut throat class sign ups (long wait lists, possibility of not even getting the class), and general overcrowded-ness at Cal.</p>
<p>Think about how much you value real professor to student relationships before you shell out $40,000*2 for your tuition!</p>
<p>BTW, my friends at Cal estimated each hour, a class costs around ~$50 (and this for CA residents). ;O </p>
<p>If you are high rollin’ I say go for it. If not, consider your alternatives!</p>
<p>i’ve never had a graduate student teach my course and i’ve always gotten off the waitlist so its never been a problem for me.</p>
<p>Suddenly I feel EXCEPTIONALLY lucky to have grown up in california.</p>
<p>I’d say you’re lucky. Best public university system in the world.</p>
<p>yeah if you go to the east coast, a lot of people dont really understand how good our public schools are. </p>
<p>They think of UCLA and Berkeley as good schools but still a public school, therefore not desirable. I dropped the average SAT score for ucla, and they shut the **** up lol</p>
<p>Just tell them Berk or UCLA are better than U of Virginia or UNC.</p>
<p>So the quality of your education isn’t based on whether or not you’re being taught by a graduate student or TA (or graded by them), but the SAT scores of your colleagues? Wow. XD</p>
<p>One of my best friends scored 300 points higher than I did by taking some Kapplan class or whatever, and I used to help him with his HW a lot. ;)</p>
<p>You guys are crazy XD</p>
<p>Yes!!! Especially CAL–the weather, the culture, the infinite offerings, the food, the Bay, the interesting milieu, and that if you do well, at CAL, for example, you will be coveted by every possible grad school to which you apply.</p>
<p>UCLA is also a great school, but the geography and social/intellectual sensibility is different than that of CAL.</p>
<p><<<yeah if=“” you=“” go=“” to=“” the=“” east=“” coast,=“” a=“” lot=“” of=“” people=“” dont=“” really=“” understand=“” how=“” good=“” our=“” public=“” schools=“” are.=“”>>></yeah></p>
<p>Oh, really, tell that to the admissions committee at Harvard, Penn, Columbia, Tufts, Hopkins, Cornell, NYU, Albert Einstein who accepted me to their medical schools. They not only knew the quality of academics at CAL but were also “bowled over” (a direct quote from the attending who interviewed me at Harvard) by how well I had done in a school known for its profound grade deflation. My husband and peers, applying to medical school from Stanford (known, then, for profound grade inflation), did not fare as well as I in their acceptances. Med schools knew of Stanford’s disingenuous policy of allowing its undergraduates to drop classes at the final, thus invalidating a lot of Stanford students’ high GPAs.</p>
<p>And when I got an MA from Harvard, in English, between med. school and internship/residency, again, they knew what an undergraduate education at Berkeley meant and still means. </p>
<p>The idea that public school is somehow inferior to private school is patently ridiculous and uniformed. In my residency at Hopkins, there was an agreement that the med. students who came from CAL were brilliant and driven, most of whom became MD/PhDs and moved on to academic medicine instead of private practice.</p>
<p>thanks for your reply everyone! but i still didnt get the answer… is it worth it or not? yes or no? LOL:)</p>
<p>If you want to work in California after school then it is worth it. If all you are gonna do is go here for school, and then go back to where you live after school, I say stick around where you already are.</p>
<p>If you have the money and it won’t be too big of a financial burden, then I’d definitely go to Berkeley if I were you. College Confidential’s idea of prestige is pretty deflated. If you take a step back and look at Berkeley from a national and international viewpoint, it is one of the absolute best institutions in the world with almost every field of study in its top 10. The only reason it ranks low overall is because US News uses some really stupid metrics that naturally favor private schools like Harvard that can be more selective for the purpose of increasing their rankings without contributing to the overall education quality-something that public institutions cannot do.</p>
<p>Stanford President claims in a letter to US News that Berkeley is “clearly among the very best universities in America” and that “one could make a strong argument for [Berkeley] in the top half-dozen.” <a href=“http://www.stanford.edu/dept/pres-provost/president/speeches/961206gcfallow.html[/url]”>http://www.stanford.edu/dept/pres-provost/president/speeches/961206gcfallow.html</a></p>
<p>And that’s just the rankings and prestige stuff. If you visit Berkeley, I think you’ll find the culture, the people and the area amazing. You will have a blast and you’ll be learning alongside some of the most talented and focused students in the nation. Famous speakers frequent Berkeley (recently: the Dali Lama and Bill Clinton). Also, in the bay area, Cal is a gem and wherever you go you will feel like you’re a part of the Berkeley family. Wearing your Cal shirt, you’ll encounter many alumni!</p>
<p>I could go on forever but I’ve made my small sales pitch haha</p>
<p>… Oh and one last thing… If you’re interested in engineering/technology, you should know that you will have NO PROBLEM finding a job in the Silicon Valley.</p>
<p><<<thanks for=“” your=“” reply=“” everyone!=“” but=“” i=“” still=“” didnt=“” get=“” the=“” answer…=“” is=“” it=“” worth=“” or=“” not?=“” yes=“” no?=“” lol=“”>>></thanks></p>
<p>Please see the first word of my post–I said, unequivocally, “yes!”</p>
<p>Hi, Lova! I’m from NJ too and not sure if I’m going too Berkeley for transfer because of the price. Let me know what you decide!</p>
<p>I don’t think you’ve given us sufficient info. </p>
<p>If your parents are rich, and you (or they) won’t encounter any debt, then sure, come out to the left coast. </p>
<p>Depends on what your professional aspirations are also.</p>
<p>The longer it’ll take for you to become professional in whatever field you choose should mean taht you want to lower whatever debt you have by the time you finish your first four-year educational stint.</p>
<p>If you’re from a not-so-rich family, any debt acquired as an undergrad will be highly (impossibly?) burdensome after another four-year educational stint as a med student.</p>
<p>If you’re going for just undergrad, you still have to be mindful in case you choose a profession that’s not highly compensatory like social work.</p>
<p>If I were you, I would list my professional ambitions (you’re an xfer so you should have somewhat definite plans); second, I would see how much more education I needed; third, I would see what kind of costs I or my parents would incur through this education (if none, then go to 2b - come to CA); fourth I would set a timetable as to paying it off via at what point in my life I would become a professional; and five, see if it’s all worth experiencing the left coast when I could have stayed at (or gone to) Rutgers or wherever.</p>
<p>Best of luck. </p>
<p>PS… </p>
<p>If you do want a quintiessential CA experience, I would vote UCLA. UCLA can be a good contradiction: the social life along with the serious academics and great placement into law school and good into med (great by pure numbers, good as far as % accepted, 737 applicants to med school in 2009).</p>
<p>No.</p>
<p>sent from my iphone.</p>