Northwester vs UC Berkeley

Colleges and Universities A-Z Northwestern University
1

Hello! This is my first post here, and I was hoping someone would be able to help me out:

I was lucky to have been admitted to Northwestern and Berkeley and some other colleges, but those are the two that I am torn between. I live in Japan, and haven’t been able to visit Northwestern, and only went to see Berkeley once or twice. My family is pushing for me to attend Northwestern, but there are some questions that I have:

  1. What is the student atmosphere like at both of these schools? My brother (who graduated from Berkeley) said that Berkeley is very liberal, but other than that, I don't know much about what the student environment is like. Are the students very competitive?
  2. How easy is it to change or declare majors? I applied for both schools as a psychology major, but that was more of a spur-of-the-moment thing and I really don't know if I'm going to stick with it when I get to college. I know that in Northwestern it is relatively easy to double major, but do they have a set date when you have to declare your major by? And is it the same for Berkeley? If you do decide to take on a different major, is it difficult to get caught up again?
  3. How are the research opportunities? My brother mentioned how Berkeley is very cut-throat in terms of student competition, but would you say this is true? I would really like to do some research at college, but is it easier to get research positions at Northwestern?
  4. Grade deflation or inflation and Class difficulty? I heard lots of rumours that Berkeley and Northwestern has grade deflation, and I was wondering how much of this is true? Also, are the average classes extremely difficult?

Money isn’t an issue for me, but what are your opinions about them? Are there any features that make one stand out over the other?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

(This was also posted in the college and search selection)

2

Simply put, I feel like you’re a much better fit for Northwestern.

Northwestern is unlike Berkeley, way more student-focused (thus more research opportunities and small classes that might solve your ‘class difficulty’ problem when you have easy access to all teachers), liberal as in major choices, “study hard, play hard”.

I have to say Berkeley is more suited towards postgraduate studies, while NU is targeted for good undergraduate studies. Also, because UCB is such a big public school, there is no main school culture whatsoever, and of course less united as a school; NU on the other hand, can be called pre-professional, artsy and general has some sort of culture. If you’re uncertain about which major to do, then definitely (!) NU.

3

I have attended both of these schools and would say that Northwestern is a better choice for an undergraduate, while Berkeley is world-class in nearly every graduate discipline. I would give Berkeley an edge for undergraduate engineering, but it looks like that is not something you are considering.

4

I have close relatives at both places. Main complaint about Berkeley is the shabbiness of off-campus apartments (landlords know there is shortage of housing near campus and do little to maintain buildings). Main complaint about Northwestern is brutally cold weather november through March.