Uchicago or Berkeley?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Chicago ✅
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@preppedparent Individual anecdotes aren’t very useful. Clark Kerr holds less than 900 students. Thousands and thousands of students who want housing are shut out of Berkeley campus housing after their first year. I know several of them. Yes, a handful of undergrads manage to have close relationships with a professor, but it is atypical - not surprising when you have 28,000 undergrads and so many classes have over 100 students in them (sometimes several hundred). The student/faculty ratio at Berkeley is three times higher than it is at UChicago.

Basically, all of the things that a few students manage to get if they really hustle and get lucky at Berkeley are available to all of the students at UChicago. Look at the Metcalf internships, for example. UChicago will directly arrange summer internships next year for over 2200 students, with businesses and non-profits all over the country. That is nearly half the entire student body, which means that pretty much anyone who wants one, gets one.

I will give you this - If the OP got into the CS program at Berkeley AND was absolutely certain that he wanted to do CS, then I would understand choosing Berkeley. It is a great CS school with connections to Silicon Valley rivaled only by Stanford. However, if he isn’t absolutely certain what he wants to study or where he wants to end up, UChicago is a better bet for the same reasons that the Ivies or Stanford would be a better bet.

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<<individual anecdotes="" aren’t="" very="" useful.="">>

^^okay, I thought this forum was was everyone to share their experinences. I’m sorry mine don’t count.

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This is an amazing program. It makes it so easy to gain productive experience in summer for students specially freshmen. And to imagine that when it started, several years ago it had just 7 students in it?!!! What remarkable progress!

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@preppedparent I didn’t say that your experience didn’t count. But it is only one experience out of many. I have no doubt that with moxie and a little luck, a talented student at Berkeley can get absolutely any experience or opportunities that a student at UChicago (or Harvard or anywhere else) can get. Berkeley is one of the world’s great universities.

For most students, however, the educational experiences and opportunities will not be the same at the two schools.

I can think of lots of reasons to favor Berkeley over UChicago. The typical academic experience and typical career/grad school opportunities for students are not among them.

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<> (UCB)

Reasonable people can disagree. thanks

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Thanks everyone! I’m currently leaning towards Uchicago!

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If money is not an issue, go where your heart tells you, which right now is UChicago. You may want to check out the vibe of the two places though so I second the idea of visiting the schools during admitted students events - and stay for the weekend to get a taste of city life too (Berkeley has distinct differences from SF and Silicon Valley and Hyde Park is not Michigan Avenue).

If however you want to go into tech and only tech (CS), Berkeley is second only to Stanford in the preponderance of available opportunities outside of the school during the semester. (for Summer internships UChicago can compete).

Chemistry - toss up.

Geeks - Both campuses are filled with intelligent geeks but different kind of geeks.

Sports - Berkeley has as much Olympians as a whole European country and if it were its own country it will be in the top 5 in Olympic rankings every time. Any Cal/Stanford game is fun to participate in!

Cost of living - Berkeley is more expensive

Food - Chicago has better Greek, German, Scandinavian, “American e.g. Beef”, Irish, Vietnamese food. Berkeley has better Mexican, Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Malaysian, Thai. Both have snobby five star prix fix chef prepared food, but Chicago’s are easier to reserve and cheaper by a third (so we are talking $300 instead of $500).

Wow factor - UChicago marginally wins in my opinion, except in California where Berkeley is not just a household name, especially to the snobby cohort who refuse to call it anything but “Cal” and calling it “Berkeley” may be construed as a mild insult. jk. Or countries in Asia where there are only four good American schools - MIT, Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon, and Caltech.

Weather - Berkeley, unless you want snow. (but not like skiing slopes kind of snow since Chicago is flatter than a pancake). Snow to a Californian can be brutal (or an adventure). If however you have never been to a flyover state and you want to explore and get exposed to middle America, Chicago is an awesome home base. At Berkeley, you will be tempted to never leave California… ever.

Greek life - Berkeley. Chicago’s are tame in comparison.

Politics - depends on what your politics is. For a leftie, Berkeley could be heaven (or an echo chamber)

Talk to your hometown friends too… I find that more friends visited me in Chicago than SF because everybody has already been to SF Bay Area.

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You do realize that you are on a UChicago thread. :blush: :wink:

29

Went through a similar decision with my D.

As @thankyouforhelp pointed out, it is very difficult to get direct admit into Berkeley CS. If you have that, I would think really hard about taking it.

If you have not been admitted to Berkeley for CS, or if you don’t really think you want to do CS, then I would take Chicago for the stronger overall reputation.

Also keep in mind that CS is very employable with a bachelors degree. However, chemistry has limited opportunities without an advanced degree.

30

I have been to both campus and the vibes of each are poles apart. A large public university in the Bay Area is simply different from a small/medium private college in the south side of Chicago. I am not saying either one is superior. But to me it is hard to imagine that one can fall in love with both campus. I would advise OP to visit both schools and OP can immediately tell which one fits him/her better.

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@Sam-I-Am I would never recommend choosing a university based on their ranking. Rankings and ratings leave out many things. In this case, the Bay Area is very different from Chicago. Cal has a very different “feel” from Chicago. And Cal is far larger and has the advantage of its proximity to Silicon Valley. Chicago has a far smaller undergraduate college and is free from many of the budget constraints of Berkeley.

Big question (and a serious one): how do you feel about winter? If you don’t like months of cold, snow and overcast skies, Chicago isn’t your place. No point ignoring climate.

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As someone who attended Berkeley for law school and now has a son at UChicago, I would suggest it is very easy to fall in love with both campuses. Certainly different, but both are beautiful campuses with a rich intellectual atmosphere.

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Is Berkeley known for rigor and intellectualism?

Those are two of the three words (the third being “core”) that probably most help to define the U of Chicago’s academic culture.

If you are afraid of academic intellectualism and rigor, or are turned off by them, you might think twice about UChicago.

Conversely, if you like a good academic challenge, and if hard work doesn’t put you off, Chicago is it.

I happen to think that rigor is good – that you’re likely to learn more if you work hard. But it’s not for everyone, so I figured I’d mention it.

(rigor also depends on major, of course…)