<p>For current students, why did you choose Berkeley? If you goal is to go there, why?
Even, if you rejected Berkeley, why?</p>
<p>Just curious :D</p>
<p>Wanted U. Chicago, but wouldn’t have been able to afford (or possibly even get into) a top med school if I went there.</p>
<p>Berkeley, I get free money from my parents, more fun spending it, a currently greater brand name, sunnier weather, higher likelihood of getting into Hopkins/Harvard/etc., and so forth.</p>
<p>Hardest decision I’ve ever made, and I hated myself for it for about a month or so, but then I got over it and am happy I’m coming here.</p>
<p>Oh, and Berkeley’s recreational weightroom rocks Chicago’s socks. I’m not sure, but I think it’s actually better-equipped than the one reserved for the athletes…0.o</p>
<p>I wanted to go to Berkeley because it was just the right distance away from home for me (about an hour and a half, close enough I could go home when I want but far enough to be independant) and because it has stellar academics. I was also influcanced by the fact that my grandfather and uncle had both gone to Cal and had football season tickets, so I was already in love with the school from a very young age.</p>
<p>1) Cal is about 45-minutes away from my hometown. I was born and raised in the Bay Area. I wasn’t ready to give up this culturally-diverse, wacky-weathered area. </p>
<p>2) I love the city of Berkeley and neighboring SF.</p>
<p>3) The campus’ clash of nature and Beaux-Arts architecture makes for a beautiful combination. The sounds of Strawberry Creek is perfect for peaceful contemplation.</p>
<p>4) Berkeley’s academics are excellent.</p>
<p>5) The squirrels are pretty darn cute. :)</p>
<p>I didn’t get into UCLA.</p>
<p>My wife chose it for academic reputation, great weather, warm and friendly people and gorgeous environment.</p>
<p>Would’ve gone to UChicago if it weren’t in Chicago (I’ve learned a lot of Berkeley kids aim there as well).</p>
<p>My three choices were Chicago, Cal, and Claremont McKenna. Ultimately I chose Cal because it had a very well known name, good reputation, close enough to home but also far enough (McKenna is too close to home), the weather is nice, and I’d be pretty anonymous.</p>
<p>Gotta say, knowing that a lot of Berkeley people have Chicago as a top option (presumably for the “social” reputation rather than the academic one) is a pretty big optimism booster even now that I’ve decided I actually want to be here. <.<</p>
<p>Interesting 
The reason I want to go there is because it has a good reputation, great academics, private college status even though its a public school, and I love the Bay and SF. And I visited it and it’s a beautiful campus.</p>
<p>Now if only I can get in… :)</p>
<p>Great location, reputation, academics, it’s cheap and more</p>
<p>The tuition fee isn’t astronomical.</p>
<p>Any out of staters want to chime in?</p>
<p>I was going for the engineering, but with current financial situation (both ours and theirs), I’m more than a little concerned.</p>
<p>I’m an out of stater! So I better have a good reason for paying 50k/year to go there.</p>
<p>It’s basically amazing. No other school has such a combination of academics and culture as Berkeley does. UC Berkeley isn’t a school - it’s a lifestyle.</p>
<p>UCLA didn’t get me…</p>
<p>I wish I could go to both LA and Cal for one semester and then choose. Because really, I have no legitimate reason to choose Cal over LA. I guess you could say change of place, but I kinda prefer LA and its surrounding cities over Cal/SF.</p>
<p>I got into Berkeley for Spring 08, UCLA for Fall 08.</p>
<p>Picked Berkeley because Berkeley is awesome. Also, going to UCLA would have been academic suicide. I want to be a paleontologist, Berkeley has one of the largest fossil collections (the UCMP is situated on the first floor of VLSB), UCLA has almost nothing. The Campanile really is full of fossils, it isn’t a myth.</p>
<p>and many of them are not aged professors</p>
<p>I picked Berkeley because it’s cheaper (scholarship money) than all of the other colleges I got into. I didn’t really care about prestige or reputation.</p>
<p>I chose Berkeley over UCLA because Berkeley gave me Regents’ and Chancellor’s and UCLA didn’t, so Berkeley ended up being way cheaper.</p>
<p>I didn’t fall in love with Berkeley until after the first month or so. Back when I submitted my SIR I just had this subconscious feeling that I should go here instead of Tufts, even though I was coming from a 400 student high school. Nothing against Tufts itself, but the reasons I figured out later were weather (coming from San Diego, Berkeley is a climate shift), more variety in everything with a bigger school, a more walkable/bikable city year round, more laid back students (probably going into the Coops next year), Mexican Coke, better burritos, having a flowing creek on campus and decently pretty hills a couple blocks away, views from the 8th floor of any of the Units (I had one :D), and just a couple hours away from the Sierras. Notice I didn’t mention anything academic related their, because I didn’t really mind either curriculum too much, although Berkeley does have more class variety and more (very successful) engineering competition teams. $20-$25k/year cheaper didn’t hurt either.</p>