<p>California resident (Y/N):Yes
Schools accepted: UCSD, UCD, UCSB, UCI, UCSC, NYU, Columbia GS
Schools rejected:UCLA
Schools waitlisted: N/A
Berkeley top choice (Y/N):Yes
Why Berkeley? The best of the bunch and I have always dreamed of attending Cal. Happy as H.. to be going.</p>
<p>There are key differences. Although at UCSB, I was actually part of the undergrad and now at Cal I can judge the quality only from a grad-level perspective through TAing etc so this may not be a valid comparison. </p>
<p>At UCSB the general feeling I get of the undergrad student body was basically people were more friendly/ easy-going. I mean kids were still bright. I remember a professor asked in a class of 30 in one of my engineering courses how many of us were valedictorians in highschool and I think 5-6 raised our hands. So the academic quality was pretty good. I'm sure there are probably more Valedictorians/Salutatorians at Cal too just by nature of admissions. However, being an allstar in highschool doesn't translate to doing well in undergrad. </p>
<p>But aside from that, there are intangibles which you can't really judge unless you've been there yourself. So some of the key differences are these between UCSB and UCB undergrad. One is diversity -- at UCSB, it was a predominantly white student population coming from middle-class families. At UCB, we have a predominantly Asian population. I don't know if it is the nature of Asian population to be academically competitive or whatever or that there is an overdose of pre-med students at Cal, but it seems like the students at Cal are more of the mindset for "whatever it takes to get that A" and has the general "atmosphere" of needing to compete with your colleages to survive. (This is a generality of course.) At UCSB, it feels more like "we're in this struggle together" which lends more to group study and team-focused projects/homeworks. I'm sure there are group studying at Cal, but just the general "need" to compete wasn't as prevalent at UCSB. </p>
<p>For example, I remember one time when I was TAing an undergrad course, a student came up after an exam to point out that he/she thinks "a friend" in the class stored equations in their calculators (the test was based on derivations so storing eqs. doesn't really help). I mean I wouldn't call this "snitching" but this kind of attitude just turns me off a little bit at Cal. I'm not saying this kind of stuff doesn't happen at UCSB, but I think "academic sabotage" is not as common. </p>
<p>But I mean, Cal is a great school no doubt and that's why I came, but I find it quite fascinating that incoming 18-20 years (freshmen or transfer students or whatever) would think that Cal is the best of the best (obviously they haven't seen the quality of work/research produced by other universities even at the other UCs). Part of the reason for going to college is for exposure, and I think it really is naive to insinuate no school is as great as yours simply because you go there. There are many equal or better academic institutions out there.. Columbia/UCLA/Brown/Cornell etc. School spirit has nothing to do with this.</p>
<p>
[quote]
but it seems like the students at Cal are more of the mindset for "whatever it takes to get that A" and has the general "atmosphere" of needing to compete with your colleages to survive. (This is a generality of course.) At UCSB, it feels more like "we're in this struggle together" which lends more to group study and team-focused projects/homeworks. I'm sure there are group studying at Cal, but just the general "need" to compete wasn't as prevalent at UCSB.
[/quote]
Would you say that kind of atmosphere better prepares college students for the real world?</p>
<p>were a capitalist society not commies, its all about sticking up for yourself (as much as i hate that system myself)</p>
<p>Capitalists and communists have nothing to do with 'sticking up for oneself'.</p>
<p>California resident (Y/N): Y
Schools accepted: UCSB, UCSD, SF state, SJ State, Santa Clara
Schools rejected: --
Schools waitlisted: --
Berkeley top choice (Y/N): Y
Why Berkeley? The atmosphere is amazing because I'm definitely a city kid. I love the diversity, the fact that it's not a prissy private school, the short distance it is from my house, and the prestige of course.</p>
<p>Really don't like the general idea of threads like this, but something in me wants to post anyway:</p>
<ul>
<li>California resident:Yes</li>
<li>Schools accepted: UCSC, UCSC, Lewis & Clark, Tufts</li>
<li>Schools rejected: Olin, Caltech, MIT, Stanford</li>
<li>Berkeley top choice: Never really had a #1 school, but Berkeley definitely wasn't in the top 3-4 when I applied</li>
<li>Why Berkeley? I wanted to go to college surrounded by a city but easily escapable year round: (Anecdote incoming).
