Hi, my daughter is deciding between UC Berkeley and UCLA. She is a History major and is thinking about pre-Law. Can anyone provide feedback on pros and cons for History majors at either UC Berkeley or UCLA?
@SoCalkids . . . there are a lot of history classes offered by UCLA, so most of the upper- division classes and and some of the lower-div ones are not really large. A lot of 20-40 range for u-d. It looks somewhat the same for UCB.
It looks like B has a seminar series 103. UCLA has a seminar series 97 and 187.
Thanks so much, @firmament2x. Do you know whether there are other discussion threads comparing the study abroad opportunities, quality of life for pre-law students, and general culture for humanities majors at UCLA and UC Berkeley? Since she won’t be able to go to campus for either Bruin Day or Cal Day, any insight is appreciated!
According to US News, UCB at #4 has a top 5 history department in the country. UCLA at #9 is top 10. You can’t go wrong with either, even for pre-law.
@SoCalKids look at the threads in the UC General section. You might find more discussions comparing schools there. http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-general/
Thank you, @UCBUSCalum and @lkg4answers! We will check out the UC General section.
Academically they are peers. Law schools won’t favor one over the other. IMO, it comes down to feel of the campus community and/or town.
Since I’m a big believer in going away to college, if you live in SoCal (by your sn) go north to Berkeley.
Another consideration is the surrounding areas of each school. UCB is in an area with homelessness and crime. You’ll have to be vigilant and know your surroundings, but it is manageable. UCLA is located in a safer area but not 100% free of crime. You can probably check out crime statistics reported by the colleges or talk to other current students.
@bluebayou Yes, we live in SoCal, about an hour from UCLA (depending on traffic!).
@UCBUSCalum Thanks for mentioning this. When we went to visit UC Berkeley, the campus was closed because of the wildfires, and there weren’t very many people out and about because of poor air quality. I’m wishing my daughter could see what the campus and area are like on more typical days.
@UCBUSCalum Based on your name, I assume you attended both USC and UCB. Would you say the safety vs crime was similar between the two? OP may be more familiar with the area around USC since he/she is from SoCal.
@lkg4answers I’m a little familiar with the area around USC, and that would be something we’d take into consideration. I would want my daughter to be aware of her surroundings, no matter where she ends up, though.
@lkg4answers : yes, I am very familiar with the areas of both UCB and USC (S is a current student). The UCB campus area would be fine (surounded by middle class neighborhoods, and nearby with the higher end homes in the Berkeley Hills and the Clarmont Country Club Resort areas) if it were not for the homelessness and occationally, the criminals from Oakland venturing to the campus area to look for crimes of opportunities or victims. The campus police patrols the area, but their presence does not appear high. I believe if you are vigilant and aware of your surroundings, especially at night, it is manageable.
In contrast to USC, the campus is located in a lower income neighborhood. There is a perimeter around the campus that is heavily patrolled by security/campus police. In the areas from the campus and going north of campus (up to a 30 minute walk from campus), this area is where most students live. This north area has a sucurity guard at almost every 1 or 2 blocks, day and night, and their presence is well known. Also most of the north areas, which include faternity row and University Village, are very safe at night. Because of the day and night patrolled perimeter, it is a safe area around the campus. However, students still should be vigiliant and aware of their surroundings. In a sense, I feel safer at night around the USC patrolled area than at night around the UCB campus.
@UCBUSCalum Thank you. I am a UCB alum with a child who is considering USC so this helps.
@UCBUSCalum . . . that’s one of quandaries of Berkeley. The hills are very nice to the part that turns into Oakland, but the flatlands to the shore is pretty bad.
That’s helpful to know about the area around UC Berkeley. From a parent perspective, is communication from UCLA and UCB administration (and between current families) pretty comparable? For example, during this uncertain COVID-19 time, I’m wondering if students and families felt that they were well-informed about dorm move-outs, plans for online classes, etc. I recently found a UCLA Parents’ Facebook page that’s fairly active, but I haven’t been able to find a UCB one where parents help to keep each other informed.
@SoCalKids I can’t speak from a student’s perspective but I am on email distribution and follow both schools on social media. I think they both have handled it the best that they can and have sent out frequent and regular updates.
The Bay Area was impacted before the rest of California and Berkeley is on the semester system so their initial move to online instruction came days before UCLA. For UCLA, which is on the quarter system, classes went online the week before finals. There were a lot more logistics that had to be worked through about how to give online finals. This was a month ago and, at the time, things were changing by the hour.
I am a UCSB alum and have a child at UCD so I receive a lot of information from the different UCs. For the most part, whenever there is an update posted, the schools send it out via email and post it on FB, IG, twitter, etc. You can check the school’s websites and see what information they post and how easy/difficult it is to communicate with them:
https://news.berkeley.edu/coronavirus/
https://newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/coronavirus-information-for-the-ucla-campus-community
I don’t much experience regarding UC communications to parents during this time of COVIT 19. One of my sons went to a UC and communication between the school administration and parent was okay and that was well before COVIT 19. However, as a parent, I feel the communication from USC (both before and during COVIT 19) has been excellent. Maybe because the private school has the resources. During this crisis, we received tons of email updates from USC regarding the crisis: go home during Spring Break, stay home for on-line classes and finals, taking classes pass/no pass, students/faculty having COVIT 19, heath resources, etc. This is not a sale pitch for USC, but the school is very expensive.
sorry, meant COVID 19 not COVIT 19.
@UCBUSCalum . . . what helped UCLA when the Coronavirus became critical with the need of social distancing and family quarantines was that UCLA was still in session for its winter quarter with break still a couple weeks off. Here’s an article from the Daily Bruin:
Chancellor Block was a bit late in canceling in-person classes for winter, but he still had some time, which he eventually sent via a Bruin Alert text to the students. Then he subsequently canceled spring classes. This same alert system helped students avoid the area in South Campus where a gunman killed a professor and himself in 2016.
For those colleges on the semester system, however, like Vanderbilt, there were some who ignored the president’s request to be safe and continued to party. Here’s a link:
https://vanderbilthustler.com/31142/featured/covid-19-cases-climb-among-vanderbilt-students/
So undoubtedly the quarter system helped UCLA students stay safe. But they do have a great notification system.
The UCs have had to deal with quite a few natural disasters in the past few years. Many schools had to shut down due to wildfires. I think you will always find students, parents, professors who will praise the response and those who will criticize it.