Hello everyone. We live in NC and our son was accepted at UCLA and Berkeley. We had planned to visit the schools once we heard back but now with COVID - he is now faced with making the decision on which college to attend without getting a chance to be on campus with students. We did visit Berkeley last spring but they were on spring break so we really didn’t get a “feel” for the campus or student life.
I am curious to get some honest input and feedback on both schools. He is currently “Undecided” and was admitted into the school’s Letters & Sciences. Also - if there are other resources to help get more straightforward information about schools without it just being marketing - I am just trying to find out any information I can to share with him - THANK YOU!!
Honestly he is unsure…maybe something with media/arts. His passions lie in film & music although he excels in math and sciences as well as the humanities. He is athletic - cross country, skiing, rock climbing. Socially he is well liked but is not any “stereotype”. He is graduating from a VERY small private school - 60 kids in his class.
@gumbymom
Honestly he is unsure…maybe something with media/arts. His passions lie in film & music although he excels in math and sciences as well as the humanities. He is athletic - cross country, skiing, rock climbing. Socially he is well liked but is not any “stereotype”. He is graduating from a VERY small private school - 60 kids in his class.
Going from a very small east coast high school is going to be a big culture shock.
they are both HUGE and hyper competitive - even after you get in. The students I know at both are really stressed out and recount that all their peers are as well. You have to be well centered and really confident to succeed in an environment like that.
@NCalRent He has other options and could go to UNC-Chapel Hill, UC Boulder but he is really focused on California schools and it would be his preference.
Only you (and he) know how they handle pressure but, I wouldn’t commit to either without spending some time on campus and talking to students.
Given your location, that’s a tall order with all the Covid restrictions out there.
@NCalRent Thanks for your thoughts - there is no easy answer and no opportunity at this point to seeing the campus in person. Sigh. It is tough enough to have the disappointment of senior year being “cut short” and missing out on prom, graduation, friends, classes, teachers…etc etc and now this.
@Publisher We live in Asheville, NC which is a fairly liberal medium sized town - similar to Boulder or Berkeley on a very small scale. We have a large homeless population for a town of our size. His twin brother is going to Boulder. Any additional insights are appreciated!!
This is an exaggeration. My S’s classmates at UCLA are not “really stressed out”. They are (at least in normal circumstances when they are actually on campus) really, really happy and enjoying themselves. Undoubtedly the weather helps.
It isn’t as noticeable around UCLA. I’ve never felt unsafe on the streets there, even late in the evening. There are some areas of Berkeley (just like downtown SF) where I would be much more nervous walking around at night.
My daughter is deciding between the two as well. We are from CA but in small town (high school class is about 75). My older daughter is at UCLA and loves it, thriving and works very hard in classes, but also has a social life. (she stresses hard before midterms, etc but then settles down until the next test) We visited Berkeley a few weeks ago before the shutdown for the Regents overnight (sadly, she did not get the scholarship!) and the campus/area is very different from UCLA, but she was intrigued by how close the campus was to the busy “city” w/coffee shops, food/restaurants etc. Literally, just step off the curb, and you are there - and the dorms are intermixed there. Yes, the homeless are there - in fact on a Library tour of Doe - a homeless man walked in and no one really gave it a second thought - I think mostly its commonplace and everyone (students and homeless) peacefully co-exist. As I read over and over on CC - you make your own social circle within the bigger university - and since he sounds social, making connections won’t be a problem at either school. UCLA is beautiful, green, brick buildings, roomy - maybe homogeneous? – while Cal is a bit older, gritty, but definitely get a sense of history (?) there. Big selling point for Cal is the stadium is right there on campus - for UCLA the kids have to bus to the Rose Bowl 45 min away. Anyway not sure if this helps or not - but just some observation. (I think my D is leaning UCLA - but no commitment yet)(also UCB and UCLA both have ski clubs - super fun!)
My neighbor’s daughter got into all of the UCs, including Berkeley, LA and San Diego. She was excited to attend Berkeley, given all of the hype.
She’s doing well academically, but, she absolutely hates the environment. She’s from San Diego and had visited Berkeley several times (since her uncle lives in the Bay Area).
She’s doing well academically, because, as her Dad puts it, “she just wants to get the hell out” so she’s trying to be done in 3 years, and return back to Southern California.
The stress levels, of my former students, who attended Berkeley, were reported back to me by their parents. This was the opposite of what I heard from their UCLA parents.
Berkeley definitely has a reputation for being more cut throat, stressful and intense. I don’t know if it is just the culture there and it feeds on itself but it is a problem.
This is a few years old and I’m sure it is not accurate anymore but it can give you an idea of which majors are more competitive. http://projects.dailycal.org/grades/
My daughter is a freshman at Cal. She chose over UCLA and while it was a tough decision at that time, thinks its the best decision she ever made. Yes, coursework (DataScience and Business) is tough but she thinks its easier than high school. Sure you have to study hard but she just love the stimulating environment there. Contrary to beliefs, the smart kids really help one another. While its competitive in some majors (like Haas Business School), kids don’t back-stab or do the nasty stuff that one might read about. I don’t think she’s exceptional - really. She’s just a bright student willing to put the hours but at the same time have fun - currently in several clubs/ECs. Like your daughter, she loves film and movies and might minor in it. Sure UCLA has a great film school but heard the acceptance rate is like 4% or such. So overall, go Bears!
I believe the OP, if I am not mistaken, asked about class sizes at both campuses (or just UCLA’s) on the UCLA board, and in @lkg4answers 1st link, there’s a median-class-size stat for an average student who just begins at UCB to the end of his/her four years. At point zero, the median is ~276, and at the end of four years it is ~113.
The problem with this is that it’s a median. If it’s an average class size, then that number would balloon considerably. Classroom sizes can be large at the UC campuses, but UCB’s CS classes, especially, would be the main contributor to the considerably larger average class sizes at that campus because a median wouldn’t take them into account, with some classes approaching nearly 700-900 students even in upper division within its CS department.
Of course, this mega class-size aspect is pervasive throughout the CS departments all across the country. Even Stanford’s average CS class size was (is?) ~120, generously understated according to the authors in an article in the Stanford Daily a couple of years ago with a student/faculty ratio of about 20:1 in the CS department, when it’s overall ratio is 4:1 for the school as a whole.
At UCLA, the average and median CS class sizes would be smaller, of course, but there are some large classes and large department majors also. But that’s why UCLA employs caps to bring down the overcrowded nature that is pervasive at UCB CS. In a way I think it’s good that they don’t cap CS, but they enable the students to study what they want.
Because of this, I think the ultra-competitive atmosphere attributed to UCB is based mainly because of Haas – the competition to get into the school, and its E/CS majors. This doesn’t mean UCLA is any easier or that its students are more laidback when it comes to studying. I think it’s just that UCLA students know how to balance academics and fun a lot better.