<p>Just throwing this out there - but let’s not pretend that Berkeley is “indisputably” #1 or that it doesn’t also share that spot with others. (I know your statement doesn’t preclude that, but it does suggest that Berkeley’s the sole king of chemistry.) The NRC ranking puts Berkeley at the top for reputation, as does US News (a spot shared with others), but it does fall in the actual measured ‘quality’ ranking behind Harvard and Caltech. Other world rankings don’t place it #1 either, or place others extremely close.</p>
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<p>Few caveats: Berkeley does have a large national student base. Cornell is also a part-public university and draws a significant amount from New York. When you adjust for the population differences of California and New York, comparing the relative % of in-state students at each university, Cornell would have as much over-representation from its own state (as Berkeley does from California) if it had 41% in-state students - and it has 35%. So New York is very nearly as overrepresented at Cornell as California is at Berkeley. Comparing raw percentages of in-state students ignores the real factors of representation.</p>
<p>RML - Pea is right. I chose my words carefully. My D explicitly wanted a small LAC with a highly personal touch, and preferred Boston and the specific environs of W to a larger u and a more city setting. Berkeley was not on her radar screen; neither was MIT or Caltech for that matter. Great places – but just not her style. Honestly, why do you so hurt and offended that B just doesn’t appeal to everybody? As for disrespecting a school – schools don’t have feelings. I could even say “Harvard sucks!” and the buildings at Harvard won’t fall down.</p>
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<li>92% of undergraduates are from California.</li>
<li>57% of undergraduates are from two parts of California - the Bay Area and LA. </li>
<li>37% of undergraduates are from the Bay Area.</li>
<li>4% of undergraduates are from OOS but not international.</li>
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<p>The first data point is courtesy of Berkeley’s CDS; the others were found using UC StatFinder. Berkeley is many things, among them a first-rate research university, but geographically diverse it is not. This is something that is changing - a notable 19% of freshmen are OOS - but Berkeley remains a heavily local university.</p>
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I propose that henceforth all posts mentioning Berkeley must be typed while genuflecting and orienting one’s computer in the direction of said university.</p>
<p>^ the freshman class is only 80% in-state, and that number is declining each year. I expect that very soon, 1/3 of the school is going to be out-of-state.</p>
<p>The Bay Area and LA are enormous areas comprising tens of millions of people. The majority of the California population is in those two areas. And considering how large California is, that’s geographic diversity in itself. (Of course, I’m not claiming that that’s equivalent to having more national diversity, but I always disagree when people dismiss California as not offering a huge variety of geographic diversity on its own.)</p>
<p>But when I said “national student base,” I should have been clearer: I meant to indicate that it draws applicants from the entire nation.</p>
<p>Either way, my point (as well as my calculation, based on the freshman class figure) stands regarding relative over-representation from the two universities’ home states.</p>
<p>(Interesting aside: when you do the same calculation for Stanford and Harvard, you find that MA is 2-3 times more overrepresented at Harvard than CA is at Stanford.)</p>
<p>I doubt any Chemistry degree is worth >$40,000/year considering the fact that average salaries for chemists is way lower than that. Maybe the Chem Eng part of the program but definitely not chemistry. Even if someone wants to go to graduate school, I am sure there are several alternatives that can give an equivalent education as well as provide excellent opportunities to allow students enter the top grad schools.</p>
<p>^^except that p-girl’s D chose a private, need-only college, thus ~$55k is the going rate. For the same price and a desire for a LAC, I’d probably recommend W as well, but just sayin’ that Cal CoC is worth a “thought” for anyone interested in something larger.</p>
<p>WashU places a high premium on test scores for med (and for undergrad, for that matter). Thus, it should have a healthy collection of high-testing students from top schools, which select undergrads for their test scores. OTOH, the former Adcom of UChicago had a much lower priority on test scores for undergrad admissions (relative to other top schools). Since Chicago’s students aren’t as strong as testers as say, HYPS, it stands to reason that they have a lower admit rate to a grad school that selects (primarily?) on numbers.</p>
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<p>I believe MIT’s own website shows data to the contrary. (Even though it is arguably the top STEM school in the world, MIT students have to have higher than average scores to be admitted to med school…)</p>