<p>@clueless2400</p>
<p>Story of your life lol</p>
<p>lol i know. <em>sigh</em></p>
<p>OP: This is not worth it. Get real. Apply to the Ivy Plus universities. You’re better off going private if you’re willing to pay 50K.</p>
<p>Get back to Berkeley for grad school or MBA at Haas.</p>
<p>Yeah Northwestern and UChicago are my top choices. Hopefully I can get into atleast one of them w/ 3.9/~2200 and pretty good/decent ECs.</p>
<p>I vote no, it’s really not all it’s cracked up to be.</p>
<p>Econ at Berkeley is worth the OOS price. My wife is an alumnus and her econ degree opened many doors for her. She got into Citi London (offshore) straight right out of college and eventually into Cambridge-Judge for her MBA. She now makes way more than I do. LOL… She chose Berkeley econ over 3 Ivies plus Duke, Chicago and a couple of top LACs that offer the same program, 2 of which offered her huge aid. But, like you, my wife had no issues with fees, so her basis for going to Berkeley was purely based on fit and Berkeley’s outstanding academic prestige.</p>
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<p>Berkeley is one of those Ivy Plus schools - [The</a> Ivy Plus Society](<a href=“http://www.ivyplussociety.org/about.html]The”>http://www.ivyplussociety.org/about.html)</p>
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There is no distinction between Berkeley’s grad and undergrad degrees in terms of academic prestige to the sight of top employers, for the truth is, there could only be one Berkeley degree. The doors that are opened for grad graduates are the same doors that are opened for undergrad graduates. So, if you think Berkeley grad graduates are favorable to top employers, it’s because Berkeley has the name and their graduates have the high quality that those top employers are looking for. if Goldman Sachs, for exmaple, hire Berkeley MBAs, Goldman Sachs hires BBA too. If McKinsey hires MBA or MFE graduates, mcKinsey hires Econ, Eng’g, BBA or any BA graduates too. In fact, Goldman hires many more undergrads than they do MBAs/MFEs/PhDs.</p>
<p>Berkeley opens just as many doors as its private peers. </p>
<p>The differences are “little” things like facilities, campus upkeep, class sizes, personal attention from faculty, geographic diversity, and maybe campus housing. For example, I went to two private schools and took classes at UCLA/Berkeley (extension) before. I can tell you bathrooms at my alma mater were definitely nicer…lol. If you don’t really care about things like this, it doesn’t really matter if it’s public or private. Note that NYU may actually be worse in some of the items I mentioned (e.g. virtually no campus).</p>
<p>Sam Lee, that’s because you went to Northwestern and everyone knows that Northwestern’s facilities are top-notched. The comfort rooms at Kellogg alone, are comparable to those of a five-star hotel’s in Las Vegas. But I have been to Ithaca in NY and the general ambiance alone is killing me to the point that i haven’t really appreciated those nicer facilities that the school offers. And, one building I’ve seen at Dartmouth (sometime a couple of years ago though) looks pretty run down. If you think NYU was worse, Columbia isn’t any better, at least from what I’ve seen. Berkeley is quite crowded, something that I personally like, to be honest. But if you go to Haas, you’d be surprised Haas is quite neat and tidy too. The northern part of Berkeley campus is quite pretty, and in general, it resembles of a posh environment. :)</p>
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<p>That’s the trouble with anecdotes. Your W is obviously one smart lady, and would have done well wherever she would have gone to college, particularly since she is a good test-taker (one of the criterias for Ivy admission). But the ‘masses’ that get into Cal OOS do not get into an Ivy. And, at Cal, the masses are surrounded by ‘thousands’ in the Econ department, which are earning low B’s, or worse. Is it really worth it to pay $55k for crowded classroooms, poor advising, a bureaucracy (Housing) that rivals the Feds, for the extremely small chance that one would be star? Statistically, it ain’t happening. </p>
<p>Ignore Econ for a moment, and think about spending $55k for premed/prelaw. Yes, Cal students do rather well at Harvard Law and Harvard Med, but the competition is more brutal than perhaps any other top college in the US, perhaps with the exception of Hopkins. Is it worth it? Depends on whether you are a risk taker or risk adverse.</p>
<p>btw: which building at Dartmouth was “run down”? (A few dorms are in process of renovation – they complete a new one every 18 months or so.)</p>
<p>^ My wise is originally from the Philippines, so she applied as an international student. Most, if not ALL, international students at Berkeley (especially in my time and in my wife’s time) have very strong stats enough to secure them a spot at some Ivies. I got into Columbia and Duke, for example, but not at Berkeley. Explain that. </p>
<p>Maybe the selection standard for California residents is different. But since we’re talking about OOS, of which my wife was a part of, my anecdote holds true. </p>
