UC Berkeley (with Regents) vs WashU vs Tufts

My D was accepted to UC Berkeley with Regents, Tufts and WashU. With the Regents Scholarship she will have priority enrolling in classes and a faculty adviser. I would like to know, with these advantages, how it will compare with smaller schools like Tufts and WashU. Is it going to feel that she is in a school within the school? She’s not a party girl. Any input or suggestions are welcome. Thank you!

UC Berkeley will always be a large school, Regents or no Regents. It is up to the individual student to find a community for herself. There is an association of Regents’ Scholars, but a majority of students will choose to not take part and instead will join organizations that align with their interests (and there’s literally one for every conceivable activity). If your daughter comes to Cal, she shouldn’t expect to have her hand held as she might at smaller schools. Large schools have their advantages though, and there are countless brilliant students and faculty here that find a lot of success in academia and industry.

Thank you. If I could take some more of your time, would you be able to expand on the advantages of the large school? What Berkeley has to offer that these other two schools don’t. I’d really appreciate your candid reply.

One would be vast resources to employ amazing professors. What does your daughter intend to major in? Almost every department has professors with crazy credentials (some of whom can actually teach too!). My time here, I’ve taken classes with Fields Medal winners, professors who are slated to win the Nobel Prize, and overall great teachers. These professors are great resources if your daughter wants to go into academia. Cal also has very strong ties to industry, especially with those in the Silicon Valley that hire exclusively from Cal and Stanford. As a large school, we naturally have alumni working almost anywhere, and most of them are very willing to help out current Bears. There are organizations for almost anyone, since we have so many people here from different backgrounds and interests.

Thank you “light shining”! She doesn’t have a clue what she wants to major in. She loves English, History, Economics, and Math. Hasn’t tried Biology yet, nor programming. She’s an extremely curious and excited learner. So she’ll need direction or she’ll be all over the place. So what she’ll is need very good advising. When you mention the professors, that’s one of the concerns because the ongoing understanding is that students at Cal don’t interact with professors until at least junior year, or that they’re not that much interested in teaching undergrad students. My husband and I would love for her to go to Cal, but when she visited there was something in the atmosphere that made her feel not at home there. I can’t tell you what it was, neither can she pinpoint it. I’m afraid we’ll go to Tufts and WashU and she’ll just fall in love with those schools, because they’re really pretty, smaller and good sellers. Today I was told by a friend who is sending his daughter to Brandeis that even in smaller schools kids have problems getting the classes that they want. One doesn’t want to pay $65k for one’s kid not to get the classes she wants.

More interaction with faculty is at the discretion of the student. Meaning that it is the student’s option to visit during office hours (better when not just before or just after a test).

Sounds like she won’t have a problem there since she’s formed great relationships with her teachers in high school. How many students will be crammed in the professors’ rooms during office hours?

Don’t recall that many, except perhaps right around test days.

My younger son is a sophomore at Berkeley. My older son graduated from UCLA. When my younger son was looking at schools, my older son’s take was that at a small school it might be a good fit and it might not. Whereas at a big school, there are so many different types of people, clubs, etc… that you can find “your people” and your fit.

My D attends Tufts and my son attends Wash U, so I can comment on some differences between those two although you may have made your decision already. Tufts location is fun, the students are quirky and smart, and students have an easier time getting smaller classes and their requested classes as the years go by. For my child, the social scene is weak. Also, the dorms are weathered, and the dorm programming is almost non existent. My S is an engineering major at Wash U. The dorms are beautiful and the faciliities are sparkling. The social scene is abundant, and the residence life/dorm programming is super fun. Students are very smart, and a little less quirky than Tufts. His first year he was in large lecture hall classes, but there is ample opportunity to get help. I really like both schools almost equally, with a slight edge to Wash U.