<p>I am accepted to Berkeley and plan on majoring in Political Economy, my other option is going to UCLA as a pre-polisci major. I want to go the school that puts me in the BEST position for grad school. I want to go to LSE, london school of econ, and I need a high gpa. At Berkeley there is a HUGE curve and I've heard that it's reallyyyy hard to get A's. At UCLA polisci isn't that hard of a major and I figured I can just take my econ and math courses and MAYBE minor in accounting along with my degree in polisci and get into LSE that way. Overall, where do you guys think will be the best choice?? Thank you!!!!!</p>
<p>I am literally in the exact same position. 2 weeks ago when i found out i was at both, i thought it over and chose ucla. It was my dream school since i was 14 and even though berkeley is more prestigious, its such a small gap. Also, i felt i would have a better time at ucla and could get a better gpa. I can always go to berkeley for grad school</p>
<p>I chose UCLA over Berkeley too. Visited both campuses and UCLA was a better fit, even though Berkeley has a much better CS program</p>
<p>It doesn’t matter how the school is, It matters how you adjust to each school. How you fit in to the school determines how well you’ll do. I suggest visiting both campuses and getting a feel of each environment and see if you can actually picture yourself studying your butt off at either one of those schools. There’s really not much of a difference in terms of academics…</p>
<p>I too was in the same situation. I got accepted to both Berkeley and UCLA as an English major. After sleepless deliberation I choose UCLA. I live 20 minutes from the campus so ease of transition, closer proximity to loved ones, and my love of Los Angeles won out. I hope Berkeley doesn’t take it personal as I would love to attend there for Grad school!</p>
<p>I’m also an English major and I chose Berkeley over UCLA. Only 2 things factored into my decision: prestige and location. I kind of thought I’d be cheating myself if I got into Cal and turned them down. I know the academics are really similar, but having Berkeley on your resume will probably look better on grad school applications, depending on your major. And even though I’ve lived in SoCal for about 10 years and would probably feel much more comfortable socially at UCLA, I figured it would be healthy to experience a change of scenery and societal attitude, if only for a couple years.</p>
<p>I was admitted to both as well. I’m leaning towards Berkeley since it is close to where I live. But I’ve heard alot about the bad curves there. I haven’t seen anyone on this forum complain about the curves in UCLA. I read somewhere in this forum that UCLA students always benefit from the curve and never the other way. I don’t think it’s worth going there though for this reason alone…</p>
<p>Berkeley is the top rated public university in the world and second overall(boo harvard). It is the flagship of the UC system and will always be so. Read the wiki, it will help you make your decision. In reality, UCLA’s more direct competitor is UCSD.</p>
<p>^ that’s ridiculous.</p>
<p>You cite wikipedia as a source? Congratulations, you have no credibility.</p>
<p>Lol, if you can’t get a high GPA at Berkeley, I’m pretty sure you can’t get a high gpa at whatever grad school you plan on going. Btw, UCLA is just as competitive as Berkeley, so I wouldn’t choose either school to “pad” your GPA. US Rankings puts Berkeley at #1 and UCLA #2 in public school rankings and they’re close in the overall rankings also like ~#20 something for both schools.</p>
<p>I got accepted to both but got in as a spring admit for Berkeley. Ended up choosing Berkeley though.</p>
<p>ucla and berkeley are the same as far as i am concerned. just go to the school that will allow you to excel, i.e. the school that you do/will feel more comfortable with.</p>
<p>i am currently in the same predicament. will probably attend ucla though becasue of my kids. however, ucb gave me twice as much money so its a hard choice. </p>
<p>my heart goes out to you, lol.</p>
<p>once you are in grad school the curve is usually 50 A / 50 B, you clearly know what you are talking about xviral. average gpa up here at berkeley is 2.9, if you want to have a social life and go to grad school dont choose berkeley. if you want to be a prestige whore and worry about getting stabbed when leaving campus late at night, come to berkeley… please. grad schools dont factor in what school you went to for the most part, they look at gpas and test scores in order to improve their rankings. pardon the bad grammar typed from a cell phone. ive developed a little bit of hate for berkeley’s curves and the fiends the leech off the campus with weapons and mooching. instead of spending time learning material that interests you you get to obsess over minute details and try to predict test questions in order to get straight A’s. even then some minute **** up early in the semester can be all it takes to land you a B+ </p>
