socalboy

alright everyone, heres the situation. in terms of college decision, im leaning toward UCLA myself but my parents are leaning toward Cal Berkeley. anyone care to share some insight or statistic on the two?

socalboy

sorry guys. i dont know why there are so many threads. can i delete them?

haloraider

It depends. What's your major?

DanishBoy

First off, Both are great schools and academically are overall pretty equal.
However, Berkeley is on a semester system while UCLA is on a quarter system which may affect your decision. Actually, Instead of going through all these differences I'll make it simple;
If you want to continue the socal lifestyle with its materialsm and divine interest in magazines such as teen and vogue than go to UCLA.
But if you want to feel genuine culture, a less materialistic society more interested in the mind than tom cruise's new kid than go to Berkeley.
Btw, I live in SD (and love Socal!) and work at Urban Outfitters so materialism is unfortunately a characteristic of mine but I'm ready, and hope you are as well, to try out something new. Good luck either way

dt408sc02

If you're doing engineering, I would strongly recommend Cal. Also keep in mind that Cal is the #1 public university in the nation.

sofla951

Its up to you...what do you want in a college. UCLA is a great university, the thing is I am from Florida and I only found out through my research how good UCLA is. Berkeley has more name brand recognition for prestige. I already knew Berkeley was prestigious years ago.....the only thing I knew about UCLA was its basketball team is usually pretty good.

ccbchunks

Cal is AMAZING.
I sent in my SIR there.
I'm appealing today to UCLA to see if they'll let me send in a late SIR. The honors program makes it all worth it. And the beautiful campus *sigh*.
Hardest decision I've ever made in my life.
Poor decision.
WHat are you doing?

DRab

I'd investigate the actuality of the honors program before saying it 'makes it all worth it.' The only real benefit is advanced registration, which is nice, but many others get this it's largely nullified. Other than that, I wish you luck on your appeal, and hope you happiness wherever you go.

ccbchunks

The reason I said that is because the honors program, through its requirements that students fulfill a certain number of honors credits per year and maintain a high GPA, is an incredible impetus to succeed at UCLA for me. The priority registration (and additional "honors advising" services) are just a plus. Additionally, it encourages closer student-teacher relationships in the sense that if a class is not honors, you must approach the teacher and attend extra seminars/do extra work to MAKE it honors.

That's what attracts me to it.

That, and the fact that you basically have to do research as an undergraduate. No other college has shown such enthusiasm for Poli Sci kids doing research than UCLA.