<p>I feel like there are a lot of threads along the lines of "BERKELEY OR LA??? OMG IM SO STUCK," which is definitely an issue worth discussing for students like me who love both schools and are really just stuck in deciding which one to go to, but those threads usually evaporate into endless debate.</p>
<p>Let's try something a little different. Please, if you chose Berkeley over UCLA, why? Please be as detailed as you can without taking too much of your precious time. Was it for academic reasons? Social reasons? financial? emotional reasons? Please be as specific as possible, thx.</p>
<p>I'm talking current students and grads, please.</p>
<p>How do you view your decision now, year(s) after you've made it?</p>
<p>I really appreciate any students/grads' comments/words of wisdom in response. Thanks in advance.</p>
<ul>
<li>much better academic repuation, was very clear to me that Berkeley >>>> UCLA in academics (ignoring the completely biased USNews rankings)</li>
<li>name recognition everywhere (I’m Indian, all my grandparents/friends there know about Berkeley, Stanford, and Harvard. That is all.)</li>
<li>much better research (it does matter, everyone really does do research at some point, you have to if you want honors)</li>
<li>very highly ranked MCB program (and Business/Econ which I wanted earlier)</li>
<li>closer to home</li>
<li>I <3 sf </li>
<li>i actually wanted harder/more challenging classes and the smarter people</li>
</ul>
<p>I am very glad i made this decision :)</p>
<p>A lot of people from my school got into both UCLA and Berkeley and everyone debated it. In the end everyone picked Berkeley except for a few premeds who were just too intimidated by Berkeley.</p>
<p>I don’t know why this question needs to be asked. Almoat everyone chooses Berkeley over UCLA because of rankings. </p>
<p>There is also supposedly more internship and research opportunities but time and time again it has been shown the gap is not as wide as some Berkeley students or outside students appear to believe. (It probably has something to do with the “prestige” of the schools vs. their actual USNWR rankings.)</p>
<p>Overall, Berkeley is the wiser choice unless maybe if you’re going pre-med. I wouldn’t pick Berkeley over a UCLA Regents, however, if the scholarship covers a large portion of your tuition costs.</p>
<p>I’m not a current Berkeley student, but I WILL be doing what flutterfly_28 did (choosing Berkeley over UCLA regents). Also, UCLA gave me a lot more free money and Cal gave me much less, the rest in loans. Lame that I didn’t get Berkeley regents though (i did get invited to interview for it and was accepted early though) but I got UCLA regents instead.</p>
<p>But for me, Berkeley’s business, computer science, and math programs are too strong to ignore compared to UCLA. Cal has much better placement for investment banking and consulting internships and jobs. Plus, I kind of want to get away from home (I live in SoCal). Also, Cal IS definitely more prestigious internationally (but whether that’s because of it’s graduate programs is another issue…), more so than some of the lower ivy league schools. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I can’t answer that now, but I’ll let you know in a couple of years :D</p>
<p> Cal’s engineering program >>>>UCLA’s engineering program
Cal was much closer to home. At first, I thought it’d be a bad thing, but you soon realize that having the opportunity to go home anytime you want is pretty useful.
Weirdly, I didn’t like UCLA’s vibe. Too chill for me. Of course having fun in college is important, but my goal was to learn and prepare myself for the real world. I like being around people who know what they want to do in life.
Prestige. 'Nuff said.</p>
<p>There are probably some other factors that I’m forgetting but these are the ones I can think of right now.</p>
<p>I don’t regret my decision but if my parents lose their jobs, I might. lol</p>
<p>haha I’m excited for Berkeley! I’m just a little bit scared about the hobos that dig through your trash every night my friend that goes there told me about it and that kinda scares me x(</p>
<p>UCLA has no strong paleontology program. They may have a paleobiology major, but they don’t have very many paleontologists. On the other hand, Cal has tons of resources for undergraduates interested in paleontology. HERC (Human Evolution Research Center) and UCMP (UC Museum of Paleontology) are both situated in Berkeley, thus I picked FPF (I was a spring admit) over UCLA.</p>
<p>1 Lost a coin flip
2 Hell if I know. I coulda roomed with a good buddy at LA and I ended up here.
3 If you’re engineering/comp sci, obviously here is better. Anything else is pretty much leveling out sooner or later because Berkeley hasn’t changed anything about itself for the last like 8 years or so.
4 It’s up to you. You like it here, then pick it. You don’t, then don’t. I never had a good enough reason to pick Berkeley over LA and still haven’t found one. And it’s not like you can dip into both schools and then pick because that would be awesome and the UC system is not awesome.
5 My roommate smells. K bye.</p>
<p>Pretty much everybody at my school (at least 40/50) chooses Berkeley over UCLA because of rankings in particular programs such as Engineering, the sciences, and English, among others.</p>
<p>1) Prestige
2) Name recognition (what flutterfly said… I’m Chinese and apparently all my grandparents know about are Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford… oh and Berkeley)
3) I heard Berkeley’s much more chill than LA (city)
4) Money? Question mark because Berkeley gave me $3000, while UCLA only gave me $2000. LOL. Out-of-state, ■■■.</p>
<p>1) I got peer-pressured by my classmates and the kids who graduated a year before me. “Better for engineering!”<br>
2) Mom seemed to prefer it. Actually…this didn’t really influence me.
3) I actually got more money from UC Berkeley (though not a significantly larger amount…few thousand?). </p>
<p>I’m a first-year chemE, and…I still think about UCLA sometimes. =/ I’m from San Francisco. One reason I didn’t want to go to Berkeley was because it’s so close…I actually never go home except for breaks. But I still crave a new environment. Really, Berkeley feels…too close to home…I never got the feeling of, “I’m in college now.”