<p>wooo go ucla!</p>
<p>“In reality, UCLA’s more direct competitor is UCSD.”</p>
<p>Seriously!!!</p>
<p>Anyway, I’m another English major and I chose UCLA. You should look at the requirements for your major and see which school you may have completed most or more of the pre-reqs. For example, at both Cal and UCLA, there is a three class lower division sequence for English. Two classes that I took at my community college counted for all three at UCLA, while those same two classes only counted for one at Cal. Also, keep researching potential minors or double majors and see what school offers the ones you would really like to pick up to go to grad school.</p>
<p>I honestly don’t think any major will be “easy” at either UCLA or Cal. Instead of trying to predict which major would be easier, you should really consider some of the main factors that will affect your studies, such as the environment. My counselor told me his brother turned down Berkeley when he went to visit the campus and there was a homeless guy ODing right across the street. Knowing that Berkeley is just a bit more prestigious isn’t going to help you get your studies done. Lastly, I don’t think that going to Cal over UCLA will put you in a better position for grad school based on name recginition alone. Pick the place where you feel you can access professors better and internships, because letters of rec. and EC’s CAN help you for grad school. </p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>I think it’s unfortunate a counselor told that story of his brother turning down Berkeley because he saw a bum OD’ing on campus and infected that bias into you. **** happens everywhere, and to make a decision on a thing like that on the one day you visited campus is a bit premature.</p>
<p>However, I agree about the undergrad school not playing as important a role as one might expect in admissions to grad schools. A friend of mine graduated with honors from Berkeley and applied to UCLA, UC Santa Cruz, Columbia, and NYU. UCLA and Santa Cruz rejected her but NYU and Columbia did not. She chose NYU due to greater scholarship amount.</p>
<p>QVOPINCHEPUTO:</p>
<p>My counselor and I were discussing the pros and cons of going to a university in a big city versus one in a small city and if the prestige was worth it to me. </p>
<p>I personally have been struggling with making a decision between UCLA/Cal and Cal Poly SLO. I live really close to SLO already and like the small town feel and love the campus. I disclosed to my counselor that I am not really a big city person and he was trying to explain some of the experiences he, going to school in San Francisco and his brother went through. This is why he explained the situation to me, because to some people, the prestige of a school is just not worth the atmosphere. I guess the bias was relevant in my situation, just wanted to point that out.</p>
<p>That’s really interesting that none of the UC’s took your friend for grad school… makes me kinda nervous considering she graduated with honors from Cal. Hm.</p>
<p>IndieRockNRoll,</p>
<p>Congrats on your admittance to both. You are right: some people have a low tolerance for crime stats, but trust me, bad things happen everywhere.</p>
<p>Which school are you leaning towards?</p>
<p>You can check this out too:</p>
<p>[University</a> of California Police Department Annual Reports](<a href=“http://police.ucsf.edu/images/stories/AnnualReport/2009AnnualReport/index.html]University”>http://police.ucsf.edu/images/stories/AnnualReport/2009AnnualReport/index.html)</p>
<p>Berkeley is better than UCLA!</p>
<p>Yeah QVOPINCHEPUTO:</p>
<p>I agree that there’s crime everywhere! There was just two rapes at Cal Poly this past week. It’s more of the fast paced traffic and people, homelessness, and smog I’m concerned about. I’m somewhat of a hypochondriac and have anxiety problems and I’m prone to panic attacks when I get nervous so these things are of concern to me. I actually missed the SIR date for Cal Poly SLO, so I have to submit an appeal that I’m going to drop off tomorrow and hope that they will let me in without any problems. Out of Cal and UCLA, I have pretty much chosen UCLA just because it’s closer to home and I like the surrounding area more and like I mentioned before, I have way more classes done there. However, UCLA is the cheapest out of my three options 
So I don’t know if it’s worth it to go to Cal Poly over it.</p>
<p>Where are you planning on going? Also, is your name supposed to be in Spanish??? hah.</p>