Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bay Area parent here and Cal/HBS aim. Berkeley was an incredible experience for me but in paradoxical, double edged ways. For example there was no hand holding. If you survived that, you gained life skills; conversely, if you didn’t, there wasn’t much of a safety net. It was not easy to get undergraduate research opportunities; but if you did make it through, you had a chance to work with the very top players. The peer set is much more heterogenous than HYP, which is a great intro to life; however, I never felt surrounded by kids who thought they could change the world. They were there, of course, but you have to work to find them.

Finally, I’m in the finance world, and I would say that the branding associated with HYPS (and Wharton) remains supreme. Keep in mind though that I am not hiring EECS majors, so this could be very different. We did hire one Cal alum (Econ major) a couple of years ago who ended up being surprisingly non-ambitious (kind of just happy to be around). Cant make too much of a n=1 anecdote, but thematically consistent.

Ultimately, our two kids went down the HYP path. They have loved it. Stanford would have been a great option but it was important for them to be away from home. If financial resources are not an issue, I would recommend HYP in response to the original question.

I don’t know what “ambitious” means in the context of the workplace. You do your job and you get out; unless it’s your business, you have no reason to try to leverage your position to change the planet. Over reliance on ambition is how we got to the Sam Altman’s ruling the world (and making it a worse place).
-ivy grad.

Anonymous wrote:Berkeley individual STEM departments are higher ranked, but the overall prestige of HYP combined with much higher resources per student makes HYP a no-brainer.

Though Berkeley STEM is legendary, the school is seriously strapped for resources. Students have a hard time getting lab time to do research, for instance. Berkeley's housing issues are a mess. Berkeley notoriously has massive bureaucracy issues and crumbling infrastructure.

Even in the Bay Area, HYP carries more clout and prestige. Telling people in SF that you went to HYP will raise eyebrows and draw a small gasp. Saying you went to Berkeley won't be as impressive because there are a zillion Berkeley grads running round the Bay Area and it's a much bigger school.

Anonymous wrote:Berkeley individual STEM departments are higher ranked, but the overall prestige of HYP combined with much higher resources per student makes HYP a no-brainer.

Though Berkeley STEM is legendary, the school is seriously strapped for resources. Students have a hard time getting lab time to do research, for instance. Berkeley's housing issues are a mess. Berkeley notoriously has massive bureaucracy issues and crumbling infrastructure.

Even in the Bay Area, HYP carries more clout and prestige. Telling people in SF that you went to HYP will raise eyebrows and draw a small gasp. Saying you went to Berkeley won't be as impressive because there are a zillion Berkeley grads running round the Bay Area and it's a much bigger school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, at least for STEM, Cal is far ahead.

No it's not.

Honestly, Cal undergrad is trash now. It's a class full of lottery winners.

Not really.

If you are not aware, STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. UC Berkeley is:

#1, #3, #4 Chemistry, Physics and Biology
#2 in Computer Science
#3 in Engineering
#5 in Math

Also
#2 in Business
#1 in Economics

It’s a solid school on par with HYPSM, at least for STEM, with great internship and job opportunities after graduation. In state tuition for UC Berkeley is 16k, Harvard is 60k. A lot of students in California take community college classes that transfer automatically to UC system. Potentially a student could save ~200k over four years by going to Berkeley. That can be used for grad school, or just start up money in life.

However if Berkeley is not a good fit because it’s a bit of a free for all, it’s perfectly fine to choose something else even if more expensive.

You’re so funny. You know we’re talking about undergraduate not graduate school, right? Berkeley undergraduate is several tiers below HYPSM, especially the student quality.

Anonymous wrote:I chose HYP over Cal.

No regrets.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, at least for STEM, Cal is far ahead.

No it's not.

Honestly, Cal undergrad is trash now. It's a class full of lottery winners.

Not really.

If you are not aware, STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. UC Berkeley is:

#1, #3, #4 Chemistry, Physics and Biology
#2 in Computer Science
#3 in Engineering
#5 in Math

Also
#2 in Business
#1 in Economics

It’s a solid school on par with HYPSM, at least for STEM, with great internship and job opportunities after graduation. In state tuition for UC Berkeley is 16k, Harvard is 60k. A lot of students in California take community college classes that transfer automatically to UC system. Potentially a student could save ~200k over four years by going to Berkeley. That can be used for grad school, or just start up money in life.

However if Berkeley is not a good fit because it’s a bit of a free for all, it’s perfectly fine to choose something else even if more expensive.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, at least for STEM, Cal is far ahead.

No it's not.

Honestly, Cal undergrad is trash now. It's a class full of lottery winners.

Not really.

If you are not aware, STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. UC Berkeley is:

#1, #3, #4 Chemistry, Physics and Biology
#2 in Computer Science
#3 in Engineering
#5 in Math

Also
#2 in Business
#1 in Economics

It’s a solid school on par with HYPSM, at least for STEM, with great internship and job opportunities after graduation. In state tuition for UC Berkeley is 16k, Harvard is 60k. A lot of students in California take community college classes that transfer automatically to UC system. Potentially a student could save ~200k over four years by going to Berkeley. That can be used for grad school, or just start up money in life.

However if Berkeley is not a good fit because it’s a bit of a free for all, it’s perfectly fine to choose something else even if more expensive.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, at least for STEM, Cal is far ahead.

No it's not.

Honestly, Cal undergrad is trash now. It's a class full of lottery winners.

Compliments of being testblind.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, at least for STEM, Cal is far ahead.

No it's not.

Honestly, Cal undergrad is trash now. It's a class full of lottery winners.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, at least for STEM, Cal is far ahead.

No it's not.

Honestly, Cal undergrad is trash now. It's a class full of lottery winners.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, at least for STEM, Cal is far ahead.

No it's not.

Honestly, Cal undergrad is trash now. It's a class full of lottery winners.

Anonymous wrote:No, at least for STEM, Cal is far ahead.