<p>School pride/rivalry and all that rah rah aside:</p>
<p>Which would you guys have honestly picked if you were accepted to BOTH Stanford and UC Berkeley? Why?</p>
<p>Honesty would be appreciated.</p>
<p>I probably would have picked Stanford out of a sense of prestige. Although now that I have a little more perspective, I would pick Berkeley. The big reason is that Stanford would have cost $50k/year while Berkeley costs $25k/year (Stanford would not give me financial aid). Stanford is a good school, but it isn’t worth an extra $100,000. The academics at Berkeley are exceptional, I’m meeting great people, there are a tremendous number of research opportunities, and Berkeley has a good reputation.</p>
<p>Berkeley because it’s cheap.</p>
<p>It’s always been Berkeley for me. I never would have applied to Stanford unless my parents forced me to. Berkeley Engineering ~ Stanford Engineering in quality and prestige so, it’s just a better call economically.</p>
<p>Stanford because it’s more prestigious</p>
<p>Berkeley. It is actually higher up the rankings in Engineering and almost every other department. The only biased reason people may pick Stanford (other than money) is because it is private, but it is NOT even an Ivy (which I noticed some people think wrongly).</p>
<p>Why does it matter if it is an “Ivy?” It has the same or near the same level of prestige and that’s what many people are looking for.</p>
<p>Berkeley and Stanford are tied for no. 2 in Engineering on the USnews rankings so I’m wondering what rankings you’re referring to.</p>
<p>Stanford has grade inflation while Berkeley makes it very difficult to get good grades. For that reason, plus the prestige factor (since Berkeley is extremely easy to get into comparatively), I would pick Stanford instantly. All Berkeley departments are ranked highly, but rankings aren’t everything. What difference does #1 vs. #5 make, anyways?</p>
<p>That choice is echoed by that one 2006 survey that showed 95% of people who got into both schools chose Stanford.</p>
<p>Berkeley without a doubt. If you have ever been to Palo Alto, you will notice that there nowhere near as much to do as in Berkeley. Imo there are so many more opportunities to be social, go to parties, have fun not in a campus setting (e.g. SF, shattuck area, Northside), go hiking, kayaking, etc. etc. here in Berk. For the price, location, potential to meet awesome people, chances to feed your intellectual interests, UCB > Stanford.</p>
<p>Although I picked Berkeley, even I have to admit that Berkeley just isn’t as nice of a city; it’s really ugly, actually.</p>
<p>The city of Berkeley does suck, but the good thing is that the campus is gorgeous and you never have to really go more than 3 blocks from it unless its on a BART to SF. And I would much rather live in a city than in a suburb.</p>
<p>I would have picked Stanford 2 years ago but I’m glad I didn’t get in, I love Berkeley.</p>
<p>Academically, Stanford. Actually, I would just pick Stanford from an environmentally pov anyways. Wish I had applied to see if I could get in or not. Only thing I hate is that ****** tree. Every time I see it, I just get enraged.</p>
<p>I would’ve picked Stanford. Just cuz it’s STANFORD!!
Rejected EA though :(</p>
<p>Going to Berkeley as incoming freshman in the fall.</p>
<p>I remember being outraged when I got rejected from Stanford from EA. However, after spending one year at Berkeley, I’m glad I am at Cal. Btw, I am an out-of-state student so I’m paying just as much as for 'furd so I’m not even talking in terms of money. But I still love it.
I mean, even if you just compare the bands, what awesome school would come up with a freaking video game show while the other school’s band gets suspended literally almost every other for profanity?
As i said, I was initially bittered to attend the “stanford-reject” school, but I was soon overwhelmed by the difficulty of the courses and was even more surprised to see people who still yet thrived in that environment. These guys are my new competitions, the best resources, and, the best of all, my good friends. We study together, we take those monster tests together, we hang out and occasionally pass out together; I really think this is one of my best times in my life.
I’m sure both Stanford and Berkeley have faculties who are gods in their field of study and have plenty of intellectual students, but while Stanford tends to ‘spoon-feed’ you throughout your entire undergrad year by giving you relatively easy grades or university-owned housings/apartments and provide just about everything to students, Berkeley forces you to be independent and strong and just makes you grow up, and isn’t that what the real world wants?
