<p>Thomas, all public-run institutions rely funding heavily from the government, so UK public unis and US public schools have the same advantages and problems. UK unis, with the exception of Oxbridge, have very low endowment fund. Berkeley has bigger budget than Imperial has.</p>
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<p>There’s no way that this statement is true. Berkeley is very prestigious is Asia, Latin America, Australia, Africa and Europe. Oftentimes, it’s considered more prestigious than Princeton, and, more or less, on the level of MIT, Stanford, Yale and Cambridge. Imperial definitely does not have the prestige that Berkeley has. No way! Even LSE is a little more prestigious than Imperial, and LSE isn’t as prestigious Berkeley.</p>
<p>RML I completely disagree with you :S. Berkeley is a giant public university with an enrollment of 25,000 :P. You must be joking when you say UCB is considered more prestigious that Princeton in Asia; having lived in Asia my whole life, I assure you that the situation is the opposite of how you describe it.</p>
<p>Imperial is more prestigious than Berkeley, hands down and its far more difficult to gain admission to Imperial. And LSE is a lot more prestigious than Berkeley too ^^.</p>
<p>^ I’m currently in Asia now and I know what I speak about. How can Princeton be more prestigious in Asia when Princeton isn’t even known here. lol… It’s lack of having a business school and law school makes its reputation suffers on the radar of most Asians. Berkeley is a top school in almost all fields. Only Stanford and Harvard can match that. </p>
<p>If you’re from China, for example, you’d find getting into Berkeley way harder than getting into Imperial, even now that Berkeley has opened more slots to international aspirants. It still requires the applicants to have top stats. Berkeley admits only a handful of applicants from each country.</p>
<p>And, Berkeley is bigger than Imperial because Berkeley offers far more course offerings, more than 300 courses, whilst Imperial has less than 75 programs, mostly limited to engineering and physical sciences.</p>
<p>OP - Are you in US or another country? Have you considered the costs?</p>
<p>If you are in another country and you are paying full fare for education, Imperial might be cheaper. You can graduate with a masters in 4 years.</p>
<p>The studies are different in UK vs US. You will be required to take a lot of coursework outside of your major while UK system forces you to concentrate on your major and nothing else with only year end exams deciding most of your grade. </p>
<p>It is important to think beyond a rank in some book. Think about the way the school system works in each location, what it will cost you, and whether you are considering a Ph.D. in future.</p>
<p>@RML, first of all, your’e generalizing Asia; maybe where you come from they know Cal better than Princeton but take my word for it, everywhere else, Princeton is better known that UCB.</p>
<p>Secondly from what I’ve seen of Asia, people know of Imperial better than they know of Berkeley. </p>
<p>Lets keep Princeton out of this because as far as I’m concerned you can’t even compare a place like Princeton to a place like Berkeley; look at Princeton’s the acceptance rates, average SAT scores and Alumni, then get back to me. Also, law school and business school usually only apply to post grad education, except perhaps in the case of Hass at Berkeley; so I don’t see how Princeton could possibly suffer in the eyes of “Asians” if its competitors i.e. Harvard (which I daresay IS viewed highly by Asians in general), Yale, Stanford etc etc also don’t have their own business school at an undergraduate level.</p>
<p>@texaspg I am from neither the UK nor US, so the costs will be similar. I have heard about the fact that you can graduate with a masters in 4 years at Imperial, which I do like, but after that will it be hard to go to the US for my doctorate, or any other countries to find employment?</p>
<p>I am probably doing my masters in a different area compared to my undergraduate degree, will that be possible in Imperial? And if I am thinking about doing a doctorate, would Imperial prepare me better for that because of the school system?</p>
<p>Just as an FYI, I spent a lot of time in Asia over summer, and everyone knows about UC - Berkeley. Honestly I haven’t heard myself of Imperial. Berkeley is just in the news more internationally…for whatever reason (remember those students who were in Iran and are now free). Hyaline - what can I say…I think you want to choose CMU or Duke (you or your friend or whatever)…and you are welcome to do so, with what fits your personality. Rankings are just guidelines…really.</p>
<p>To the OP: If your ultimate goal is to study in the USA, it might be better to come now that you are accepted (considering financing is not an issue).
Again ditch the rankings. Any student who is good enough to be accepted to both colleges, will be successful provided they work hard.</p>
<p>Oh…just saw this <a href=“http://www.dailycal.org/2012/04/02/al-gore-video-chats-with-uc-berkeley-students/[/url]”>http://www.dailycal.org/2012/04/02/al-gore-video-chats-with-uc-berkeley-students/</a>
how cool is this?</p>
<p>How long does it take to do masters degrees in the US?</p>
<p>I dont know if they have a combo 5 year bs/ms for math, but otherwise I think MS takes 2 additional years (source: family). By the way, UC berkeley ranks tops in math competitions as well.
