Anonymous wrote:
What you Californians don’t get is this: 1) UVA is, if anything, better than Berkeley for undergrad; and 2) Virginians are not, with a straight face, comparing UVA to Ivies. Sure, it might make sense for some families to prefer the UVA in-state tuition; but to imply an equivalency, irrespective of cost, is absurd.

1) debatable
2) tend to agree

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many of my friend's kids go to sought after prIvate schools in CA and they would love for their kids to go to UCB. Unlike the PP, they say other than a handful of schools they would rather pay instate. Yes, its a big school but CA seems to have amazing options from UCs, CSU, and CC. I wish NY had such choices. There is no need to bash or look down on a school that consistently shows up in top 20 in most rankings, has great brand recognition, is in top 5 for most majors, is diverse and serves the people of its state well.

+1

Posters: Berkeley is a great school and all, especially in-state, but not Ivy quality.
Response: How dare you bash this school!

Someone said it is comparable to UVA however the overall experience is probably better at UVA. This sounds right.

If you care about a specific academic department ranking above all else, then we are happy for you to attend Berkeley.

This is so subjective. A lot of kids like the East Bay and SF and would much prefer to go to school there over UVA. My son probably wouldn't have gotten into either, but he never would have considered UVA, even if he was a good candidate.

I should hope so. They are in state. Duh. Just as kids in Virginia should prefer UVA over Berkeley.

What you Californians don’t get is this: 1) UVA is, if anything, better than Berkeley for undergrad; and 2) Virginians are not, with a straight face, comparing UVA to Ivies. Sure, it might make sense for some families to prefer the UVA in-state tuition; but to imply an equivalency, irrespective of cost, is absurd.

So stop this absurd Berkeley comparison. Start a grad school thread if you like; then you at least have an argument.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many of my friend's kids go to sought after prIvate schools in CA and they would love for their kids to go to UCB. Unlike the PP, they say other than a handful of schools they would rather pay instate. Yes, its a big school but CA seems to have amazing options from UCs, CSU, and CC. I wish NY had such choices. There is no need to bash or look down on a school that consistently shows up in top 20 in most rankings, has great brand recognition, is in top 5 for most majors, is diverse and serves the people of its state well.

+1

Posters: Berkeley is a great school and all, especially in-state, but not Ivy quality.
Response: How dare you bash this school!

Someone said it is comparable to UVA however the overall experience is probably better at UVA. This sounds right.

If you care about a specific academic department ranking above all else, then we are happy for you to attend Berkeley.

In trying to make an assessment of a school it’s very difficult to evaluate things like “experience”. Do you survey the undergrads, rely on your niece etc, tell apart fact from fiction etc.

At least department rankings have a better semblance of objective measures and capture how the industry sees the school.

In my view that’s better correlated with professional success than experience, but to each their own.

There is nothing subjective about class availability, number of students in lectures, size of small groups with faculty teaching, guaranteed on-campus housing, endowment size, amount of money the university spends per student, on-campus recruiting, average salary and employment after graduation.

For a lot of students choosing Berkeley, the most attractive aspect is access to working on cutting edge research because that can translate into a great job at the companies that will eventually commercialize the research which is a huge advantage in the job market. By this metric Berkeley is absolutely on par with HYPSM. You don’t get that at UVA, SLACS etc. Year it’s more grindy, and classes are big, but in the end you’re putting up with it. I don’t care that the physics recitation has one TA for 10 students and they explain the problem set three times if you need to, I care about working on gene therapy while in undergrad so I can get an internship at the startup that will be bought by Pfizer.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many of my friend's kids go to sought after prIvate schools in CA and they would love for their kids to go to UCB. Unlike the PP, they say other than a handful of schools they would rather pay instate. Yes, its a big school but CA seems to have amazing options from UCs, CSU, and CC. I wish NY had such choices. There is no need to bash or look down on a school that consistently shows up in top 20 in most rankings, has great brand recognition, is in top 5 for most majors, is diverse and serves the people of its state well.

