<p>I can’t give you a lot of info on U of T students since I was just a kid when my mom went there, but they are extremely smart but not as welcoming as Cal students. Don’t get me wrong–you will make many friends there. It’s just that a portion of the students live off-campus and aren’t involved with extracurricular activities, so it could be hard to connect with those people. Also U of T’s campus is more spread out, and people are generally less happy there. Toronto is more lively since it’s the biggest city in Canada.</p>
<p>I’ve been to UC Berkeley about 3 times, once for a four-day MUN conference. I loved the students because they were very welcoming and treated you like you belonged there. However, I personally didn’t like the campus or the city because there’s a lot of homeless people and sketchy people (not trying to be offensive) and it gets unsafe at night. But my friend loved it, so who knows. Cal is mostly liberal and they’re known to have a lot of protests (but they’re fun, don’t worry).</p>
<p>In some fields, U Toronto’s senior-level courses may be offered at the graduate level at Berkeley. Berkeley may let you take graduate courses as an undergrad but there is more screening beforehand.</p>
<p>Well in my opinion, I like UC Berkeley a bit more because of the students and programs they have to offer. But of course, it depends on person to person. I don’t think you would miss out academically if you attended either university. </p>
<p>My recommendation is to apply to both and then make you decision based on campus visits, possible financial aid etc.</p>
<p>Yeah, I’ve already visited both campuses. They both have so much history and are so significant for the research they’ve done throughout the years. UC Berkeley is wonderful, I’m just scared of the fact that the University of Toronto is the best university in Canada. Because of that, I feel like I’m obligated to go there or otherwise I might miss out. </p>
<p>If more people can give me their two cents on which university is better, I’ll appreciate it.</p>
<p>The great debate for the title of “Best University in Canada” is usually between UofT and McGill, so UofT isn’t necessarily the clear cut winner (and I am saying this as a UofT alumnus). In addition UBC also has a solid reputation. However the presteige of the university is often less important than the prestige of the degree. For example Queens commerce is probably the most prestigious and selective commerce degree in the country, even though Queens generally isn’t viewed as a whole as “prestigious” as a school like Toronto. </p>
<p>The various university rankings that are often thought of as a proxy for prestige tend to favor large comprehensive universities that have an emphasis on research, generally at the graduate level (eg. Uoft, McGill) and therefore miss out on schools with a narrower academic focus, or smaller universities that have an emphasis on undergraduate education (ie. many Liberal arts colleges). For example Dartmouth College, an Ivy league university, considered extremely prestigious has the following world rankings:<br>
ARWU: 151–200
QS: 113
Times 124
My point is that you should beware of just using these sources for judging prestige and overall quality of education. </p>
<p>Don’t feel obligated to got to a specific school. Pick the school that you would enjoy being a most and works best for you financially. UofT is great but you should not feel obligated to go there if you don’t want too.</p>
<p>To reiterate: You will do fine with a degree from either university. If rankings based prestige is really so important for you Berkley is generally ranked higher than UofT on most lists. However my advice is to pick the school you like more and you think you will succeed at, which could be one of these two or maybe another school entirely.</p>
<p>I will definitely apply to both. Are you sure Berkeley has a better reputation than the University of Toronto? I keep reading these conflicting reports that U of T is better than UCLA and UC Berkeley. If I go to the University of Toronto, will people in America recognize that degree or would it be better if I went to UC Berkeley where they might recognize that degree?</p>
<p>Sorry for double posting, but are you sure that UC Berkeley is better than University of Toronto? I haven’t found any evidence online to suggest that it is, hence I’m a bit skeptical.</p>
<p>University of Toronto is arguably the best university in Canada (although some university rankings I’ve read say that Mcgill University is No.1 in Canada). </p>
<p>UC Berkeley is also a wonderful university with a beautiful campus and an outstanding faculty, but I kind of find it hard to believe that it is on an equal footing to the University of Toronto. I mean, if U of T is the best university in Canada, wouldn’t that make it a rival to Harvard, for example? </p>
<p>Plus, I’ve heard that U of T has a lower student-professor ratio than UC Berkeley. </p>
<p>Oh boy, this is so confusing. I love both of these universities.</p>
<p>The only situation where I would definitely recommend U Toronto over Berkeley is if you know you want to study a single field for four years, in which case you will then enroll in a Specialist Program in that one field at U Toronto. Even so, you still have 4.0 Toronto credits (a Toronto credit is worth 6 semester credits or 9 quarter credits) at a minimum to fulfill breadth/distribution requirements. Is that your situation?</p>
<p>Otherwise, you can’t go wrong with either, provided they are both within your budget.</p>
<p>No that isn’t my situation. How is it possible that University of Toronto is placed on the same rank as UC Berkeley. I would imagine that one of the best universities in Canada wouldn’t be placed on an equal footing with Berkeley, but I’m surprised. </p>
<p>If U of T is the best university in Canada (according to certain polls) then how can UC Berkeley ever compete and be on an equal footing with U of T?</p>
<p>The best in one country does not equal the best in another country. Remeber USA has ten times as many people and hundreds of Universities (phd granting institutions) Canada has a grand total of 66. The best university in each country does not correspond to the best university in another country (Also Harvard and Toronto are extremely differently structured, one is a massive government funded university and the other is a mid sized private university).</p>
<p>Also the distribution of funding between universities in Canada and the US are very different. The famous US publics (like Berkley) get obscenely greater amounts of money (gross and per student) than the less famous public state universities, therefore you get some very rich schools and some very poor schools (and a whole lot of in between). In Canada the per student funding at each university is more equal (UofT is still at the top of the funding lists in Canada however). This means that there really are no poor Canadian universities, but there are really not any super rich universities.</p>
<p>That’s not to say the quality of education at all Canadian universities is the same, just that you do not have the same differences of extremes that you have in the US system.</p>
<p>As cliche as this is I would say you should go with your gut on this one and pick the one that just feels better for you both degrees will be quite marketable in Canada or the US, or frankly any other country that values a university education.</p>