UC Berkeley vs Cornell

I have narrowed down my choices to UC Berkeley and Cornell. (Previously it was Northwestern and Cornell, but I believe it is UC Berkeley or Cornell now).

My major would be Economics at both institutions (both in the College of Arts/Letters of Sciences).

My questions:

  1. Is the difference in prestige between Cal and Cornell worth the extra 35k I have to pay for Cornell? (I am a Cali resident, so Cal is cheaper). My ultimate goal is investment banking or law school, and a part of me is convinced that only Cornell will give me the "Ivy label" and the connections to land a job at Wall Street right after graduation. Will Cal also give me the same investment banking opportunities/law school placement as Cornell? Do investment banks even recruit at Cal?
  2. Which option would you choose? Is the extra money for Cornell worth it?

Oh heck no. Go with Cal.the prestige difference is minimal. I consider the two to be peer schools, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Cal gets you connections as well. The name carries a lot of weight. Not sure if banks recruit at Cal for a fact, but I’m sure they do.

Thank you very much! @gdlt234 My inner conscience (as well as my parents) are leaning towards Cal! Probably because they have to pay, haha.

Berkeley’s economics department offers more-math versions of intermediate economics and econometrics courses that can be helpful if you decide to go on to PhD study in economics (Cornell economics appears to be like the less-math version of economics at Berkeley). It may also be better to choose those more-math courses and possibly a second major in math or statistics for Wall Street recruiting.

This old post http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/14204944/#Comment_14204944 claims that investment banks do recruit at Berkeley, but prefer business and math-heavy majors over the less-math option of economics, and they are highly selective. Not sure how this compares to investment banking recruiting at Cornell. https://career.berkeley.edu/Major/Major.stm indicates that many economics (and applied math, statistics, and IEOR/ORMS) graduates do go into finance, but not all finance jobs are the top end investment banking jobs.

Law school admission will be based mainly on LSAT and GPA; see http://lawschoolnumbers.com . But be aware that the lawyer job market is much worse now than a generation (or even just a decade) ago (some claim that it is difficult to get a lawyer job unless one graduates at the top of one’s law school class at a top 14 law school for “big law” or a top regional law school for the region one wants to work (not “big law”)). Law school is also very expensive, so saving money on undergraduate can leave more to pay for law school.

Would you be enrolled in Haas? Neither are top targets but Cornell would have the edge if you’re looking for IB in NY. while Berkley Haas feeds better into SF (so it kind of depend on where you want to end up working). It’s hard to quantify whether this = 35k. It might be or it might not depending on how ambitious you are. You’ll want to consider fit too.

For your career path its the distinction between IB (more NYC related) versus VC and PE (more Silicon Valley and Nor Cal) related. For me, it would be CAL…

With such a great in-state option, I"d save the $140,000 and go to Berkeley. This should leave funds available for study abroad, grad school etc.

UC Berkeley for the win! Save yourself some money and be a BEAR! (: I agree that it depends on where you want to work after graduation. Cornell is obviously an amazing school, but UC Berkeley is equally good. Plus, the weather here in the Bay Area is still the BEST.

Berkeley is an amazing school and honestly there is no difference prestige-wise. The people that will matter in your job process know that Berkeley is a fine place to get an education. Save your money and go to UCB!

Thank you all! I ended up choosing UC Berkeley to save my money!