<p>Alright Everybody this is enough,</p>
<pre><code> These two Universities are comparable in nearly every area except undergraduate education. For everyone knocking Stanford it consistently ranks at the top for undergraduate education, and has 28 graduate programs in the top 10 nationally.
What I really don't understand is how anyone can say Berkeley is not of a calibre equivalent to Stanford (or any other school in the country for that matter). If you check US News you'll find that 35 of Berkeley's 36 graduate programs are in the top ten. That's more than ANY other University in the country. Stanford comes in second and Harvard third.
NRC faculty rankings based on publication, awards, and memberships (academy of science etc.) Places Berkeley as the #1 most prestigious faculty in the country in several areas. Its English, History, Sociology, Psychology, departments are all in the top three. (if not first). Until you've lived in Berkeley and Palo Alto and attended both universities or done extensive research on them you really shouldn't be making such bold statements.
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<p>Stanford has 31 distinguished programs
Berkeley has 35 distinguished programs</p>
<p>Berkeley Engineering depending on the year is first, second, or third. Sometimes Stanford is first, sometimes Berkeley is, but the fact is that they're comparable. Acceptance rates for graduate school are comparable as well.</p>
<p>Alumni from both universities have done amazing things.<br>
Stanford: Founders of Google and SUN, The Gap Inc, and dozens of others
Berkeley: CEO of Intel (more than one), Founder of Kaiser Permanente, President of Wells Fargo, Several generations of the Levi Strauss family, Hearst, and dozens of others.</p>
<p>I don't have more of Stanfords stats on the tip of my tongue but I have them in my computer somewhere. </p>
<p>It's true that undergraduate education at Berkeley often involves enormous classes, and that you will experience significantly smaller class sizes (on average) at Stanford. They have far more financial resources.</p>
<p>Keep in mind however, that you have outstanding resources to exploit at Berkeley if you are "cut throat". You have the entire national laboratory which is practically connected to campus, and it's extremely easy to obtain excellent research positions. </p>
<p>The controversy here is so heated because the line is so blurry. There is no blatantly obvious distinction that clearly makes one universally superior. However only someone who is not familiar with the national academic community could possibly discount the phenomenal research and academic prestige at Berkeley.</p>
<p>I think it's obvious that Stanford does not need any defense as it already hold the prestige common amongst private universities with endowments over 10 Billion dollars. Of course if we're merely discussing coffee talk name brand recognition amongs the general educationally ignorant population the wealthy and most selective universities will stick out. If we decide to delve into the actual peer assessment scores, academic expert opinions, quality of research, publications etc. then Berkeley consistently comes out if not at the top in the top three, no matter what indicator you use. US News, Princeton Review, Urbana-Champaign, Check out THES (Times higher education), or the Tokyo rankings. </p>
<pre><code>As someone who has studied extensively at both I can tell you that as an undergraduate at UC Berkeley I was miserable because of how rigorous, large, and and difficult the classes were. Grades are also extremely deflated. However, I was able to occupy several research positions and build a phenomenal resume. It was not difficult to obtain positions at the top labs and national lab and even receive a research fellowship at NASA as an undergraduate.
I'm sure at Stanford as an undergraduate grades are more inflated, and the environment is far more comfortable although rigorous. At the graduate level I think the calibre of both are evident.
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