Which schools did you REJECT to go to Cal?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Berkeley
1

<p>1) UCLA - Tough decision (EE, my fav major)
2) UCSD - Touch decision (EE, but I wanted to try to transfer for BioE)
3) UCD</p>

<p>Those are the only 3 I replied to. Otherwise…</p>

<p>4) All other UCs
5) CMU
6) Cornell - A consideration, but too far away
7) GA Tech - Not worth going out of state with Cal
8) U Washington - UCLA > UW
9) Cal Poly SLO - ehh backup
10) U$C - Ripoff for no good education
11) SCU - Too close to home</p>

<p>Bottom line, I chose Cal cuz of academics. I didn’t pick EECS at Cal (MSE instead), so that was what made me hesitant. I figured I wouldn’t die here and it’s a good school. Money wasn’t a problem, so my parents would’ve liked me to go East Coast or whatever…</p>

2

<p>UCLA .. super tough decision considering they actually gave me money (even though it wasn't that much)
UCSD .. tough decision too, since i had been planning for most of my high school career on going into their bioengineering:premed track
Johns Hopkins .. no financial aid, although i was thinking about it for a while; until i realized that it made NO sense for me to shell out 45k for an undergrad education..
UCI .. turned down full ride .. because it's irvine.. i know, i'm a prestige whore, eh..
UCSB .. backup.. never really thought about it..
University of Rochester .. turned down 13,000 in scholarship money.. because it's still in NY and i would still have to pay about 30k a year.. not including travel.. so.. no.</p>

<p>i'm glad i picked berkeley though :)</p>

3

<p>UCLA
GA Tech
UT Austin
Rose-Hulman</p>

<p>Still haven't heard from the lower UCs, but, of course, would reject any other offers. </p>

<p>Berkeley is known as a top school for Chemical Engineering, and the College of Chemistry itself is very highly regarded. I am very fortunate to have been admitted to all of the schools to which I applied, but I feel extremely fortunate to be going to Berkeley, my top choice! :) </p>

<p>-A</p>

4

<p>UCR
Brandeis University
St. John's University</p>

<p>U of Mich-- But I'm not sure if I got in or not cuz I moved and haven't received my acceptance/rejection letter-- but either way, I ended up choosing Cal.</p>

5

<p>Boston University-gave up honors college and half-tuition scholarship
Carleton-could have played on the volleyball team and i got an early acceptance there; very nice people
UCLA-best financial aid out of all the schools i got into
UCSD
Whitman</p>

<p>In the end, Cal was the one I chose.</p>

6

<p>BU, McGill, UCSB</p>

7

<p>Georgetown:</p>

<p>Incredibly hard to turn down; Georgetown is an excellent school. Period. Great location, the friendliest people, lovely campus, and curis personalis, dorms on campus, access to law school, etc. Alas, it was too far away.</p>

<p>UCLA:</p>

<p>Another hard choice because I studied at UCLA for the summer and fell in love with the campus. Arguable the best dorm food possible and felt incredibly safe in Westwood. The campus is beautiful and the poli sci program there is reasonably decent. It is also closer to home so I could visit parents.</p>

<p>Washington and Lee University</p>

<p>Great liberal arts college with a school of politics (Williams School of Business, Politics, and Economics). Great money and pleasant campus. Again, just too far away and it's in Lexington, VA...a little too rural for me.</p>

<p>UCSD:</p>

<p>Just in case UCLA or CAL rejected me, UCSD has a good poli sci program that would be a viable option and is in a great location in La Jolla.</p>

<p>UCR:</p>

<p>Safety. Need I say more? I did get the Chancellor's Scholarship there (always hard to turn down money).</p>

<p>Stanford:</p>

<p>Waitlisted; if I get in there (find out this month), I might have to reconsider my plans to attend CAL.</p>

