UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA vs. UCBERKELEY vs. UTORONTO

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Please help me decide which school to attend for Architecture! Please consider everything you can think of. I will be paying domestic fees for Canada, but Out of State for both California schools.</p>

<p>Lists of pros and cons will be great!</p>

<p>The most important factors are overall academic experience, architectural academic experience, student life (housing, dining, extracurriculars, LGBT), job placement, and best value for tuition!</p>

<p>Thanks for all the help and info you can give!</p>

2

<p>USC is out. It is between Berkeley and Toronto and Berkeley has more name recognition and you are not going to find a better LBGT scene than the bay area. Good Luck!</p>

3

<p>For LGBT, I would certainly pick Berkeley over USC.</p>

4

<p>Berkeley is pretty much good for everything.</p>

5

<p>I don't think Berkeley is good for housing. For dining, it is great off-campus.</p>

6

<p>^ Berkeley's housing has improved. New dorms recently built (infill buildings to Units 1 and 2)</p>

<p>Also, the on-campus dining has much improved as well. New central dining hall...and the food quality is much better with more variety.</p>

7

<p>Yeah, their dining got an Ivy award: 04.12.2007</a> - Cal Dining wins the Oscar of eateries</p>

8

<p>haha, thats pretty funny xP</p>

9

<p>Cal is perfect for you.</p>

10

<p>Please be aware that there are a lot of homeless people near Berkeley. A lot came from SF.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2001/07/25_clinic.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2001/07/25_clinic.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

11

<p>The homeless in Berkeley are harmless. You might get asked for money on occasion. That's the worst that will happen to you. Berkeley is a vibrant and crazy city, you are a BART ride from SF, which is also vibrant and crazy.</p>

12

<p>Some colleges offer programs where you can sleep with the homeless for a night.. idk if Berkeley is one of the them.</p>

13

<p><a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/06/14/BAGI5QEUDL1.DTL%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/06/14/BAGI5QEUDL1.DTL&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

14

<p>^ It's only a matter of time before Berkeley gets off its liberal ass and builds luxury condominiums on People's Park.</p>

15

<p>I was a student in Berkeley for 4 years, worked in Berkeley for two more years, moved away, have lived in the area for the last 4 years. I go to campus regularly, shop and eat in Berkeley even more often, have taken an occasional class on campus. I've never been bothered by a homeless person, I've never known anyone to have been bothered by a homeless person, except to have been asked for money. If having homeless people around occasionally asking you for money is a concern, Berkeley is not for you. Otherwise, the homeless people (beggars) are not a concern. Berkeley is a safe city.</p>

16

<p>don't worry guys, i'm pretty much from nyc (only a train ride away!) so homeless people and ghetto neighborhoods are nothing new hah :]</p>

17

<p>Toronto is a wonderful city, and the U of Toronto is a fascinating place (I have a master's degree from UofT). Both California schools have bigtime sports and moderate weather, but UofT will give you a comparable education.</p>

18

<p>Wait, if you are paying OOS fee for Berkeley, wait to see USC's aid, they are very generous with alot of people. You might not be paying too much.</p>

19

<p>You should attempt to contact the GLBT clubs at USC and Berkeley. They're probably listed in the school directory. I'm not familiar with that crowd, so I don't know about on campus, but USC is only a ten minute drive from a ton of GLBT clubs in West Hollywood.... that's a lot closer than SF is from Berkeley.</p>

<p>I cannot speak to architecture, only overall school reputation. Berkeley has been a Top 5 graduate school for decades, and a Top 20 undergrad for decades. USC was not Top 100 25 years ago. It is now supposedly Top 30. But that is a very recent thing, and it will take a long time (if ever) for employers in your work lifetime to regard USC as being on par with UCB -- justified or not. It takes a very long time for reputation to catch up to performance.</p>

20

<p>The homeless in Berkeley are no problem....I find them entertaining sometiemes. Its funny how Columbia Student tries to make a big deal about Berkeley surroundings considering Columbia's area.</p>