<p>^ not stupid but you wouldn’t be making the wisest decision.</p>
<p>A girl at my school (in California) got into Cornell but not UCSD, UCLA or UCB. She’s not exactly the smartest but she has over a 4.1+ GPA. If UCSD didn’t even want her, what would Cornell see in her?</p>
<p>Blueducky, if Cal is biased and easier on Californians, private schools can be WILD and assemble classes based on their wants, not at all on pure academic qualification. </p>
<p>Berkeley has the right idea in my opinion, even if I agree with you that I’d prefer that it be more discriminating when admitting students to its easier majors. It does fine with its harder majors though.</p>
<p>um, mathboy, Cal has an obligation to be “biased and easier on Californians” – it has to fill up 80% at least of its class with Californian students, as a public university. Tell me you knew that already.</p>
<p>^^ Yes, I obviously knew that. Did you not understand my point or something? It was that at least Berkeley is straightforward in its expectations. Being obligated to be easier for Californians, it is, but its criteria in general are pretty simple. I don’t know much about Cornell because I didn’t apply, but based on svcreddy and in general what I’ve observed, private schools very frequently admit less academic students in place of more academic ones, and I’m talking “academic” based on less than superficial measures.</p>
<p>Cornell and Berkeley had almost the exact same average SAT range and Berkeley doesn’t superscore like Cornell so no Cornell students are not better than Berkeley. Also CA is a state of almost 40 million if you haven’t noticed thats bigger than NY, PA, CT, and MA combined so it may be slightly easier instate but not easy by any stretch of the imagination.</p>
<p>it seems like many of those who made comments on this thread did or would choose berkeley over cornell because cornell typically costs more. my money situation is the opposite.</p>
<p>cal: 50,000-2,500 grant = 47,500 a year
cornell: 52,000-33,500 grant = 18,500 a year</p>
<p>now what? if i came upon 120,000 this afternoon i think this decision would be a lot harder; i would still have to forgo whatever else I could go with this money, not to mention interest.</p>
<p>i’m really dissapointed in cal, i know its because of their budget cuts but how can one school calculate my family’s contribution at 13,000 and another at 40,000?</p>
<p>i feel like berkeley only let me in halfway… its not possible to pay that without forcing all of my family (6 members!, yet still no aid) to make great sacrifices for many years.</p>
<p>Thanks guys for your contributions…</p>
<p>From what I’m getting for the most part both Cornell and Berkeley have more or less the same difficulty levels. (I keep hearing about Cornell’s grade deflation? and Berkeley’s overall just tough low GPA averages) I honestly don’t care too much about GPA per say, but the fact that med. schools do a lot makes me kind of concerned.</p>
<p>The major point of this is that it really is a kinda private vs. public school debate. Reasons for me to prefer Cornell would be</p>
<p>1) the hand holding of privates (I’m public school student, but the benefits of hand holding aren’t lost on me) However it seems that Cornell doesn’t actually offer that as it is quite a large private school and is known to be pretty competitive?
2) research/internship opportunities are supposed to be more widely available at privates, but it seems Berkeley has quite a few opportunities while Cornell which is in up-state NY rather than in silicon valley would seem to have fewer ones?
3) Quality of education. Apparently both are of really high quality.</p>
<p>What I’m REALLY trying to ask (lol long ass question eh?) is I can’t seem to see the benefits of Cornell over berkeley. The only differences seem to be the weather/surroundings and name. Perhaps I need to take more initative to find the opportunities at Cal, but they are definitely there right?</p>
<p>Also… how well known is Berkeley’s MCB? 