I was a lot more excited when I got accepted to Tufts than Berkeley's acceptance, and up until I visited Tufts (2 weeks after Cal Day) I was pretty certain I'd be going out East. It's not that I hated Tufts or had a really bad experience; I just realized that after living my entire life in San Diego, it was going to be really annoying to deal with this thing called "weather". After wandering around the city of Berkeley, I liked having restaurants and off campus stuff to do right outside of campus, rather than always being 10-20 minutes away. I also wanted to stay closer to the Sierras, my home away from home, and the (in general) greater abundance and closer proximity to getting away.</li>
</ul>
<p>
This is why I didn't want to post here. Yes, learning how to be cutthroat in college could make you better prepared for cutthroat portions of the corporate world. One of the other reasons why I chose Berkeley is because there's an actual sense of change around. Complacency leads to more of the same thing, while new ideas and ways of doing things brings about innovation, efficiency, and progression. Part of the reason Google, Yahoo!, Netflix, etc. have been so successful is from their insistence on working in teams and generally avoiding as many aspects of a cutthroat and/or Office Space culture as they can. And what do you know, they (and thousands of other similar minded companies) are centered in an area of the U.S. that had a chance to start from scratch without old time business politics or habits to hold it back. Newsflash: the "real world" isn't all cutthroat, only a small subset is. And that subset is starting to be overtaken by new sectors and companies that are utilizing creativity, teamwork, and (greed-free) motivation to get new work done. Some other posters can better add to (or disagree if they wish) my points here, but the basic principal is that most of the "real world" doesn't need to rip out pages of textbooks, snitch, or otherwise fight for themselves by themselves to make a living and change the world.</p>
<p>And for any possible future Bears, don't let this deter you. Berkeley's a great school, far from perfect with plenty of flaws, but it's a unique place that's up to you to decide if it's right for you.</p>
<br>
<blockquote> <p>Newsflash: the "real world" isn't all cutthroat, only a small subset is. And that subset is starting to be overtaken by new sectors and companies that are utilizing creativity, teamwork, and (greed-free) motivation to get new work done. Some other posters can better add to (or disagree if they wish) my points here, but the basic principal is that most of the "real world" doesn't need to rip out pages of textbooks, snitch, or otherwise fight for themselves by themselves to make a living and change the world.<<</p> </blockquote>
<br>
<p>Quite right. I'm a non-traditional student with about 18 years of office work experience, and I can say that even in a law office there just isn't as much competition as one might think there would be. I've worked as a legal clerk, paralegal, and now in IT. I can honestly say that although we might have individual projects that we are given, if we don't work together as a team, the job will not get done and the client will not be happy. When there are discovery documents to review and prepare, a trial to prepare for, or a motion and memoranda to file, everyone on the case team works together, from the partner in charge to the business services person who is making the copies.</p>
<p>There is also an awful lot of collaboration going on between the attorneys; in fact, most of them are happy to share past research or past memoranda as templates. Of course, there have been a few attorneys, usually new associates who just graduated from law school, who have used competitive strategies (ie sabotage) to "get ahead" or "stand out," but at my firms at least, these types usually don't last more than 6 months to one year. Most of the time they are fired.</p>
<p>^^^ How do you explain politics at work? How do you explain projects from team A got picked and team B got dissolved? Look at Sun, Intel, AMD, cut throat happens all the time. Your "real world" is a product of idealism & Marxism.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I can say that even in a law office there just isn't as much competition as one might think there would be.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>That's only because you haven't realized that everyone else is winning.</p>
<p>:P</p>
<p>middsmith: I don't doubt that it is cut-throat at Sun, Intel, AMD, etc., but I haven't worked at those firms so I can't truly comment on the culture there. I am only giving an example of one type of work culture in which I have actual experience. Perhaps someone who has worked at these firms you mention (or whose parents have) can chime in about the "real world" experience there. </p>
<p>poppin3000: Perhaps you are right. I am an idealist, after all. ;)</p>
<ul>
<li>California resident (Y/N): Yes</li>
<li>Schools accepted: University of Southern Calif., UCB, UCSD, UCD</li>
<li>Schools rejected: none</li>
