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<p>That 6% is probably just all the Alumni that UC pumps out. :D</p>
<p>I go to Berkeley and I would say that if money is no issue, go to Hopkins. I don’t know, it just sounds better (and I grew up in California).</p>
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<p>That 6% is probably just all the Alumni that UC pumps out. :D</p>
<p>I go to Berkeley and I would say that if money is no issue, go to Hopkins. </p>
<p>I don’t know, it just sounds better (and I grew up in California). Maybe it’s because I’ve been desensitized by actually being a student at Cal and seeing that my peers aren’t really world class, but JHU sounds pretty prestigious. </p>
<p>Grad school: Berkeley. Undergrad: JHU.</p>
<p>^ U Michigan has more alumni but isn’t as highly rated as Berkeley in the international survey, which had a much larger sampling. (I’m a student at Stanford so you can see why I don’t have any reason to root for Berkeley here 
just calling it as I see it)</p>
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<p>So true! I don’t know why it annoys me when I hear that, because I don’t care when people mess up other university names. Though it’s less annoying that seeing “Standford.” Seeing someone spell it “Stanfurd” is cute by comparison… but, that’s cute in general. ;)</p>
<p>Phantasmagoric, your rankings also indicate Berkeley being more prestigious than most of the ivies. This is definitely not true at the undergrad level. For grad school, Berkeley is stronger and more renowned for engineering and some sciences. Rightly or wrongly, most people don’t believe this carries over to the undergrad level. I’d say JHU has the edge for undergrad prestige. As do ivies like Penn, Columbia, Cornell. But it’s completely different for grad school.</p>
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<p>Well, they do mention Berkeley… In all seriousness, writers (often the lazy ones) say that a character goes to XYZ college to give them certain character traits. For example, Dr. House went to JHU. Tony Stark went to MIT. Mr. Burns went to Yale. Lots of characters go to their state flagship because the audience associates that with certain stereotypes. I have no idea what the Berkeley stereotype is, but that’s probably the reason why writers put them in the setting.</p>
<p>JHU has also been mentioned a ridiculous amount in movies/TV shows: </p>
<p>[Johns</a> Hopkins University in Popular Culture - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johns_Hopkins_University_in_Popular_Culture]Johns”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johns_Hopkins_University_in_Popular_Culture)</p>
<p>More so than Berkeley, I’d argue.</p>
<p>As was stated before, rankings aren’t very useful, but they I would rather pick a university based on rank than based on whether the main character of a fictional work went to it.</p>
<p>Since the OP is an international, world rankings are more important than national rankings.</p>
<p>US News World’s Best Universities 2010
[url=<a href=“http://www.usnews.com/education/worlds-best-universities/articles/2010/09/21/worlds-best-universities-top-400-]link[/url”>http://www.usnews.com/education/worlds-best-universities/articles/2010/09/21/worlds-best-universities-top-400-]link[/url</a>]</p>
<p>Johns Hopkins University - #17
University of California, Berkeley - #28</p>
<p>Undergrad prestige sounds like an oxymoron.</p>
<p>Johns Hopkins is renowned for medical and biological sciences.</p>
<p>Berkeley is renowned for pretty much everything else.</p>
<p>^Why is undergrad prestige considered an oxymoron? If I hear that someone has a bachelors degree from Berkeley, I will assume that person is generally smart. However, if I meet someone who’s doing a PhD in Political Science or is enrolled in Berkeley Law, then my first impression is that this individual must be a superstar.</p>
<p>Anyone who is knowledgeable about higher education will know the difference between a Berkeley undergrad degree and a Berkeley Law degree or a Michigan bachelors degree and a Michigan MD certification. This is not to say that there aren’t extremely smart students enrolled at these two top state school, its just that their undergraduate divisions are simply good while their graduate/professional school programs are world-class.</p>
<p>unfortunately, selectivity also means prestige nowadays. That’s why you see threads at schools like Northwestern stressing about undergrad acceptance rates and yield, and why people are so quick to use USNews to back their assertions. It’s also why schools like Brown, with all graduate programs that are pretty bad relative to Berkeley might still be seen as more prestigious at the undergrad level.</p>
<p>^ And the ■■■■■■ from the Farm. ;)</p>
<p>sigh…Berzerkley. I think they finally fixed the “Stanfurd University” exit sign on the 101</p>
<p>Let’s try to stay on point to the OP’s particular situation:</p>
<p>1) International
2) Chemical Engineering</p>
<p>OP did not ask which U would be more comfortable, or cheaper, or have smaller class sizes. OP specifically asked about:</p>
<p>3) Internship opportunities
4) Job Placement
5) Grad School</p>
<p>I don’t know about 3) and 4), As to 5), no difference. As regards 1) and 2), Berkeley and Hopkins are not on the same page for Chemical Engineering. The Engineering Reputation world starts with MIT/Berkeley/Stanford, maybe Caltech, maybe Oxbridge and the Tech Uni is Switzerland, generally, and another 20-30 schools depending on the specialty. Hopkins is never in that conversation, and especially not for ChemE.</p>
<p>Based on 1) and 2), I would tell OP that I agree this is not even close… Berkeley.</p>
<p>For chemical engineering, yes, JHU bows down to Berkeley. As does any other private school, save for Stanford and MIT. But since he’s asking about how Americans perceive Berkeley vs JHU, high schoolers, parents, teachers, and employers may hold JHU in higher regard due to the US News rankings. Undergrads at Berkeley are taught by better faculty, but employers know the typical undergrad at JHU has better academic credentials coming out of high school. I personally think Berkeley is underrated and would be perceived as elite like the top privates if not for the horrific california economy.</p>
<p>Blah, teachers (I assume you are referring to university professors) give Cal a slightly higher rating than JHU and employers couldn’t care less about the USNWR.</p>
<p>I’m referring to high school teachers, which in retrospect probably has no bearing on the OP’s thoughts. Professors definitely hold Berkeley in higher regard due to its elite grad schools. However, undergrads coming out of Berkeley do not really benefit from the school’s elite grad rankings. I worked in grad admissions at Stanford Civil engineering. Berkeley undergrads were not held in higher regard than grads coming out of Cornell, Princeton, JHU.</p>
<p>Blah, I have often said that individuals will always be evaluated according to their own abilities and merrit. Cornell, Princeton and JHU are all elite universities, just like Cal.</p>
<p>Agreed. In today’s economy, the reputation of the school will get you in the door, but in the end, the ability to <em>keep</em> and succeed at the job is still based on individual talent. A prestigious diploma can’t hide stupidity or a lack of talent once students enter the work force.</p>
<p>PreMed JHU. Everything else UCB.</p>
<p>^shows how much some posters know…i.e. very little</p>