I’ll share my thoughts on the schools you mentioned - UCB, UCLA, USC, Stanford - since my D applied to and considered all of them (didn’t get accepted to Stanford though, which was her first choice).
The issue of “fit” is really important. My sense is that the student body at UCB and Stanford are very high-achieving academically. If your son is a little more relaxed about academics and wanting a more well-rounded college experience, then he should look a little harder into how closely he’ll fit with in with the student culture. I’m not saying, “nerds only”, I’m saying scope out their forums and facebook pages and get a sense of the culture, and talk to kids when you do your campus visits. And consider if your kid has any tendencies toward stress or anxiety; being surrounded by kids very focused on doing well academically is not a good environment for those with a tendency towards anxiety.
I also feel like Stanford would be best for a STEM major, less so for liberal arts. A huge benefit vs UCLA and UCB is that I assume class sizes would be smaller, and registration easier. Another big benefit is the beautiful and secure campus, but it’s not really walking distance to off-campus shops aside from the Stanford Mall. UCB and UCLA have thriving college towns right off the campus. Some kids are perfectly happy spending all their time on campus, others want to get off campus and roam around.
At UCLA registration is a stress-filled zoo for freshmen. Classes fill up in the blink of an eye and if you don’t get lucky with an early registration slot then you need to be sure to have multiple alternate classes/schedules lined up while waiting for your turn. I assume the same would apply to UCB. Larger lectures will be big and impersonal, but normally have a smaller discussion section. I went to a private college and took my small class sizes (and easy registration) for granted; with my D at UCLA I now realize what a huge, tremendous, enormous benefit that was to attending a private college.
Both UCLA and UCB are pretty large and hilly, so kids have to be good walkers to get around there. The dorms at both aren’t that great, but I suppose are fairly typical college dorms. UCLA has a good rep for campus food; UCB is smack-dab in the middle of Berkeley so kids are surrounded by restaurants so food quality isn’t really an issue there.
I haven’t been to USC personally. From talking with a colleague with a son there, the campus is gorgeous and her S is very happy. I would assume class sizes are smaller than the UC’s and easier to register for. The surrounding area is not that great, though, which is why my D ruled it out (she’s one of the “roamer” types I mentioned above).
"put the framed letter in the entrance to your house with spotlights on it so everyone sees it upon entry… "
uh, no. That is such a bad idea. Do you want to rub it in the kids face EVERY time he comes home?
Its HIS acceptance letter, not the parents acceptance letter.
Just tuck it in a drawer somewhere so it can pulled out by the parent from time to time .
That’s what I did with the 13 acceptance letters DS received.
DS was not interested in seeing them again after he made his enrollment decision.
btw, we also pushed DS to apply to S-he was deferred and then rejected. WE were not happy but he was relieved, since he also did not want to go to a U so close to home.
He was accepted there for Grad school, but instead chose a smaller U that has highest reputation in his field.
Not necessarily. Stanford also has many strong social science/humanities departments even though it does seem the common perception and even emphasis among some of their alums/admins is on the STEM side.
Some differences to consider could be:
Academic calendars: UCB has 2 semesters in an academic year, UCLA and Stanford are structured on 3 academic quarters in a year. Some students prefer more time with courses over 14-15 week semesters, others prefer the faster paced 10 week quarters and a chance to take more courses in 1 academic year(9-12 courses per year on quarters as opposed to 8 on semesters).
If the departments one is considering is comparable across all schools in question(i.e. Engineering at UCB and Stanford are tippytop,; East Asian Studies related fields are tippytops at UCLA, UCB, and Stanford; etc), the prospective student would be wise to consider differences in campus cultures and fit considering there are some notable differences between them.
40% of all Stanford UG’s are engineering majors, and the Humanities profs truly love students who choose non STEM majors, since there arent many of them at Stanford.
. One History prof lives across the street from me and told me that there have been many discussions with the outgoing Pres about what to do regarding the lopsided “tilt” of Stanford UGs toward Engineering.
My husband and I went to Stanford as PhD students. We explicitly steered our kids away from Stanford as UG. It has a heavy emphasis on its many excellent graduate schools. The EE department at Stanford (that was my degree) is huge, and predominantly graduate students. I know my thesis advisors spent very little energy even thinking about UG students.
In addition to my general perception, I was also thinking in terms of value. Would I pay 60k/yr for a sociology degree from Stanford, vs 30k for the same degree from UCB or UCLA? Probably not. But I would consider it for computer science, engineering, etc. But honestly that would just be paying for the name-brand, as I believe UCB and UCLA also have world-class STEM programs.
^^ I would have the totally opposite approach, @anomander.
Stanford would open doors to a sociology grad that UCB and UCLA probably wouldn’t. That’s when prestige and school reputation really kicks in the most.
Whereas pretty much everyone studying computer science or engineering gets jobs – whether they graduate from Stanford or San Jose State.
In my experience, being a non technical major is precisely the reason to go to an elite school.
“Some of those engineering majors may also be double-majoring in a humanities/social science field.”
most are not.
Hence the discussion with Hennessy about what to do about Humanites profs with few students to teach.
If the choice was between UCB and Stanford for engineering/CS with the cost differentials making S more expensive, the California relatives…especially the engineers would overwhelmingly push for their kids to attend UCB or even UCLA at lower cost.
None would have felt Stanford was worth the extra $30k or more considering the engineering departments of both UCB and Stanford at the undergrad level are treated as equivalently tippy top in practice with most engineering/CS/tech employers. Especially considering some of those relatives were part of recruitment/hiring teams for their respective engineering/computer related/tech firms.
While UCLA is regarded as on a slightly lower tier in engineering/CS, that slight difference would still not be worth the added cost to them.
Very interesting. I just picked sociology out of the liberal arts hat for an example. Your post is a good illustration of why it pays to research the particular major a student is interested in, assuming they’ve decided on one before picking a college.
Intparent, I’d like to know where I said it’s good to force a kid to go somewwhere he doesn’t want to go. I said the parents should provide guidance. And I think they should have veto power if they are paying for it. But none of that involves forcing someone to go where they don’t want to go. In other words, it shud be a collaborative decision…not a case of throwing a 17 y.o. $200,000 and wishing him well.
Having veto power and making the choice as a collaborative decision don’t exactly go together.
Plus…in my opinion the collaboration or even veto…should take place before applications are sent. Once the applications are sent, any acceptances should be able to be on the table for,the student to choose (unless they’re has been a catastrophic financial issue between when applications were sent and decisions received).
This student has excellent options…assuming he actually gets acceoted to Cal, UCLA, and USC…in addition to Stanford.
That being the case…the student should be able to choose.
I didn’t read the entire thread. But I really think it is up to the student to pick their school. I also think finding the school that best fits what you want is the most important in making a decision as to which school to attend. While it was for grad school, my D picked UC Berkeley over her acceptance to Stanford due to best fit with what she was seeking.