Thanks… also for the poster back on page one why is Cornell better for pre-med? Sorry your word isn’t enough. :P</p>
<p>Mathboy, I understand and agree with your point, but the “if” in front your statement made it sound like you were doubting the fact that UCB tends to be more lenient towards californians. </p>
<p>Berkeley’s MCB is really hard–popular major = major competition. Berkeley’s just competitive in general. Berkeley is NOT in silicon valley my friend. It’s a good hour away from that place. Most likely, you will be working in the labs. </p>
<p>My concern for Berkeley is that i heard it’s ridiculously hard to get a 3.8ish GPA. My parent’s friend had a 3.88 but she was smart to the point where she could also manage a 40 MCAT score. I guess you can think of it this way, a person capable of a 40 MCAT is capable of only a 3.88 at UCB? She was a MCB major.</p>
<p>Cornell has a higher med school acceptance rate overall.</p>
<p>If you can’t find significant differences between the two, just pick the school that costs less. I personally can’t do that yet because I have yet to hear Cornell’s finaid offer.</p>
<p>I’m also choosing between Cal and Cornell. I attend high school in San Francisco, so I know the Berkeley campus really well. Since I don’t think I am able to visit Ithaca, can anyone tell me the pros and cons of the campus. Btw, I lived in Canada for 7 years, so don’t scare me about the weather, I’ve seen it all. =p</p>
<p>if youre doing engineering, cornell has a really amazing coop program that i think would be harder to manage at cal with the strict graduating schedule… cornell’s site even says that some students can do both coop and study abroad and graduate in 4 years if youre smart about it…</p>
<p>cornell also has 1 yr MEng program that you can follow up your bachelors degree with, which is incredibly awesome from a practical standpoint. i’m not trying to say these things are not pssible at Cal, because I havent looked into it that deeply, but they are very available at cornell (given that you fit all the coursework in, of course)</p>
<p>sorry that was not so campus related… about the campus:cornell is really pretty and has that academic feel (mohogany in the libraries etc) they have all those traditions similar to uva with the societies</p>
<p>haha im not much help but im going to visit later this week so ask me then, but this stuff i remember from when i visited in october:</p>
<p>a lot of people have bikes, and they seem really useful except sometimes you will have to walk them because of the hills. there are places where you can sit outside, in the grass, and work and have an incredible view (and there are places you can do this from inside, when the weather is too cold). the freshman are all kept pretty close together on “North Campus” so you dont have to make too many major decisions when choosing housing first year (relief)
oh another thing that struck me: Cornell’s campus s apparently REALLY safe. the woman on the bus for the trip i took in oct (hosted my alumni association) said that you could just leave valuables ie laptop laying about and walk all around campus without a fear of them getting stolen or damaged–then students confirmed this over and over – i guess the school being so remote contributes to this.
oh and the food! it is actually great… i dont know much about cal’s food, but cornells is excellent. Its better than UMD’s, that I know. They have the Columbo froyo in like 9 flavors and every other type of food you can imagine.</p>
<p>haha if you have any more questions let me know so I can find out when I go to visit cornell this week!</p>
<p>I dont know which UCB or Cornell is more prestigious… i think my acceptance to UCB is more impressive because Im OOS engineering and at Cornell i saw that stats they take like 40% female applicants to the ENG school-- but i cant pay 30K more a yr for bragging rights and a more lively town, srsly</p>
<p>^ Come to Cal for postgrad studies instead. :)</p>
<p>i’d love to. if cal accepts me twice in my life, that’d be pretty sweet…</p>
<p>Shalala,</p>
<p>Given that you are paying $50K (before grants) to come to Cal, I take it that you are an out-of-state student.</p>
<p>Cal’s offer is unfortunate, but keep in mind, your not paying California taxes either. This school is first and foremost dedicated to educating Californians. So, you know, it’s not necessarily going to give you the best deal.</p>
<p>shalala<em>lala</em>la</p>
<p>Go to Cornell. A Berkeley undergraduate education is NOT worth almost $200k. ~$80k for a Cornell undergraduate education is totally a better deal.</p>
<p>thanks, tastybeef.
i feel like i needed to make that decision… and your remark makes it easier</p>
<p>my parents have become so stressed out by the situation, they dont want to refuse me cal, they know cal was my dream school, and allowed my sister apply early to brown w/o knowing cost…</p>
<p>even if someone handed me 200k today i dont think going to berkeley would be the most altruistic way to spend it… =]</p>
<p>and heck, cornell is not the local community college, by any stretch of the imagination!</p>
<p>Yeah, I’m all for Berkeley (I really like it) but I don’t really think people should be going to a university and loosing that kind of money unless it’s a really clear decision. Cornell is a great school so have fun!</p>
<p>shalala<em>lala</em>la</p>
<p>It’s hard for most people to realize this, but almost everyone and his/her mother has a Bachelor’s degree. So where you get your undergraduate degree doesn’t matter that much as long it is within top 30. And since Bachelor’s degrees are so common, what you should really be shooting for is an advanced degree, such as a PhD, JD, MD, MEng, DDS, etc. Those are the degrees that you should be spending real money on. A Bachelor’s degree will simply be a stepping stone for you to get those degrees if you choose to do so.</p>
<p>I mean, think about it, $200k for a Bachelor’s degree? That’s an outrage. Even the most expensive MD programs cost around $220k.</p>
<p>Yeah seriously ^^. </p>
<p>And guess what, math grad schools basically pay for you + if you get fellowships, with even more privileges!!</p>
<p>So the general consensus (or close to it) is choose the one that’s cheaper?</p>
<p>At least for practical minded folks.</p>