<li>Schools waitlisted: N/A</li>
<li>Berkeley top choice (Y/N): Yes, and USC</li>
<li>Why Berkeley? i already have alot of important career connections there, and well, i could fit right in w/all the weirdness, culture, intellect, and just all round vibrancy that the bay has to offer. woohoo! USC has all that, but minus the career connections (<-- important in my field)</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>California resident (Y/N): Yes</li>
<li>Schools accepted: UCLA, UCSD, UCD, UCI, Northwestern (BioE), NYU (Stern)</li>
<li>Schools rejected: Stanford, Princeton, UPenn (Wharton Early)</li>
<li>Schools waitlisted: Columbia (something engineering)</li>
<li>Berkeley top choice (Y/N): Kind of @<em>@ was Tied with NYU. Stanford was #1, but i didn't i'd get in ></em>>;</li>
<li>Why Berkeley? Haas! And omg the clubs are so cool 8D!! And its close to home and its cheaper 8D finally getting something back for my (parents') tax money $<em>$! although so many people i know are going there -</em>__________-;</li>
</ul>
<p>thatgirltoo: Speaking as a lawyer practicing for over 20 years in So. Cal., from big firms to small firms, you know of what you speak!</p>
<p>To all of you young folk -- stay real, stay true to you. There's always going to be the competition, the person who has the "he who dies with the most toys wins" mentality. If that's what you dig, so be it. I kind of thought the "me" vs. the "we" mentality ended in the '80's and I really don't see that at Cal, at least not with respect to my son's experience.</p>
<p>There will always be those newbies in the legal field who will look at the numbers and take that starting salary of $160k/year at the big law firm, and be absolutely full of themselves. Yeah, they can pay off those student loans in a couple of years, and feel slighted if they don't get the big celebrity cases, and spend all their time brown nosing as opposed to learning their craft and learning communications skills. They don't realize that the 80 hour week translates to two full time jobs at $80k a year. Then, again, quality of life isn't a big issue to some at 25 with a long life ahead of them and the carrot stick so close. They get blinded by numbers and the BMW. It makes some people feel very important, and that's ok.</p>
<p>To me, it's much more fun and much more rewarding helping other people, and being on a team, and doing a collective win. And that's what I really appreciate about the Cal spirit, because I really think the majority is just like that. In every thing you experience, there's always going to be the person who will step on everyone to get ahead, but there's also going to be those people who have compassion, and that really is the essence of those quirky Cal undergrads.</p>
<p>Even though I'm a UCLA grad, Go Bears!</p>
<ul>
<li>California resident (Y/N): yes</li>
<li>Schools accepted: michigan, vanderbilt, wisc-mad, uconn, mcgill, santa clara</li>
<li>Schools rejected: dartmouth, virginia, notre dame</li>
<li>Schools waitlisted: N/A</li>
<li>Berkeley top choice (Y/N): tied at one pt with mcgill, but that was b4 i visited berk!</li>
<li>Why Berkeley? because its the best school in the world and i cant imagine anyone wanting to go anywhere else.
*evidence: My cousin who graduated from berkeley in 05 told me this story about a vacation in Germany she took with a friend who attended Duke. The were at some random coffee house and starting talking with some locals, and after mentioning where they attended college, the germans honed straight in on my cousin asking her, "wow, berkeley, what does it feel like to go to one of the most famous colleges in the world?". They didnt even know what duke was.</li>
</ul>
<p>so put THAT in your US NEWS pipe and smoke it.</p>
<p>HAHAHAHA "US NEWS pipe" hhahaa i wanna get some of that hahaha smoke that s h i t</p>
<p>California resident (Y/N): Y
Schools accepted: UCSD, UCD, UCSB, UCSC
Schools rejected: UCI
Schools waitlisted: --
Berkeley top choice (Y/N): Y
Why Berkeley? Fairly close to home, great atmosphere, top-notch academics, prestige, good financial aid package</p>
<p>
[quote]
so put THAT in your US NEWS pipe and smoke it.
[/quote]
^wow, that just made my day...awesome.</p>
<p>California resident (Y/N): Y</p>
<p>Schools accepted: USC, UCLA, NYU (Steinhardt scholarship), UCSD, UCI, UC Davis, CSUS, CSULB (full presidential scholarship)</p>
<p>Schools rejected: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Cornell, Northwestern</p>
<p>Schools waitlisted: Brown University (waiting for decision, top choice)
Stanford (rejected)</p>
<p>Berkeley top choice (Y/N): N, sorry</p>
<p>Why Berkeley? Good academics, known for Chemistry and math majors, good programs, near San Francisco.</p>
<p>California resident (Y/N): Y
Schools accepted: Northwestern, UCLA, Bucknell, UC Davis, UCSD
Schools rejected: None
Schools waitlisted: Davidson, Boston College
Berkeley top choice (Y/N): N but it grew on me
Why Berkeley? My family couldn't afford Northwestern with no financial aid help, and I was choosing between UCLA, Bucknell, and Berkeley. I visited Berkeley twice and fell in love. GO BEARS!</p>