I was accepted into both UC Berkeley and UCLA in Electrical Engineering. Now, I know that looking at straight statistics and rankings UC Berkeley is more prestigious. I know that someone will say that this prestige doesn’t matter, but I feel it is still a factor albeit a small one. I have also heard that Berkeley is more cutthroat and that people are more individualistic. Although I am prepared for challenge, I am afraid that the environment will be unnecessarily stressful. I have read that Berkeley’s engineers tend to be the socially awkward and studious types and are put into a certain stereotype. I don’t think I fit into this stereotype and I am wondering how easy it is to break out of this labeling. One of the upsides of Berkeley in my opinion is that I love the Bay Area and would like to live and work there after college. Since Berkeley is already there, I feel that there would be more opportunities for me to intern for Silicon Valley companies and get my feet wet in San Francisco. Now if someone can tell me that going to UCLA would still give me a good chance of getting a Silicon Valley job then this may not be so much an issue. UCLA’s upsides are that they are giving me $5000 more dollars, the educational environment/social life is more relaxed, and Westwood is in my opinion a slightly better immediate area than Berkeley, though I like San Francisco more than LA. Now I am under the impression that both EE programs are great and prepare you well for a career, but if there are important differences that I may not know about please tell me. Honestly any information will help. Thank you.
for Bay Area tech, Cal is a no-brainer.
If you like SF go to Cal.
Thank you for your responses. I chose UC Berkeley.