UCSB or Berkeley

<p>I really want to go to Cal, but UCSB is giving me many benefits:</p>

<p>-Regents Scholarship (will cover everything but the EFC, so I expect around $50,000 in free money for four years)
-Honors Program (probably smaller classes)
-Priority Registration
-Guaranteed housing all 4 years
-More one-on-one time with professors
-research opportunities are possibly easier to obtain because of less competition
-GPA might be better</p>

<p>Is Cal worth it? I'd love to go there, but at the same time UCSB's benefits are hard to pass up.</p>

<p>^ If you’re not going to major in business, economics, computer science or engineering, go for UCSB! </p>

<p>UCSB is fantastic. The campus is great. And, being a UC, it can also be considered prestigious.</p>

<p>I’m a biology major, but I’m open to switch. I’m probably not going to do one of those you mentioned. Also, I’m not pre-med if that makes a difference… want to go to grad school, though.</p>

<p>-Regents Scholarship (will cover everything but the EFC, so I expect around $50,000 in free money for four years)</p>

<p>Berkeley’s does too.</p>

<p>-Honors Program (probably smaller classes)</p>

<p>Are you asking for more work? =D Honors classes really just mean that. As you take upper-division courses, your courses naturally get very very small as everyone specializes.</p>

<p>-Priority Registration</p>

<p>This is good.</p>

<p>-Guaranteed housing all 4 years</p>

<p>Regents’ also gives you this.</p>

<p>-More one-on-one time with professors</p>

<p>How so, exactly? It should be up to you to seek out your professors.</p>

<p>-research opportunities are possibly easier to obtain because of less competition</p>

<p>On the other hand, there are far more opportunities in the first place at a world-class research institution like Berkeley</p>

<p>-GPA might be better</p>

<p>Dependent on yourself.</p>

<p>I didn’t get a Regents at Berkeley.</p>

<p>Also, if I don’t do the honors program at UCSB, then I won’t have the other benefits that I mentioned.</p>

<p>With UCSB’s honors program, the professors actually take the initiative to set aside time with you. If I went to Berkeley I’d have a harder time seeing the professors because there are so many other students who are also waiting.</p>

<p>Is this really true? I’d ask a few UCSB students to be sure.</p>

<p>And interestingly enough, professors heavily encourage students to visit during office hours because nobody does. Except like, the day before a midterm. So you won’t have problems there.</p>

<p>I’ll ask when I visit next week.</p>

<p>So do you think it’s worth it to give up the scholarship money and benefits to go to Cal?</p>

<p>konakai - really easy to see professors at Cal. Not a problem.</p>

<p>Yes, the money is a valid factor to consider. Same type of decision as deciding whether to pay double the Cal rate to go to a HYPSM school. Only you know what the relative value of the money and the way you think about the extra value of the more expensive school. Lots of right answers, depends on you.</p>

<p>If you want to go to graduate school esp. in an area like engineering, Berkeley hands down. The prestige matters for grad school admissions. Provided you get a decent engineering GPA 3.5+, have some decent research (easy at berkeley), you will get into a pretty good program. </p>

<p>If you’re premed, I would probably go to UCSB–grades are easier and regents might help there.</p>

<p>Are there research opportunities for someone interested in ecology, evolution, marine bio type stuff? Maybe even some biotech.
Also, how hard/easy is it to study abroad?</p>

<p>liquidmetal: I’m a bio major, but not pre-med. I do want to go to grad school but not sure exactly what I want to do yet.</p>

<p>Ecology/Evolution/Paleontology at Berkeley PWNS UCSB.</p>

<p>The UC Museum of Paleontology, the UC Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, and the Human Evolution Research Center are all centered at Cal.</p>

<p>I want to be a paleontologist, so those factors I just mentioned were what took me from 80% for Cal to 100% for Cal when I was choosing between Cal and UCLA (I was admitted to Cal for Spring 08 versus UCLA for Fall 07).</p>

<p>For marine biology we are not all that good though.</p>

<p>Didn’t Dawkins just speak at Cal? I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to see him.
What about research though? I’m specifically interested in ecology/evolution/marine bio, but I’m not majoring in them because they’re not lucrative fields. I’m really open to anything biology, though.</p>

<p>Nothing in biology proper is all that lucrative, that is why most money minded bio majors are prehealth. </p>

<p>Biotech jobs are the only somewhat lucrative jobs you can get with a biology major, and most of these jobs still prefer some graduate school.</p>

<p>Also, unlike most school teachers, professors don’t have poor salaries; yes, they are underpaid based on how much education they have gone through, but they are by no means poor.</p>

<p>just as a side note, i wouldn’t say hypsm will always have higher rates than Cal if you qualify for scholarships. (my friend was offered a better price to stanford albeit only by 2 or 3 thousand).</p>

<p>but ucsb looks pretty legit with your given options. and the parties there are pretty excellent. ;)</p>

<p>anon5524485: That sucks because I really love biology. I was thinking about biotech and I’ll definitely consider it. And I don’t think I have what it takes to be a professor. But who knows, I might end up changing majors to something totally different.</p>

<p>Batman17: It does look pretty good, but I’m not much of a party person, haha.</p>

<p>Dawkins was a professor at Cal in the 60s.</p>