Though it is nice that I have high school friends taking core engineering classes with me. This one guy I know from high school has saved my ass in E7 many times. However…we’re going to diverge into specific engineering courses soon. Aww. (In my year alone, I have a high school friend in mechE, nucE, civilE, and five in EECS. The numbers rise if I count the kids I know the year above me.) </p>
<p>I don’t know if I made the “right” choice. I don’t think there really is a right choice…but maybe there was a slightly (or more than slightly) better choice…
fyi, I “hated” Berkeley for about two months beginning of fall semester. Adjustment period, maybe? Now I can say I’m content. Don’t worry too much, though. (I hella worried and kinda went crazy last year, in the end not coming to a clear conclusion and somehow chose to go to Berkeley.) No matter where you go, you’ll be able to make a home for yourself and be happy, I believe. </p>
<p>Ask me, I’ll say in terms of overall environment, UCLA>>>Berkeley.
I also visited high school friends in UCSD over winter break (since they begin sooner than semester system kids), and it made me wish I’d considered UCSD back then. </p>
<p>Oh well. </p>
<p>“And it’s not like you can dip into both schools and then pick because that would be awesome and the UC system is not awesome.” I wish it were awesome.</p>
<p>everyone at my school (including myself) chose berkeley over UCLA because of cultural differences rather than prestige (although its pretty obvious berkeley’s better). i live in NorCal and LA is just so full of… dodgers fans. </p>
<p>plus, berkeley is a way cooler city than los angeles</p>
<ol>
<li>Academic quality. Basically every program is better at Berkeley. Check grad school rankings for Berkeley’s programs. Chem, Compsci, basically all the engineering, HISTORY (?!), ENGLISH (?!). Your profs here are literally the best in their field. Something nobody seems to realize: because of the amazingness of the grad programs, your TAs are super good too. Harvard, Cambridge, Oxford, Berkeley, MIT (holla) undergrads. Not true at UCLA because, again, the grad programs aren’t as good.</li>
<li>Name rec (for grad school and job search) and reputation. This is quantified in the “academic reputation” or something like that in US News and World Report (can’t access the full methodology online…). Berkeley’s is like 4.7 or 4.8 out of 5. Which is the same as the Ivies, Stanford, MIT, etc. UCLA’s is 4.4. This is determined by polls of professors, deans. What that says to me is that a Berkeley degree is “worth” considerably more than a UCLA one once you’re out of school. Fair? Maybe not. But this is what the powers-at-large have decreed.</li>
<li>Haas. There’s nothing like it at UCLA. Berkeley is a feeder school for Wall-Street and their ilk (consulting firms, VC firms). UCLA is not. It’s considerably harder to get an interview (read: near impossible) for a position in finance from UCLA than it is from Berkeley. This goes back to the name rec thing. The business frats are amazing (Delta Sigma Pi in particular)</li>
<li>Sports. It’s a soft factor, but you have to bus to get to football games at UCLA. At Berkeley you walk. We win our rivalry games (boo 'furd). UCLA loses theirs. It’s a bigger thing than you might think. You’ll care once you’re in college. </li>
<li>Party scene. Much more low key and accessible at Berkeley. I’m not a big partier, but it’s a plus.
Berkeley: Girls wear jeans. Guys can actually get into parties. You don’t have to pay for your drinks. Frat row is huge, and the frat guys are really nice.
UCLA: Girls have to wear dresses. Guys aren’t allowed in unless they have an entourage of girls with them. You buy your own beer. Frat row is small, house parties are more common (you have to know people to get in). Frat guys are chasing girls. They do not like guys there.</li>
<li>Culture. Personal thing, but I’m not an LA guy. Not big on the celebrity culture, not big on being in ritzy-rich Westwood, not big on the conspicuous consumption. I like my rain.</li>
<li>Student attitude. Berkeley students are more serious about their academics. Simple truth. It doesn’t mean we’re smarter, but we’re not as “laid back.”</li>
</ol>
<p>Anything I don’t like?</p>
<p>The girls are hotter at LA =(</p>
<p>How do I view my decision? Made the right choice, although I wish I had applied to more than HYPS, because I’m curious about the small-school experience. But that has nothing to do with Berk vs. LA. I’d pick Berk again in a heartbeat. No question.</p>
<p>Academics: I decided to major in EECS for which Berkeley is very well known. We attract some of the best graduate students and faculty in the world, and this in turn attracts strong undergraduates. In almost any setting, having motivated peers helps boost your own motivation.</p>
<p>Being able to learn research techniques and “secrets” from some of the best faculty is a great bonus once you’ve learned enough to take advanced classes in which you can ask professors about things that aren’t in any textbook or are hidden away in some obscure paper. Not to get carried away with Berkeley but certainly as you go down the tiers of colleges you’ll see an increase in focusing on the textbook and learning short-term skills in order to get a job. The department here feels that students should do that on their own time and that the classroom should teach intuition and long-term skills.</p>
<p>Campus: I found the LA campus pretty unappealing. The weather sucked too. I think Berkeley is a lot nicer and the city is more accessible as well. You’re not going to do any fancy shopping close to campus but it’s great for buying your necessities and going to restaurants. I’m not sure which bothers me more - the hobos or students fliering on Sproul.</p>
<p>Turned down UCLA Regent’s and out of my college choices, both public and private, I’m still pretty sure I’d choose Berkeley.</p>
my friend that goes there told me about it and that kinda scares me x(</p>