<p>I've been accepted to UCB, Spring Admit, and UCSC, Regents Scholarship. </p>
<p>I am, dubiously, thinking of Grad school, in a humanity, for the future, and I have to wonder, which situation would truly be best for someone hoping to get into a top 20 PHD program?</p>
<p>UCB. Duh.</p>
<p>haha, funny</p>
<p>Anyone with a shred of intelligence care to comment? It seems to me that it would be wiser to shine in a less competitive enviornment, with greater oppurtunities to participate in undergrad research, then to be one of two dozen hopeful grad students in any department at UCB. Secondly, UCSC, with its Language Studies Major, seems like it would be a good addition as a double major or minor. It seems to me that as a humanities student looking towards either an English/Compar Lit/History PHD program, a Classical Studies Major (With a Latin Sequence) double Language Studies Major (Probably German) from UCSC would far outperform a "prestigious" major in a humanity and a minor in a foreign language from UCB in respect to its utility for a grad student.</p>
<p>Take the money and go UCSC for undergrad. Work really hard, get excellent grades and stand out. Get into a great/prestigious grad school and go there. Get out of school w/less debt and tell everyone that you went to the prestigious grad school. They will be so impressed that they will never ask you where you went for undergrad ;)</p>
<p>That's a very thoughtful consideration of yours. But see, you also want to enjoy the college experience, to compete with others who are at the same level as you are. In the end, you will come out more rounded than you would if you join a community where you are the person who set the scale.
Also, you can still do really well at Berkeley if your blade is sharp enough.
So it's all your choice.
I personally would choose the most competitive place that I can get too, even though that's not always the best decision.</p>
<p>UCB has the top professors in any field. Get in cahoots with them and you're chances of entry into one of the best graduate programs in the world are greatly improved. I have a few friends who got a professor to like them and even though their gre's and gpa's were underwhelming, they got into Berkeley's grad program because they had proven themselves indispensable to the professor.</p>
<p>For an in-state student, the cost between berkeley and another UC is pretty minimal in my opinion (as an out of stater) but if its a consideration, then you should weight it in terms of your own needs. If you are really set on going into a top program, every edge matters because its so competitive and having a person internationally reknown at Berkeley writing your rec can be a great boon. However, if you only care about top 20, then UCSC is probably good enough.</p>
<p>You can make the most out of both places but getting mentorship from a great professor can really open doors for the graduate school process.</p>