Anonymous wrote:I’m certain there are plenty of homeless in Westwood, once you leave campus grounds.

Agree, and I lived in Westwood Village. Surprisingly large number of homeless. Also Covid hit Westwood village hard, there are lots of empty storefronts.

UCLA is the better experience for undergrads. Berkley's prestige stems from its graduate programs.

UCLA for undergrad, Berkeley for grad.

UCLA offers 4 years of guaranteed housing on a safer campus with better food. Berkeley offers 1 year of housing so kids have to find off campus housing in an unsafe and expensive area.

Westwood = badass
Berkeley = cesspool

Anonymous wrote:“UCLA has the edge in humanities and communication/arts programs. Berkeley is stronger in Environmental Studies.”

Cal has the edge in the humanities as well. Head to head where both schools offer the same majors, Berkeley leads the vast majority of times. This is true with all but a maybe a handful of schools in this country public or private.

Both schools offer Fine Arts degrees. UCLA has a superior fine art program by far. They admit the best artists and take them even further. Whereas Berkeley doesn’t even screen for artistic talent via reviewing portfolios. Any respectable art program (Yale, UCLA, RISD, CalArts) in America vets for artistic talent during the admission process. Programs that don’t like review art portfolios (UC Berkeley, Sacramento State, CSUEastBay) are like taking art classes at the local community college in which critique days might involve crayon scribbled drawings in the mix.

Both great schools

Anonymous wrote:Seems insane to say this, but which do you like better, ACC basketball or Big 10 football?

Not really a contest, since B1G hoops is stronger, too.

Anonymous wrote:SoCal HS parent here. DC will likely apply to both, both have pros and cons but ultimately are fantastic schools and the in state tuition for their rank/quality of education is hard to beat.

Also SoCal HS parent here. My kids will be applying to both. I don't know anyone whose kids wouldn't apply to both, as a matter of course. Some might not want to apply to UC Merced because the acceptance rate is almost 90% or due to accommodation issues at UC Santa Cruz, but otherwise there's 7-8 very viable colleges. Students sometimes transfer from one to another, or start at one say UC Riverside for undergrad and finish their PhD at UCLA.

Seems insane to say this, but which do you like better, ACC basketball or Big 10 football?

If you are serious about academics - Berkeley.

If social scene and the relative attractiveness of the student body is important - UCLA.

However, OOS admission rate in the last few years is around 5% (about 8-9% for in state students) for both and even lower for popular majors.

SoCal HS parent here. DC will likely apply to both, both have pros and cons but ultimately are fantastic schools and the in state tuition for their rank/quality of education is hard to beat.

Anonymous wrote:Not cool deleting a large swath of posts, Mods. There were some actual helpful posts there.

Anyhow, UCLA and Berkeley are the two most similar colleges in the T20 and maybe the T50. They are much more alike than different. So quibbling over which is the overall superior school is mostly unproductive hairsplitting. They're both very, very good.

Agreed. Little mamma tantrum stamped her feet. Rounded up her banshees. Deleted viable posts. Typical DCUM

I work with students applying to colleges, UCLA is more popular than Berkeley due to nicer weather and being more laid back. Berkeley can be very grindy, and housing is tough. I have known students to transfer out as they found it too intense.

UC schools are a great value but tough to navigate at times with budget cuts and huge classes.

Anonymous wrote:Both are extremely overcrowded and scarce everything even after you get in.

What does this mean?

Both are extremely overcrowded and scarce everything even after you get in.