I mean, I don’t have perfect grades or anything, but Berkeley has taught me that grades aren’t everything and helped me to look at the world in a different view and I think that’s what it matters.</p>
<p>P.S. for those who don’t like the city of Berkeley, try Johns Hopkins in Baltimore and you might wanna change your opinion. And if you haven’t seen the video game show, you don’t know the big secret about Cal that it’s run by some serious nerds hahaha.</p>
<p>I am…not sure.</p>
<p>I can’t say that I particularly wanted to get into/apply to Stanford when I was doing my apps, for various reasons, but I also can’t say I’d’ve been particularly eager to turn them down if I’d gotten in. I also can’t say that my lack of desire to go wasn’t in part due to the knowledge that I didn’t have that much of a shot.</p>
<p>Then again, Cal is a lot cheaper, and while that doesn’t affect my ability to go to one over the other, it does affect my standard of living and options for graduate work, both of which are fairly important to me. I also have a strong suspicion that Stanford would be a lot like my high school (particularly given the number of people from my high school who enrolled there), and while I enjoyed my Junior and Senior years there, my Freshman year at Cal was so much better that the comparison just isn’t there. That said, dozens of people I know I don’t like vs. another few thousand I haven’t met yet is hardly a dealbreaker, given the prestige factor.</p>
<p>…honestly, the short answer here is that I’m glad knowing I didn’t ever have to make the choice between a place I wanted to go and Stanford. I probably would have sucked it up and gone to Stanford, and wouldn’t fault “Alternative History Jon” for doing so, but I have little doubt that I’m happier at Cal than I could possibly be across the Bay.</p>
<p>EDIT: Seconding a lot of the stuff in the second half of UpMagic’s post, too, especially with regards all the “City of Berkeley sucks” comments. I cannot comprehend why so many people hate the area.</p>
<p>It’d have been Berkeley. In fact, I knew this so far in advance that I didn’t even bother applying for Stanford. The reason: Berkeley felt like some place I wanted to be, Stanford just felt very alienating and “wrong”.</p>
<p>The feeling was consistent every time I visited both colleges, at various times and ages.</p>
<p>At the time, I didn’t understand why, so I went with my gut feeling. After all, you can’t go wrong with Berkeley EECS.</p>
<p>However, now I know why: Stanford is just too posh of a campus for my preference. I’m not a person of tradition, rules, or well-roundness. Instead, I value diversity, sharpness, and efficiency. Yeah, Berkeley’s not a perfect fit, but then again, no college is a perfect fit.</p>
<p>What I do know is – between Stanford and Berkeley, for me, it is without a doubt, Berkeley. This would be the case even if tution at both places were the same. I love it here and have no regrets on how the admissions process went, except for maybe that one question on how things might have been different if I had been accepted to MIT.</p>
<p>“Berkeley forces you to be independent and strong and just makes you grow up, and isn’t that what the real world wants?”
No.
Besides, being independent means nothing if you graduate from Berkeley unable to compete to get a decent job or an acceptance into a graduate school because you received low grades/nothing to show for yourself. I guess you could start your own business, but how many of us have enough money to do that.</p>
<p>OP spelled Stanfurd wrong</p>
<p>(you should be able to figure out what I would do from that)</p>
<p>Stanford because I’m OOS so they’d both cost about the same. I’d also prefer to go to a smaller school.</p>
<p>I personally don’t like the area because I’ve been sheltered and protected from homelessness, drug dealers, and the like. I went to private school all my life until coming to Berkeley so this was kind of a “shock to my system” kind of deal. I know that’s probably my own fault, and a dumb reason why I don’t like Berkeley’s area, but I guess I’m not used to it yet. I know it’ll eventually grow on me, and it’s best that I begin to realize these things exist not only in TV shows, but I don’t like it yet. </p>
<p>Actually, after writing all of this, I realize it’s a really good thing that I’ve been exposed to this because it’s another side of the world I never really thought of before.</p>