<a href=“http://www.maa.org/awards/putnam.html[/url]”>Putnam Competition Individual and Team Winners | Mathematical Association of America;
<p>Top 5 teams</p>
<ol>
<li>California Institute of Technology</li>
<li>Massachusetts Institute of Technology</li>
<li>Harvard University</li>
<li>University of California, Berkeley</li>
<li>University of Waterloo</li>
</ol>
<p>I think you are trying to over-analyse things. If London is your calling, go imperial else if the USofA is where you want to be, come to Berkeley.</p>
<p>Most international students at Berkeley complete a masters along with an undergraduate degree within 4 years. This is even easier if you have done the A-levels which will allow you to waive some lower-division math classes, among others.</p>
<p>My high school was in south-east asia and from personal experience, Berkeley was way more difficult to gain admission into than any UK universities (except oxbridge and perhaps LSE) and generally considered to be more prestigious. Just as a reference, the number of students accepted into ucb in my year was only a fifth of that accepted by imperial.</p>
<p>Also it is much easier to obtain a work visa in the US than the UK right now so US definitely has a more friendly post-graduation environment for international students.</p>
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<p>This makes things interesting, because UCB’s top ranking in mathematics has to do with its faculty being some of the most reputed in the world, covering almost all disciplines. It is extremely strong in many fields of mathematics and has a top rated logic department too, which is a somewhat rare thing.</p>
<p>However, you plan on going into finance. I wonder if the remarks posters have made about math rankings are in any way applicable to you.</p>
<p>Something I can say as a UCB mathematics person myself is that it seems to invite majors who have a variety of other interests, including engineering, physics, and economics. This suggests it will meet your needs, as someone wanting to do work in finance probably should take a broad interest in a lot of things.</p>
<p>I think a lot of the reasons for recommending Berkeley on this thread are slightly flawed, given your plans, but I would still recommend it strongly.</p>
<p>However, this isn’t to say that I don’t also recommend Imperial strongly. Rankings are not only misleading for the undergraduate, but also graduate level. Is the overall research output of the faculty going to help every single graduate and undergraduate? Usually, it is very, very rare that the faculty aren’t a lot more accomplished and experienced than you are, and quite possibly, than you ever will be, at a very highly rated school. </p>
<p>What I would look for at the undergraduate stage is good breadth of coverage of the key areas relevant to you and possibly a community which will expose you to what is out there. At the graduate level, you want a very well regarded school with faculty who will train you extremely well at the research areas you are interested in – again, not the same as overall research output, or the existence of certain particular stars who proved things that almost nobody on the faculty understands.</p>
<p>UC Berkeley may not necessarily provide “better courses” like you said. It may provide more, and they’ll often be good, but not all the faculty will teach with ideal levels of dedication.</p>
<p>@tryingforcollege: UC Berkeley does not tend to be as strong a Putnam contender as many other schools with strong mathematics departments. It has done very well in some odd years, but I would hardly make math competitions a reason to encourage attending.</p>
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<p>As someone well aware the average scores and such at Berkeley’s undergraduate program are much lower, let us also remember that Berkeley accepts by percentage a ton of Californians, and is basically compelled to. In terms of academic departments and resources, it offers insane amounts to its students, but too bad because a lot of them will never make use of it. I think if you’re among a lot of the strongest students at Berkeley though, for a lot of career paths there seems very little to no advantage to Princeton.</p>
<p>There is a high degree of randomness in admission to an Ivy League school, and so I don’t think too much of someone until I hear what he/she actually can accomplish in a very specific way.</p>
<p>I’m assuming Berkeley will open quite a few doors if I do decide to work in the US? What if I wish to work outside of the US?</p>
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<p>I’m Italian, educated at Cambridge (undergrad CS) and LBS (master’s). I was born in America, raised in Singapore, married to a Filipina, worked in Thailand, HK, Shanghai and Manila. I now work for a huge Asian development bank, and as such, I get to travel from one country to another. </p>
<p>In all my experiences in Asia (from acquaintances to close friends and relatives), Berkeley is regarded on the level of Stanford and MIT. Princeton isn’t in the radar of most Asians. If you don’t believe me, that’s your choice and I’m not going to force you to believe me. </p>
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There really isn’t to talk about between the two of us then. I don’t know what kind of circle you hang out with, but that claim is such weird, to be honest about it.</p>
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I wasn’t going to answer this thread but here is my 2 cents. I think you really are wasting our time here. You should not need anyone to convince you. Think why YOU applied to these colleges. Why did YOU choose Berkeley? Why did you choose Imperial? At the end of the day, any college will get you where you want to be. You can choose Harvard or Princeton or State University of XXXXX, but it will be still YOU who will be responsible for what opportunities you avail.</p>
<p>These posts here are trying to convince you one way or other. At the end of the day, both are good places and it is YOUR decision. I personally feel you really are going in circles here and this thread has run its course :)</p>
<p>I heard in Imperial the lectures notes barely provides enough for the tutorial sheets and exams. What about in Berkeley?</p>
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That’s such a big generalization it doesn’t make much sense 
Obviously that depends on major, class, and most of all, the professor in that particular semester and class.</p>
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I don’t have made quite the same experiences. I agree with you about Imperial and Princeton, most of my East Asian friends haven’t even heard of them. However, by no means is Berkeley regarded as being on the same level as Harvard, Stanford, MIT, etc. Many don’t know Berkeley but obviously know the previous three, mostly through media coverage. That being said, my experiences are in HK, Taiwan, Korea and Japan, countries different from those you’ve mentioned.</p>