+1

Posters: Berkeley is a great school and all, especially in-state, but not Ivy quality.
Response: How dare you bash this school!

What’s Ivy quality? Whats important is the skills you learn and how the school is seen in the industry where you’re looking for a job to get your foot in the door.

Most ivies are not particularly good at in demand majors like engineering. Outside of Harvard and Princeton I don’t imagine many people would decide to study engineering at the rest of the ivies instead of Berkeley.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many of my friend's kids go to sought after prIvate schools in CA and they would love for their kids to go to UCB. Unlike the PP, they say other than a handful of schools they would rather pay instate. Yes, its a big school but CA seems to have amazing options from UCs, CSU, and CC. I wish NY had such choices. There is no need to bash or look down on a school that consistently shows up in top 20 in most rankings, has great brand recognition, is in top 5 for most majors, is diverse and serves the people of its state well.

+1

Posters: Berkeley is a great school and all, especially in-state, but not Ivy quality.
Response: How dare you bash this school!

Someone said it is comparable to UVA however the overall experience is probably better at UVA. This sounds right.

If you care about a specific academic department ranking above all else, then we are happy for you to attend Berkeley.

In trying to make an assessment of a school it’s very difficult to evaluate things like “experience”. Do you survey the undergrads, rely on your niece etc, tell apart fact from fiction etc.

At least department rankings have a better semblance of objective measures and capture how the industry sees the school.

In my view that’s better correlated with professional success than experience, but to each their own.

There is nothing subjective about class availability, number of students in lectures, size of small groups with faculty teaching, guaranteed on-campus housing, endowment size, amount of money the university spends per student, on-campus recruiting, average salary and employment after graduation.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many of my friend's kids go to sought after prIvate schools in CA and they would love for their kids to go to UCB. Unlike the PP, they say other than a handful of schools they would rather pay instate. Yes, its a big school but CA seems to have amazing options from UCs, CSU, and CC. I wish NY had such choices. There is no need to bash or look down on a school that consistently shows up in top 20 in most rankings, has great brand recognition, is in top 5 for most majors, is diverse and serves the people of its state well.

+1

Posters: Berkeley is a great school and all, especially in-state, but not Ivy quality.
Response: How dare you bash this school!

Someone said it is comparable to UVA however the overall experience is probably better at UVA. This sounds right.

If you care about a specific academic department ranking above all else, then we are happy for you to attend Berkeley.

This is so subjective. A lot of kids like the East Bay and SF and would much prefer to go to school there over UVA. My son probably wouldn't have gotten into either, but he never would have considered UVA, even if he was a good candidate.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many of my friend's kids go to sought after prIvate schools in CA and they would love for their kids to go to UCB. Unlike the PP, they say other than a handful of schools they would rather pay instate. Yes, its a big school but CA seems to have amazing options from UCs, CSU, and CC. I wish NY had such choices. There is no need to bash or look down on a school that consistently shows up in top 20 in most rankings, has great brand recognition, is in top 5 for most majors, is diverse and serves the people of its state well.

+1

Posters: Berkeley is a great school and all, especially in-state, but not Ivy quality.
Response: How dare you bash this school!

Someone said it is comparable to UVA however the overall experience is probably better at UVA. This sounds right.

If you care about a specific academic department ranking above all else, then we are happy for you to attend Berkeley.

In trying to make an assessment of a school it’s very difficult to evaluate things like “experience”. Do you survey the undergrads, rely on your niece etc, tell apart fact from fiction etc.

At least department rankings have a better semblance of objective measures and capture how the industry sees the school.

