<p>Hello everyone. Does anyone know if getting a 3.5 of higher GPA will be significantly easier at UMiami than at UC Berkeley? I've heard that Berkeley has one of the toughest grading curves in the nation, but I'm not sure about UM. I will be majoring in Biology at UCB and prepharmacy at UMiami. My plans for after undergrad are to go on to either pharmacy school or medical school, whichever I can get into. My parents can afford to pay UCB's OOS tuition. </p>
<p>Here are a few facts about me that might help you determine if I would make it at UC Berkeley:
2060 on the SAT accounting all test dates: (710 R 700 M 660 W)
Subject tests: 710 US History 700 Biology E 700 Math2 660
Current and past AP course load: AP English Comp, AP English Lit, AP Biology, AP Calculus AB, AP US History, AP Government, AP Economics
Unweighted GPA: I'm not sure, but I generally get 90's and higher on all my classes. I get around 80-86 for AP English Lit and AP Calculus. I have trouble with Chemistry and Physics.
Ethnicity: Chinese American
Location: Texas
Rank: 21 out of 600 or so people.</p>
<p>Insightful input would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.</p>
<p>I’d say Miami because if you’re going to pharm or med school, then you’re gonna have a lot of debt for both undergrad AND grad. Since Miami gave you 20k, then that’ll reduce your debt by 80k.</p>
<p>Berkeley is more reputable, and it prepares undergrads pretty well for grad schools. But all of my friends who went there say that they shoot A LOT of materials in a short amount of period. If you’re a quick learner, then getting a good GPA should be managable. But if not, it might be very stressful and risky for your GPA. So to answer your question if it’ll be easier to get a higher GPA at Miami, yes.</p>
<p>Ironically enough, I have the exact same decision to make(well nearly). I visited Miami and I really liked it, and I would definitely recommend visiting miami. At first I did not think the social atmosphere of the college would be right for me, but after visiting I knew that I would fit right in(then again im an ultra ultra extrovert). My only advice is to visit both. If you plan on doing pre-med, Miami will give you a lot easier of a time getting there. Apparently they do a good job setting their kids up with internships and research opportunities, and that all the pre-med req. classes are fair and manageable. Then again, UC has prestige, but it could be tough and more expensive out of state.<br>
Whatever your decision is, Congrats on getting into both of these really nice schools and I wish you the best of luck!</p>
<p>Why would you not go to UC Berkeley, I see it as an opportunity to compete at the highest level against the best. You better start figuring out school is a competition. More then that don’t be afraid of work, its going to be hard thats what your signing up for.
With that said I’m going to choose Miami over U Washington myself so</p>
<p>Well, I’ve visited the Miami campus itself. I thought it was okay. I never got a chance to get the full tour of it though. I’ve never been to Berkeley’s campus and I don’t think I’ll find any time to go to fly to Berkeley this month. But I think I’ll like the overall atmosphere of Berkeley better. Also, I’m finding it really hard to turn down Berkeley’s prestige haha. I know that I’ll have to face the ‘real world’ some day, and Cal’s harsher conditions might get me more used to working extremely hard. Well, hopefully. A student there also answered some of the questions that I had and I think I’m sort of leaning towards Berkeley right now. Once again, thanks for the input!</p>
<p>Well, I recently received a notice that I got into the general honors program at UMiami. This update complicates things a bit, so does anyone know if the general honors program is worth it compared to going to UC Berkeley? I read that the program is more rigorous than the regular program, so would that offset the GPA inflation that I would probably receive at UM? Making decisions is really hard haha.</p>
<p>Just to add another consideration, can your parents afford to pay Berkeley’s out of state tuition for the 5 years it might take you to graduate because of California’s budget problems? Is the UC Berkeley of the next five years going to be the one that everyone has expected? Don’t make your decision without visiting Berkeley. There’s a huge difference between the two campuses. You need to make an informed decision about which one is right for you.</p>
<p>My roommate was in the Honors Program. He said the main differences were smaller classes and more discussion. The workload is slightly higher, but he never felt it was unmanageable and his grades were not lower in those classes.</p>
<p>berkeley’s good…you won’t regret. On the campus question. Miami’s campus crushes berkely. And, i’m not talking about beaches. Miami is just so much nicer. Berkeley’s a real “urban feeling campus”. My 2 cents…your mileage may vary.</p>