<p>Hello guys, I am an international students coming from China. I am now struggling to make a decision whether I should go to UCB or UVA. I possibly major in applied math and history (or a little economy). I am now thinking about doing some consulting or IB after graduation and then going to graduate school. So the job placement and graduate school prospect are both important to me. However, everything is not fixed. Who knows if one day I wanna be a engineer or car designer? (Indeed that is my dream)</p>
<p>UCB: Really prestigious, huge huge fame in my country. But a current student implies that the budget cut more or less hurts the undergraduate education quality in UCB. There will be many classes taught by TA in first 2 years. The students might be competitive. And the GPA issue(deflation) may hurt my graduate prospect. But Berkeley seems to excel at every aspects of study.</p>
<p>UVA: Less competitive and more relaxing atmosphere, wonderful humanity department. Also, because it is on the East Coast, I suppose it has better chance to do some IB or consulting after graduation. I need these job experiences as wealth in my graduate school application. It might be easier to get a higher GPA in UVA than UCB (Please refute if you do not agree. I hear that from a UCB student so the statement may be biased. </p>
<p>I also have another consideration. To tell the truth, I do not like climate in both places. I do not like big sun in California and wet air in Virginia. So if possible, I may be thinking about transfer to another school of the same tier. (The school I wanna transfer to are not necessarily academically better but these school have climate more favorable to me, like Northwestern or WUSTL?not sure). In UVA, it seems have more freedom because it is easier to double major or transfer.</p>
<p>So I get lost in the face of this choice of life. What is your opinion. Big thanks to your ideas. Your suggestion might light up my way!</p>
<p>First off, Congrats on getting into UVA and UCB! I think I can help you address some of your concerns about UC Berkeley, as I have little knowledge of the programs or the career options at UVA. Here’s what I can tell you about Berkeley: first off, it really isn’t that sunny. For the majority of the year it is overcast with a lot of rainy days…the average temperature usually hovers around 63 degrees in the fall, 55 in the winter, 70 in the spring, and 75ish in the summer(personal estimates from my own experiences). It usually isn’t hot at all to be completely honest. I here it seldom breaks 80 degrees ever. You’re right about classes being taught by TA’s but keep in mind that you will still have access to professors and that you may actually prefer being taught by TA’s since they are typically better at teaching and more interested in helping you. Contrary to what you have stated, there’s actually slight grade inflation at Berkeley, though that might be due to the fact that many of the students who attend are incredibly hardworking and therefore achieve high marks. The thing you are most wrong about is the graduate prospects at Berkeley. Many companies including Google, Oracle, etc. recruit students directly from Berkeley, and networking opportunities in Berkeley are plentiful. It is kind of difficult to transfer between colleges at Berkeley, but changing your major isn’t difficult as long as you’ve completed the prerequisites. That’s all I really have to say about berkeley, but take it with a grain of salt since I decided on UC Berkeley over UCLA about a week ago. But despite my potential bias, a lot of the information I’ve just told you is quite factual. Good luck with your decision, and feel free to respond with any specific questions you may have :)</p>
<p>If you want to do IB/financial consulting you should probably major in business or finance. If you want do prop trading then you could do a math, engineering, or comp si major, but in any other case I strongly suggest majoring in business for IB.</p>
<p>There is also a major at Berkeley called Operations Research and Management Science that appears to be configurable for someone going into quantitative finance and similar areas. Or you could probably build something similar around a math, statistics, or economics major.</p>
<p>Thanks for your reply, dutchone. I hear the student group in Cal is really really competitive and. So the drastic competition may offset the effect of Berkeley’s perfect recognition among big companies and Graduate School. Because more oppotunities here is diluted, as more competitive candidates join the competition. Urrr, I am a little bit worried about that.</p>
<p>Also big thanks to Ivygolfer and ucbalumnus. Thanks for your advice. Urrr, but I might want to pursue a MBA in Graduate school, because I would rather develop my basic skills in my 4-years college. So I might not fight for Haas. And I like consulting better than IB,LOL.</p>
<p>Berkeley is the better option, I think. Berkeley classes are not usually taught by TAs, except for introductory English courses. What happens is you have a large lecture taught by a professor and then you have sections led by TAs. It is true, however, that you won’t have a lot of interaction with professors because of this. </p>
<p>Berkeley has quite nice weather, it’s never very hot. I don’t know anywhere with better weather than Berkeley.</p>
<p>Berkeley has a good business school. Even if you don’t major in Business, all the top consulting, IB, accounting, finance, etc etc firms all recruit here. When you don’t have OCR, getting interviews is extremely hard. Berkeley has tons more OCR opportunities, which is most important. You’re chances of landing something better at UCB, in my opinion.</p>
<p>NY/east coast usually recruit out of ivies/NYU etc. UVA is a little south for that. However, west coast Ibanks/financial/consulting firms are based in San Francisco. If you think you want to go into business, seriously consider Berkeley.</p>
<p>Good luck on your decision</p>
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<li><p>Berkeley “competition” is WAY overblown. It is so exaggerated. This school is easy, if you don’t take 100 technical courses at the same time. I have a 4.0 and I have so much free time! I can’t believe how much free time I have! I am deciding between Computer Science and Business.</p></li>
<li><p>Budget cut effects are WAY overblown. So exaggerated. There might be a slight increase in tuition, but other than that, you still get SUPERSTAR professors (who hold “office hours” and no one goes! you can become best friends with your superstar professors!) and also top quality name recognition. Maybe a class or two are cut, but they were probably classes no one cared about! Remember, California public state funding is a VERY small part of UC Berkeley’s Billion-dollar budget. Most of it comes from philanthropy and other private sources.</p></li>
<li><p>You can get much better IB/consulting offers at Berkeley than you can get at Virginia. On the West Coast financial center, firms like Goldman Sachs recruit basically only from Stanford and Berkeley, whereas on the East Coast, people at Virginia must compete with Harvard/Yale/Princeton/Wharton/MIT/Dartmouth/NYU and so many other top schools.</p></li>
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