<p>webhappy you are pretty wrong about this:</p>
<p>“For the kids who come from really wealthy families, they would also choose a private school over UC-B (if they’re rich enough to not worry about the cost of tuition, they probably plan on coasting on their parents’ money and UC-B has a rep for having to work hard).”</p>
<p>You seem to think students who don’t care about money will always choose a public choose over private. Do you realize that Berkeley is ranked NUMBER ONE for Engineering and Chemistry and top 5 for almost everything else? There are many students who pick Berkeley over private schools including Ivies. I know some who have rejected Harvard/Yale to be here, and plenty of students who have rejected Cornell, Penn, Duke, etc. People on this forum seem to blow up “public” v “private” into these two absolute different categories (which I think caiacs was getting at), but a lot of people just don’t care at all. Going to Berkeley will give you a better education than many privates and even people with a lot of money WILL choose Berkeley.</p>