<p>My parents are trying to force me to go to Berkeley and although I liked the school, I loved NYC and NYU. I also got a $26,000 scholarship from NYU and was accepted into the Presidential Scholars Program, which gives you a lot of personal attention and great opportunities to go abroad, which is something very important to me in my college experience. I personally feel NYU would be better for me as I am doing pre-med and psychology, but my parents think that the Berkeley name is overwhelmingly better than NYU and I am planning to apply to west coast med schools (I'm from California). What should I do? Will going to NYU give me an advantage for med school since I stand out already, and if so, how much?</p>
<p>Berkeley's name is only "overwhelmingly better" than NYU's if you plan on applying to a medical school which is very distant: either across the Pacific Ocean or 40 years in the past.</p>
<p>In any case, the reputation of your undergraduate school wouldn't be an overwhelming factor in any case. Check out Berkeley's premed numbers -- they're pretty frighteningly atrocious. (I don't know how NYU's compare.)</p>
<p>I grew up in Berkeley and had more of my friends go there than anywhere else -- I know the school pretty well.</p>