<p>Hi
I've been admitted to both Berkeley and UCLA but I'm having trouble deciding which to go to. I was psyched to get into UCLA as I live near LA and love the campus but I unexpectedly got admitted to Berkeley, which has made my desire to go to UCLA waiver.
Basically these are my concerns:
1) Which is the best university to go to for a global studies/ interational relations/ peaceand conflict studies type major (As in which would look better on a resume for a government job like diplomacy or foreign service officer)?
2) Is it right to pick the most prestigious university over the one which I liked most for location and campus?
3) Will which graduate school I go to (if I go to one) matter more than this decision?
4) Would visiting home (Orange County) be dificult if I went to Berkeley, because I was planning on visiting home about once every 1 or 2 months if I went to UCLA, which would be a lot cheaper?
Thank you so much for your replies!</p>
<p>1) Nearly twice as many Congressmen came from UCLA than Berkeley during the last Congress.</p>
<p>[Introduction:</a> The Top 10 Colleges for Members of Congress - US News & World Report](<a href=“http://www.usnews.com/news/slideshows/the-top-10-colleges-for-members-of-congress]Introduction:”>http://www.usnews.com/news/slideshows/the-top-10-colleges-for-members-of-congress)</p>
<p>2) There’s nothing wrong with picking the more prestigious school but you should definitely weigh the other factors as well.</p>
<p>3) Where you go for graduate school will matter significantly more. This decision won’t matter at all if you go to graduate school other than its influence in determining which graduate school you attend.</p>
<p>4) Visiting Orange County would be somewhat inconvenient. The drive back to LA is 6 to 8 hours.</p>
<p>My son wavered as to whether to go to UCLA or Berkeley. He visited both campuses, and finally made his decision about 6 hours into the long boring drive home from Berkeley.</p>
<p>Berkeley is very different from Orange County. </p>
<p>Visit and then decide.</p>
<p>You don’t need a car at Berkeley. Oakland or SFO and the Berkeley campus are readily accessible via BART. Southwest has cheap one hour flights to John Wayne Airport and you’d probably get home quicker than shooting down the 405 on a Thursday or Friday afternoon.</p>
<p>The daughter of one of those ‘Real Housewives of OC’ xfered from Cal to UCLA.</p>
<p>She didn’t like the atmosphere of Cal, which is certainly different, mainly because she was from South OC.</p>
<p>But she enjoyed UCLA so much she visitied her mother less when attending UCLA than when she was attending Cal.</p>
<p>(Thought I would tweak UCBChemE a bit. ; )) </p>
<p>Main thing: visit both, try to get used to both, and see where your emotions sit with both.</p>
<p>That OC airhead was a much better fit for JCLA. ;)</p>
<p>LOL</p>
<p>10 char min</p>
<p>LOL, kind of a hammer over the head approach, but funny nonetheless, JCB.</p>
<p>I’m just wondering why she chose Cal in the first place. COULD IT BE??? She was rejected by UCLA on the first go round? Nahhh, that never happens, lol.</p>
<p>To be honest, I find the Berkeley campus atmosphere posh, UCLA only somewhat. I can sense that Berkeley students are more economically well-off but they just don’t appear superficial (the Stanford style), if you know what I mean. Berkeley City has a reputation of being the hub of the hippies, but the Berkeley campus – again, the campus – resembles that exact opposite of the city/town. Inside the Berkeley campus, all good looking peeps of varied nationalities abound abundantly. It’s amazing to see a huge collection of extremely smart, very good looking with awesome personalities students in one single location. UCLA has a nice ambiance too. But of course, it is not UC Berkeley.</p>
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<p>Not really… Cal is a public school same as UCLA. Also, Stanford gives 100% tuition breaks to those whose parents make < $100K.</p>
<p>If you mean that NorCal schools tend to dress down compared to SoCal schools, I’d agree. </p>
<p>But this is probably because of NorCal is more tech oriented, and SoCal is more celeb oriented – two different mindsets entirely, almost like two different states.</p>
<p>Wrt superficiality and Stanford, I’d agree. If you’ve ever been to Stanford sporting events, football - Stan Stadium and basketball - Maples, say, one doesn’t see a lot of nice cars in the parking lots, which is partly due to leaving the nice one at home so it doesn’t get keyed, etc. Stanford grads aren’t real ostentatious. </p>
<p>Most people tend to rate UCLA’s campus higher than Cal’s. A lot of people rank Stanford’s campus highly also, which I don’t understand because it’s very spread out and boring to me. In fact, I like Cal’s campus a lot better than Stanford’s. But to each his/her own.</p>
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and all those who choose/have chosen UCLA over Berkeley would agree!</p>
<p>^ I’m sorry for not being clear; by that I meant, it is not the flagship campus. I know both schools are great. It’s just that, one is the flagship campus. I understand that does not concern California students that much. But it could have any implication to some internationals and OOS students.</p>