In my view that’s better correlated with professional success than experience, but to each their own.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many of my friend's kids go to sought after prIvate schools in CA and they would love for their kids to go to UCB. Unlike the PP, they say other than a handful of schools they would rather pay instate. Yes, its a big school but CA seems to have amazing options from UCs, CSU, and CC. I wish NY had such choices. There is no need to bash or look down on a school that consistently shows up in top 20 in most rankings, has great brand recognition, is in top 5 for most majors, is diverse and serves the people of its state well.

+1

Posters: Berkeley is a great school and all, especially in-state, but not Ivy quality.
Response: How dare you bash this school!

Except many posters were not saying this part. I believe at one point someone was saying the students were “trash” and there were several references to people that considered it as being poor. Not to mention the misinformation about what it’s actually like there.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many of my friend's kids go to sought after prIvate schools in CA and they would love for their kids to go to UCB. Unlike the PP, they say other than a handful of schools they would rather pay instate. Yes, its a big school but CA seems to have amazing options from UCs, CSU, and CC. I wish NY had such choices. There is no need to bash or look down on a school that consistently shows up in top 20 in most rankings, has great brand recognition, is in top 5 for most majors, is diverse and serves the people of its state well.

+1

Posters: Berkeley is a great school and all, especially in-state, but not Ivy quality.
Response: How dare you bash this school!

Someone said it is comparable to UVA however the overall experience is probably better at UVA. This sounds right.

If you care about a specific academic department ranking above all else, then we are happy for you to attend Berkeley.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is no need to bash or look down on a school that consistently shows up in top 20 in most rankings, has great brand recognition, is in top 5 for most majors, is diverse and serves the people of its state well.

Heck, DCUM bashes UVA to no end, so what hope was there for Berkeley? This is the forum for bashing the heck out of public colleges and universities, regardless of one's experience with or knowledge of public institutions of higher learning. It's the DCUM way. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

Funny, I think it is the exact opposite. Posters complain about people wasting money on privates or OOS schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many of my friend's kids go to sought after prIvate schools in CA and they would love for their kids to go to UCB. Unlike the PP, they say other than a handful of schools they would rather pay instate. Yes, its a big school but CA seems to have amazing options from UCs, CSU, and CC. I wish NY had such choices. There is no need to bash or look down on a school that consistently shows up in top 20 in most rankings, has great brand recognition, is in top 5 for most majors, is diverse and serves the people of its state well.

+1

Posters: Berkeley is a great school and all, especially in-state, but not Ivy quality.
Response: How dare you bash this school!

Anonymous wrote:Many of my friend's kids go to sought after prIvate schools in CA and they would love for their kids to go to UCB. Unlike the PP, they say other than a handful of schools they would rather pay instate. Yes, its a big school but CA seems to have amazing options from UCs, CSU, and CC. I wish NY had such choices. There is no need to bash or look down on a school that consistently shows up in top 20 in most rankings, has great brand recognition, is in top 5 for most majors, is diverse and serves the people of its state well.

+1

Anonymous wrote:There is no need to bash or look down on a school that consistently shows up in top 20 in most rankings, has great brand recognition, is in top 5 for most majors, is diverse and serves the people of its state well.

Heck, DCUM bashes UVA to no end, so what hope was there for Berkeley? This is the forum for bashing the heck out of public colleges and universities, regardless of one's experience with or knowledge of public institutions of higher learning. It's the DCUM way. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

Many of my friend's kids go to sought after prIvate schools in CA and they would love for their kids to go to UCB. Unlike the PP, they say other than a handful of schools they would rather pay instate. Yes, its a big school but CA seems to have amazing options from UCs, CSU, and CC. I wish NY had such choices. There is no need to bash or look down on a school that consistently shows up in top 20 in most rankings, has great brand recognition, is in top 5 for most majors, is diverse and serves the people of its state well.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Best schools In California for undergraduate:

Stanford
Caltech
Pomona
Claremont McKenna
Harvey Mudd
USC
UCLA
Berkeley

Well, it’s 8th best, I guess. Better than if it were in Massachusetts.

LOL at Pomona.

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