<p>Berkeley is larger and enrolls more poorer students…many work part time. 6 year grad rates are about the same as JHU. Berkeley is one of best grad rates for public schools. JHU for a private isn’t that great.</p>
<p>Berkeley has a 17:1 faculty to student ratio, where as elite privates typically have 9:1 or lower. While lectures might be slightly large at top privates, students are not treated as numbers.</p>
<p>^ I’m not saying there aren’t differences, Blah. </p>
<p>However, faculty student ratios are calculated differently by schools. Sometimes it’s not always apples to apples. Alexandre mentioned some privates don’t include grad students in the student faculty ratio…publics do. Some include adjunct profs…some don’t.</p>
<p>JHU’s student:faculty ratio is [url=<a href=“http://apply.jhu.edu/facts/facts.html]13:1[/url”>http://apply.jhu.edu/facts/facts.html]13:1[/url</a>], not 9:1.</p>
<p>^that’s if they include graduate students. It’s 9:1 for undergrad.</p>
<p><a href=“Registrar - Homewood Schools (KSAS & WSE) | Office of the Registrar | Johns Hopkins University”>Registrar - Homewood Schools (KSAS & WSE) | Office of the Registrar | Johns Hopkins University;
<p>See I-2 and note that it includes graduate students.</p>
<p>^ Grad students demand far more attention from a prof than undergrads, so why shouldn’t grad students be included in the faculty to student ratio?</p>
<p>Take that beef on with all the other private schools. JHU is at least trying to be transparent. At the end of the day, the ratios at top privates are still better than berkeley - anyway you cut it.</p>
<p>The 13:1 ratio at JHU is the ratio more comparable to the 17:1 ratio you stated for Berkeley.</p>
<p>Given that both JHU and Berkeley are research universities with lots of graduate students, it is reasonable to include the graduate students among the faculty student responsibilities.</p>
<p>Why is JHU’s retention rate only 96.4% vs. Berkeley’s 97%? This is a ridiculous conversation.</p>
<p>comparable? sure. i suppose. Let’s hope there really is enough faculty to go around for 36000 total students at Berkeley versus 6000 at JHU</p>
<p>“Take that beef on with all the other private schools.”</p>
<p>Just another scam that privates use to boost their rankings at USNWR. Why not? It works!</p>
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<p>This jumped out at me, because I know that Wellesley does not offer merit money and I"m pretty sure JHU and Barnard don’t either. Will these colleges still be affordable on a meets-meets-need-only basis?</p>
<p>What are her goals after college? Ph.D? Something else? </p>
<p>Bryn Mawr (I am an alum) used to have extraordinary Classics and Classical Archaeology programs and students did very well in Ph.D. admissions from BMC. BMC and Haverford students freely take classes on each other’s campuses, and the departments are built to complement each other. Can also take classes at U Penn and Swat, though takes more effort and logistics to take classes there. </p>
<p>I would look more closely at the departments and research opportunities for undergrads in her main academic interests.</p>
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<p>At a LAC, more typically an intro psych course would have < 20 students or so. In my own experience at Chicago (very LAC-like in those days), in a psych-oriented Core course, students would read classic texts in the field and discuss key concepts (with a lot of hard questioning by the professor). At my youngest kid’s LAC, students paired up in teams, each with term-long responsibility for “conditioning” 1 lab rat; then at the end of the course, each team briefed back its findings. In other words, in a 15-student class you can get a lot of student-faculty (/ student-student) engagement and interaction. In a 120-student class, that’s probably not happening. </p>
<p>There are advantages to a big research university (such as more course offerings). In a field like Classics, big classes won’t be a big issue. However, don’t assume a LAC won’t also have distinguished professors or good research opportunities. Bryn Mawr College has had a highly-regarded Classics department for generations. </p>
<p>I grew up near JHU. The campus is beautiful; the surrounding neighborhoods (except the Homewood residential area) are not. Wellesley and Bryn Mawr have stunningly beautiful campuses and more desirable locations. Barnard has all the opportunities of Columbia University and Manhattan. Berkeley has Oakland/SF. I would think all these other locations (and Portland, and the Twin Cities) would be more appealing for most college students than Baltimore.</p>
<p>Despite individual pros/cons, these are all great choices (if you can afford them). My vote probably go would go to Barnard, Bryn Mawr, or Wellesley, which combine the advantages of LACs and partnerships with other schools. Your D is interested in some fairly niche/low-demand areas (linguistics, Classics). Reed or Macalester might be limiting in those fields.</p>
<p>To clarify, Berkeley’s surrounding area is not safe at all. Proximity to SF (somewhat) is a plus.</p>
<p>I didn’t know that Berkeley was a dangerous city Blah. Can you elaborate?</p>
<p>tk21779 “Wellesley and Bryn Mawr have stunningly beautiful campuses and more desirable locations. Barnard has all the opportunities of Columbia University and Manhattan. Berkeley has Oakland/SF. I would think all these other locations (and Portland, and the Twin Cities) would be more appealing for most college students than Baltimore.”</p>
<p>I don’t agree with this assessment. These days, most kids like to go to big cities for colleges for reasons I don’t understand and that’s why colleges in NY and LA are pretty hot. When you go to big city, there is always sketchy areas. The area just outside Berkeley’s main gate is pretty sketchy and Oakland is by no mean your safties city in America (over a hundred people get murdered each year). I think that one of the reason that Dartmouth is not as hot as other Ivies is its location. Hanover is beautiful, but many prospects think it is to small. Baltimore has a lot to offer. In addition to Inner Harbor and its own culture history, it is close to DC where a lot culture activities and political actions are going on all year long. I think that you have a dose of “other people’s lawn is greener” since you grew up in Baltimore.</p>
<p>rjkofnovi -"I didn’t know that Berkeley was a dangerous city Blah. Can you elaborate? "</p>
<p>Berkeley/Oakland/Richmond in the east bay is the least safe area in the SF Bay area while San Jose in the south bay is the safties big city in America over 500,000 people.</p>
<p>UC Berkeley is a great school with all the pros and cons associated with a big state university.</p>
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<p>We all have our biases. So the OP’s D should go visit her final contenders and decide for herself.</p>
<p>Downtown DC, by the way, could be ~90 mins by car in traffic from JHU/Homewood Campus. Amtrak and the Metro could be just as long when you factor in time to and from the stations and waiting for trains. Barnard is in Manhattan; BMC is close to a train line into downtown Philly. Neither of them (nor Wellesley) is out in the boonies, as some LACs are.</p>