<p>Overall, I chose Berkeley because it offers an excellent undergraduate education and is a good launching ground for law school. As a political science major, Berkeley is the next best thing to Georgetown (for me) since the Ninth Circuit Court and the California Supreme Court is in SF. Sacramento is a few hours so that's great too. I also enjoyed the Berkeley atmosphere and Telegraph Ave et al grew on me. It is farther than UCLA and UCR, but college is the best time to learn to be independent, right?</p>

8

<p>UCI - Fin aid covered all costs, but Berk gave me same deal and actually has housing for older transfer students.</p>

<p>SFSU - full ride, but it's only a CSU which will make getting in to grad school a little harder.</p>

<p>CSUN - would only pay for half of my cost...yeah, I applied to CSU schools; Being an older transfer student with a buttload of units, I wasn't sure how qualified I appeared to be in the eyes of amit officers.</p>

<p>Still waiting on UCLA....</p>

9

<p>UCLA - honors programs
UCSB/UCR/UCD - full ride
and all the other UCs...</p>

10

<p>UPenn, Cornell, Brown, Duke, UCLA, UC Irvine</p>

<p>I'm out of state, and the whole Berkeley/California experience was too much to miss. :)</p>

11

<p>Cal over
Carleton College, University of Notre Dame, New York University,
College of William and Mary, Middlebury College, Wesleyan University,
and UCI</p>

<p>TTG</p>

12

<p>eiffelguy,</p>

<p>I love how you said of the UCLA poli sci program that,

[quote]
poli sci program there is reasonably decent

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Sure, it's only top 10 in every field and has some of the top scholars in every field. :p</p>

13

<p>I rejected UCLA</p>

<p>ok, not really, since I didnt apply to UCLA cause it SUCKS!!!
(I know from personal experience of having worked in their labs for this semester)</p>

<p>Cal is a great school but only gave me loans..... so, Duke all the way!</p>

<p>btw, this was just a post to counteract the thread on the UCLA forum of what did u reject</p>

14

<p>Yeah, well Duke smells like North Carolina!</p>

15

<p>wow, california dreamin what are you planning on majoring in (I'm curious since you turned down some great schools)</p>

<p>it came down to berkeley and columbia (engineering) for me...berkeley was just too high ranked and cali was just too cool to pass up.</p>

<p>the others: ucla, carnegie mellon, rensselaer, RIT, stony brook, tufts</p>

16

<p>Cal Fall 2005 chemistry major over UCSD Winter 2006 undeclared major</p>

<p>Cal Poly, San Jose State University, and all the other UCs were backups</p>

<p>And I got rejected from UCLA, USC, and MIT</p>

17

<p>nbanyk, I'm actually about to complete my freshman year at Berkeley, so I'm not really a new admit. Haha. But it was only a year ago that I made the same tough decisions that you guys are now facing, so it's still relevant. I applied as a chemistry major to the College of Chemistry, but I recently switched to chemical biology (still within the same college) in an attempt to boost my future chances (whatever they may be...) at getting into Berkeley's chem grad school. And yes, one of the reasons I chose Berkeley was because I felt it was the best place for me to pursue my major, considering its famed chemistry dept. And after almost a year here, I know I made the right choice. </p>

<p>"Berkelium, Californium.... Still no Stanfurdium." :D</p>

18

<p>yes... so true</p>

<p>I also noticed at the California Dem convention that the Prez of CAl democrats was much better than the prez of Stanford dems</p>

<p>also, cal dems had 300+ members while stanford dems had a VERY VERY VERY small delegation</p>

19

<p>JHU, UMich, all UC's</p>

<p>very easy decision for me. :):):):):)</p>

20

<p>UCLA, UCSD, UCD, UCI, and Cal Poly. Nothing too major. Although, UCLA was tough because it tied with Cal as my first choice.. In the end, I just went with my gut feeling and chose Cal.</p>

<p>eiffelguy87 - Actually, Sacramento might be closer to Berkeley than you think. I was just telling my mom how I could get to Berkeley from Sac in an hour, give or take.. She freaked out. Haha. But really, I think a one-way car trip is about an hour and a half on a good day. :)</p>