Prestige: Cal or Chicago

<p>Which as more prestige?</p>

<p>Honestly, about the same. Though I think you'd have a much better experience at UCh</p>

<p>I'd say Berkeley -- it's older, has established itself in basically every field, and is generally known both nationally and internationally. Although UChic is prestigious in its own right, you'd be surprised by how few outside the college-going sphere have heard of it.</p>

<p>Yeah, but those people (the people outside the college-going sphere) ultimately don't matter.</p>

<p>I'm not a gung-ho fan of Cal's prestige- I think most of the Ivy's put us to shame, as well as MIT, Stanford, Amherst, Swarthmore, Cambridge, and Oxford. However, I can say confidently that Cal is definitely ahead of Chicago on the whole. uchic has an incredible law school, but Cal's prestige in almost all other departments (in MY opinion) supercede those of uchic.</p>

<p>"Yeah, but those people (the people outside the college-going sphere) ultimately don't matter."</p>

<p>Er, prestige is a measure in the general population...</p>

<p>bearslair: I don't think the gap in prestige between MIT and Berkeley is that big (not enough to put Berkeley to shame). Further, I don't think all the Ivies beat Berkeley in prestige; UPenn, for example, might be a bit behind Berkeley (though I don't have any stats to support this). I don't think Swarthmore beats Berkeley in terms of overall prestige, either...</p>

<p>If I want to study business (and possibly pre-med) as an undergraduate, would University of Chicago or UC Berkeley be a better choice?</p>

<p>That's tough. Both are tops...</p>

<p>If i were you....I'd visit the campus first...
Couple of weeks ago.... I was in the same position you are now...
It came down to Berkeley and Chicago, and I couldn't decide....until I visit the campus.
Sure i spent couple hundred dollars to fly around...but it was worth it.
I've been talking to professors and instructors and they all said that Berkeley and Chicago are almost the same (Berkeley being a bit better of course...<em>cough</em> <em>cough</em>).
Chicago and Berkeley are SOOOO different.
When I visited chicago, I had the "elitist" and intense feeling. Don't get me wrong....It was an AMAZING university. Great campus (although the surrounding is very shady), super intelligent people ( the kind of people who read aristotle or freud just for fun), and very tight-knit community (there's only 4,000 undergrad). But coming from california....i didn't feel that i would belong there. When people say that it takes a special person to go to U of Chicago...they're not kidding. It's a totaly different personality. Honestly, I loved the Berkeley atmosphere. I loved the samba on the street, acapella in front of sproul hall, and the millions of other things that is always going on.</p>

<p>Don't get yourself cought up with names and recognition. They're both academic powerhouse. You just need to see where you'd fit.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

<p>I've actually visited both, and I liked both very much. I'm from California, and I love it, but I also wouldn't mind trying something new. The thing that I want to know is which one will help me to become most successful. They're both very good schools, but is one a little bit better than the other?</p>