<p>Which one would you go to and why?</p>
<p>D is considering Engineering + Business/Economics. Thanks.</p>
<p>bump. i'd like to know to. i'm pre-med with a major in either math or chem.</p>
<p>WashU, because it has a more community-like feel to it and you'll get more personal attention than at a larger school. WU is excellent for pre-med, and I've heard great things about the other departments as well. Berkeley is a really good school too, but I've heard they're known best for their graduate programs.</p>
<p>Also, Wash U is very very flexible with doing double majors and things like that.</p>
<p>Berkeley is much better for Engineering and Business than WashU, but WashU will make it easier to double major and be a more friendly environment simply due to its size. The differences in undergrad program rep typically aren't important and your D should go where she'll be happy and not be in immense debt. Haas really can't be beat though and is one of the best in the nation, as is Berkeley's engineering program. If money is not an issue, I'd consider WashU, but if it is then Cal is the better choice.</p>
<p>Thanks for all that replied.</p>
<p>The expense would be not very different for WashU vs Berkeley since we are OOS. We are not getting any financial aid from either schools, the state school looks really good to me, but not to D...</p>
<p>If money is not the issue, then it's a "fit" question. UCB is a large urban public with great diversity and variety in activities....it is intense from soup to nuts, from academics to lifestyle. Being a large public, it is more bureaucratic to deal with, harder to get into some desired classes, and the advising is less personal from what I've heard. All that being said, we as parents would have been delighted had S chosen to go to Berkeley, but we certainly understood when he choose Washu instead. Having attended a large CA public h.s. (3,000 students), he really wanted the more personal, not-a-number feeling he got during visits to Wash. His preference for college was not too big, not too small (so many excellent LACs never made it onto the list) and a real campus feel with top-notch academics. He is very happy at Washu. But to be fair, his friends who go to Berkeley and UCLA are glad to be there and are also having a great college experience so far. And of course, Berkeley is more recognizable as a famous name college. I do think it comes down to a choice between excellent, medium-sized private (with all that implies for better advising, smaller class sizes, and a more friendly "we're family" type college atmosphere) and excellent, huge, urban public (with the pros of prestige and the cons of crowds, competition, and bureaucracy.) Personally, I don't think you can go wrong either way academically, so I would let your D decide where she feels the most comfortable.</p>
<p>The medical school admission rate for Berkeley is amongst the lowest in the country. Something to consider.</p>
<p>I'm also trying to decide between WashU and Berkeley. I want to take the core premed courses and study the mind, including psychology, neuroscience, and philosophy courses. WashU has that major, its called PNP. I was also able to get a 50 percent scholarship for Washu but its still significantly more expensive than Cal. Im from california so 3 trips per year might hurt a little. </p>
<p>Right now I'm trying to figure out with my parents if we can afford to make this a question of "fit"....its gonna be hard to turn down WashU!!!! AHHH!</p>
<p>It is ideal to take an undergraduate degree at WashU (smaller classes and more undergraduate focused) and then go to Berkeley for Graduate studies (UCSF for Med). Then you have the best of both. But of course, the financial constraint has to be considered.</p>
<p>If you're a Californian pre-med, go to a UC school. Seriously, what the ***** are you guys thinking? You don't want a sizable debt BEFORE you even start medical school...and it doesn't matter where you do your undergrad for admissions purposes. Of course, "elite" schools tend to have more success sending their students to med school but that's because a lot of their students were exceptional to begin with. </p>
<p>Berkeley's med school admit rate was around 70% last time I checked. That's pretty good considering Berkeley does not have a pre-med committee and considering Berkeley is composed of 90% California residents. Being a California resident pre-med is a disadvantage because California's public medical schools (UCSF, UCLA, UCSD, UCD, UCI) are all ultra-competitive. So while most of the pre-meds at say, Northwestern, have the advantage of applying to private med schools as well as to less selective home state med schools as backup, most Berkeley pre-meds don't have this luxury as their state med schools are HARDER to get into than the vast majority of private med schools!</p>
<p>Stanford University is composed of 50% California residents. Perhaps this explains why Stanford's 75% pre-med acceptance rate is lower than you'd expect from a school of Stanford's reputation.</p>
<p>Never thought of it like that. If that is the case (which I'm not denying) then hmm...</p>
<p>Interesting point.</p>
<p>Read the Berkeley blog. Scared us off. We had expected one thing and the threads showed us something different. I'd go to WashU. Rad the blog on this thoroughly before sending in a Berkeley deposit.</p>
<p>haha, I like the dumb high school kid who thinks that he is in a position to call University of California at Berkeley a crappy school. That's just cute.</p>
<p>Just curious, what aspects of the Berkeley Blog do you consider "scary"?</p>
<p>Look at the CC Berkeley threads. I haven't looked in a while but from what i remember: TA's teaching most classes, class size- huge, indiscriminate grading by the TA's that do not know any of the students, poor advising, poor housing for undergrads which is only guaranteed for freshmen, unfriendly students, very cliquey, many homeless in the area, dorms reeking of pot (smoking is one thing, but dorms reeking of pot?</p>
<p>Just doesn't seem to be what we expected or want for our son. And by the way, a friend of mine has a cousin that is a young professor at UCB. He agreed with our findings.</p>
<p>Is there even such thing as double-major or dual-degree in business+ engineering at Berkeley? Both are heavily "impacted". You may want to find out if it's even possible or allowed. One close alternative is to consider their operational research major.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I NEVER had a TA teach a class that I was in, but that was because I was a science major. All my TAs were PhD students.</p></li>
<li><p>Class sizes for intro sciences are quite large, but have sections as well. For upper-div classes, the class sizes tend to be small and the larger ones are team-taught by multiple professors....at least in the sciences.</p></li>
<li><p>Poor advising= only for the College of Letters & Science, when you're an undeclared major by default for the first 2 years.</p></li>
<li><p>I'll have to agree on the poor housing part...although last I heard, Berkeley guarantees housing for 2 years now. Personally, I preferred living off-campus in the scenic North Berkeley and Hills area. </p></li>
<li><p>Unfriendly students? This is the second time I've heard that in my life...most of the time I hear the opposite, and I experienced the opposite. In general, Berkeley students are friendly.</p></li>
<li><p>Very cliquey........hmmm, yes and no. Some groups of people tend to be very cliquey, others not.</p></li>
<li><p>Many homeless in the area because the city of Berkeley and the students tend to take care of the homeless....so they flock here from other parts of Northern California (many are mentally ill and have been on the streets since Ronald Reagan cut funding to mental institutions as California governor). </p></li>
<li><p>My dorm didn't reek of pot! In fact, most don't.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>FOrerlyabc.....</p>
<p>Thanks for the input. You should go on teh Berkely thread and your your comments there.</p>
<p>Just got the Berkeley bill: $46,000 for out of state. What's with the $8000 for fees? Seems like a way to get more dollars, especially from instaters rather than call it "tuition". (Glad my son decided on the full ride elsewhere at a private school)... We'll see where he considers for grad school!</p>