<p>As for Dartmouth’s building, I’m not sure which building was it. I think it was where the maths are held. I’m not sure anymore as it was about a couple of years ago already and Dartmouth didn’t appeal to me as much as some other schools in the West did. In short, i really don’t like schools in the NE, unless it’s MIT or Harvard. California is what was US to my mind.</p>
<p>And, about that time when I visited Dartmouth, the business school (Tuck) was in a very ordinary, less appealing facilities. Tuck back then was nothing compared to Haas. Let’s face it, the campus landscape of Dartmouth isn’t really that gorgeous. The buildings are ordinary for a NE private school. Go inside the Asian Center at Berkeley and you’d be amazed how well-kept the things there are, and how beautiful the interior is. Even the major libraries at Berkeley are awesome and jaw dropping. I had chills the first time I saw them. But then again, I was always impressed with Berkeley since high school, and never really was attracted to NE schools, except MIT. As for Dartmouth, there wasn’t anything that stood on Dartmouth’s ground that can rival those structures found at Berkeley, to be quite frank about it. But then again, Dartmouth has quite a few student population.</p>
<p>I’d be hard pressed to spend $50K a year on any school that is not HYPSM or Caltech, let alone a UC OOS.</p>
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<p>This is demonstrably false.</p>
<p>ah yes, Dartmouth’s former math building was butt-ugly. It’s been torn down and replaced.</p>
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<p>I suppose that many would disagree with that statement since Dartmouth frequently shows up on a list of beautiful colleges. But that is neither here nor there. Back to 'essplain why Cal is worth $55k OOS. (IMO, only Colleges of Eng & Chem are worth the big bucks, and certainly no major in L&S.)</p>
<p>fwiw: I differentiate between OOS’ers and Internationals. The former have plenty of excellent, cheap options; many instate Unis are even free with Cal-like stats. Internationals, OTOH, have to pay full freight practically everywhere, and Cal’s prestige is much bigger outside the US than within. Thus, $55k can be worth it to an International, absent HYPSM.</p>
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<p>Not too difficult: Cal ‘reserves’ ~33% of slots for low income kids and other favored kids. As a result, many deserved kids are rejected. Heck, every year at our HS, someone is accepted to Stanford but rejected by Cal or UCLA. And now that the UC is chasing OOS apps, even more deserving instaters will be relegated to Davis.</p>
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<p>I think the problem here is that it’s simply easier to get into Berkeley for undergrad than grad. The department is the same, and you can do much of the same things, but in the end the value of the degree isn’t the same as the dept. Berkeley’s math degree difficulty and training definitely doesn’t speak to the caliber of the math department. Whereas a math PhD from Berkeley does, and we know the real prestige behind Berkeley’s departments is best realized at higher levels.</p>
<p>However, that said, I think it is far too extreme to say it’s not worth coming for 50K unless some of the traditional CC-hailed schools. In this special case it may not be, but that depends where the OP gets in. It can be a terrific opportunity to come here if one wants good graduate school prep, given you have a top department at your disposal. For purely professional considerations, there may be places with better connections, and perhaps if one can have both strong points, going elsewhere would be advisable (barring extraneous preferences).</p>
<p>its top school in the world for business area. i would forsure go if i cant go to stanford:P</p>
<p>Hmm I’m OOS, but I feel that I’ll get a better EECS education here than I would at the public universities in my home state of Idaho. I had full rides there, but I decided that an engineering degree from Cal would be worth the extra bucks and I think starting salaries for undergraduate Econ and engineering majors are some of the highest starting salaries for undergraduate degrees. So assuming you get a job that pays at least 50-60K a year, I’m sure you could pay it off if you don’t have to pay the full 220K (I’m OOS but I recieved a 15K undergraduate academic scholarship, and the remaining 35K received as loans, all from the college’s financial aid, so ask to see if you are eligible for any type of aid) . But if you have to pay the full 220K and you aren’t loaded then maybe you should go somewhere else.</p>
<p>I think this encourages me to work harder and get into Northwestern where the money is well spent! 
(I love the campus and environment, it fits me really well)
UCB was just an alternative if I got rejected.</p>
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<p>This is a bit of a digression. But I want you to know if you graduate with 140K loans, you need more than 50-60k salary to afford the debt payment comfortably, especially in the Bay Area. Note that 140K will be the present value and the principle only; the actual payout will be higher while you will be simultaneously paying the interest, which would consume most of your payments in the early years. So you are actually taking a gamble; hopefully, you will find a higher paying job with the Berkeley EECS degree.</p>