Recently accepted off WashU waitlist, I have until Monday to decide.
*I am OOS for both, $ is not a major factor in the decision
* My major is Environmental Science/Environmental Bio
WashU Pros
I was born in St. Louis, I love it there, I still have lots of family and friends there and my parents visit regularly so that would be nice
The school is obviously much smaller and the dorms and food are better from what I can tell
Idk if the research is better for my major per se, but they do have an entire ecological research station there that I know people in my major regularly do research at
WashU Cons
Maybe less well known than Berkeley
I like my major a little less here, I’d have to get a minor or double major to make it equivalent to Berkeley
I would be in Letters and Sciences which is pretty big
Berkeley Pros
I love my major. It’s interdisciplinary and allows me to do a year long thesis at the end and is in a small college rather than the giant letters and sciences
I already have a roommate and everything here lol
I like the school overall, it’s pretty and there’s good opportunities for me there
Berkeley Cons
It’s massive
Dorms and food are not nearly as good
Not as safe of an area as where WashU is (I’ve visited both campuses and have heard and read about both areas)
Any help or knowledge would be appreciated! Thanks!!
Are you in state for Cal? Do you care about collegiate athletics? As for safety, neither are sketchy. What separates them, if anything, is minimal on that front.
Congratulations. Tough call. I would think only you know what you’d really like to do. I also do believe there’s something about being pulled from a waitlist, that reversal of fortune and sadness turns to a big unexpected surprise that makes something seem better than it may be for you. It’s very subtle.
I really respect cal academically and it’s brand is very strong on a global basis. Wash U is even more selective but it’s brand is not as fully formed outside of the USA. It’s well known to sophisticated employers and grad schools.
Hers the rub. Cal has a real SJW vibe and perhaps the most activist campus in the USA. That might be a great thing or not. Your call. It’s also more economically diverse than Wash u but perhaps not culturally. It’s also known as a pretty intense place but perhaps your major and smaller college is different than the premed math and engineering majors.
It’s a good choice to have but a pretty clear one in my book.
Big, Uber liberal and really smart in a so so neighborhood. Better direct major.
Smaller, liberal like most schools, really pretty wealthy, really smart in a more familiar location. Good but not perfect major.
All things considered, I would choose WashU. Class sizes will be smaller compared to Cal and the relative costs will be roughly the same.
This is from a California resident whose kid goes to WashU-the kid didn’t care for Berkeley even though Asian mom had him apply. His grades were decent enough but not at so-called Cal levels, although they wanted extra LORs from him.
I’d go for Wash U in a heartbeat. Great school, nice location, terrific quality of life, and an extremely strong environmental biology program, especially if you are interested in botany/plant science. What’s not to like?
I am not a huge fan of the UCs for undergraduate training in the biological sciences, and I’m saying that as a UC grad. The differences in class sizes, funded research opportunities, faculty mentoring, etc. between the UCs and their smaller and wealthier peers are pretty stark. YMMV.
Wondering what you plan to do with the Environmental Science major after graduation (?) I’m a wustl grad and, while I’m not working in environmental sciences per se, let’s just say I’m ‘environmental sciences-adjacent’. Currently living not too far from UCB. My perception is that there are more opportunities for work in the environmental sciences in CA, and it may be easier to access those opportunities from UCB.
I think you need to decide what type of college experience you are looking for?
Berkeley will be much more diverse both culturally and financially, has better overall weather than St Louis, the SF Bay Area is one of the world’s great cities/area, and if you want to work in northern CA, it helps to go to the state’s public flagship, big school spirit and D1 sports, world renowned reputation.
Washu will have a much smaller student body, less politically active, smaller classes, great dorms, large percentage of wealthy students with 85% from OOS, some people like the Midwest, some don’t.
Again, totally different experiences, there is no right answer just depends on what you are looking for out of 4 years of college?
I actually went to both schools (Wash U undergrad, Cal for grad), not in your major though (physics/German at Wash U and then physics at Cal). I can’t speak to the actual department. Everyone else has covered the differences pretty well… both are great schools with different strengths. Wash U will give you smaller class sizes for the most part, a more ‘upscale’ campus feel which you may or may not prefer, a more suburban experience. At Berkeley you’ll have much better weather, more international recognition and diversity, access to one of the most beautiful parts of the world (okay, that’s subjective, I still live in the Bay Area and am biased ;-)). I felt like there was more hand-holding at Wash U although that might have been because I was an undergrad rather than a grad student there. There was definitely more nickel-and-diming at Cal (extra charges for photocopying, that sort of thing whereas at Wash U once your parents paid tuition everything else was included. This was over 30 years ago though and in the grand scheme of things probably shouldn’t be what you base your decision on).
In the end they are both great schools.
@ucbalumnus UCB am I interpreting the results correctly. Cal has 30 percent of the students at the pell eligible level and Wash U is 10 percent. Is this data perhaps flawed by higher wash u finaid and they don’t report all? Or is it required reporting.
Percentage with Pell grant is found from NCES data, although it looks like USNWR’s chart may be for a different year from what is currently on College Navigator:
But the percentages have been similar over the last several years. Given WUStL’s reputation of having a wealthy student body, a low percentage of Pell grant students is not inconsistent with that reputation. Level of need-based FA given by the school should not matter in terms of students getting Pell grants (the school will assume that the student will get a given amount of Pell grant and give school FA grants around it).
Note that UCB’s Pell grant student percentage is higher for all students than for frosh. This is likely because of the relatively large junior transfer cohort from California community colleges which tends to have more students from low income backgrounds (including both traditional and non-traditional students).