middsmith

^^^^^^^^^^^^^

katliamom

I was going to advise Wesleyan just because it would be such a different experience for you given the fact that you're in the Bay Area. It's a great school, and it's so much smaller than Cal that I think it's comparatively easier to make a lot of close friends. And the students there are amazing: intellectually alive and just as liberal as at Cal if not more. And that's a good thing. (Disclosure: I went to Cal, know a couple of kids at Weslayan.)

But you know, I really love the idea of taking some of the money you'd save by going to Cal and doing something exciting with it. Travel the world; take up underwater basketweaving; backpack through Yosemite -- whatever! You'll enhance your life, save a fortune and still get a world-class education in a world-class university.

Talk to your parents. See what they think about you doing a mini gap year. And congratulations on both your acceptances.

liek0806

i personally love wesleyan, if you were willing to shell out money for wesleyan in the beginning shouldn't this be a matter of which school fits better?

beefs

perspective

Go to Berkeley!
just do it.
make some kid on the wesleyan's waitlist dream come true.
especially since that kid is me!

moi26

thank you for all of these great comments!

for the money issue: it's basically up to my parents, but we could afford Wesleyan. If I wanted to go to grad school, I might have to take out a few loans, but not much. The question is quality of life: if I went to Berkeley, I would have a lot more leeway to travel, live more comfortably, etc. I am very interested in traveling, so this is an important factor. If I went to Wesleyan, the tuition plus the flights there and back, would probably mean that I couldn't travel as much as I'd like.

Yes, I am definitely interested in grad school, and john raises a good point, because I would like to go to two different schools for undergrad and grad.

I am actually a US citizen, and Californian, so I get the in-state tuition. Sorry I didn't specify before, liek. oh, and I'm a girl - haha the anonymity of the internet!

moi26

haha perspective, I know the feeling! out of 7 people that got in at my school, I'm the only one that sent my deposit, and I really hope you get in!

yes liek, I would am willing to shell out that much money for wesleyan, but now that I have the option of Berkeley, I feel that I need to reconsider my options. It definitely should be about which school fits better (which I'm not even sure about!) but only up to a certain point. finances, reputation and resources are important to consider too.

katliamom: all of the aspects you said about wesleyan are so true, and I love that about wes: different from the Bay Area, smaller classes, easier to make friends, amazing people... but then the "gap semester" is really appealing too (haha: "underwater basket weaving"). I do have a few issues about starting later than everyone else... and I'm going to try to e-mail or call someone at Berkeley to ask about if I have enough credits to skip a semester and still graduate on time...
I'll let you guys know if I hear anything back. And thank you SO much for all of you time in helping me decide!!

teenage_cliche

From the way you described the campuses in one of your earlier posts, I would say that you like Wes more.

moi26

interesting observation, teenage_cliche. I guess I *know* Wes better: I visited, did an overnight, did lots of research, etc. and I loved it: the campus felt comfortable, great, exciting.

I think that Berkeley is "scarier", even though it's closer to home, because it's so huge, I'm worried about making friends/getting lost/not enough advising/huge classes with hundreds of students, etc.

I would say that Wes felt more like "home", but I don't know about a $100 000 difference...

hawkette

UC Berkeley would seem to be a much more sensible choice that could redound to your benefit in so many ways personally and professionally, particularly if your life after college will see you back on the West Coast. Wesleyan is certainly a unique and attractive college for a certain student, but it's not clear that you're necessarily that type of student or at least not to the extent that the sizable financial difference should be taken on.

These are extremely different undergraduate experiences and each will present opportunities and challenges, but barring some major change in the financial comparison or some compelling vision of how Wesleyan will position you for a postgraduate position, I think UC Berkeley is the better choice for your situation (and I don't think you'll find UCB to be gritty).

middsmith

No school in the world is $100k better than Berkeley. You use that money, take your parents to the Big Game every year. That is priceless.

johnwesley

her parent's have already said it would be okay with them. stop trying to put a price tag on everything.

calgal

Wesleyan for undergrad, UC Berkeley for grad school would be ideal for you. I think living in the Northeast is quite world-expanding for CA kids, and the smaller class size makes the intellectual environment more engaging. At Wesleyan you are likely to take your junior year abroad, so will get some travel experience then. We live in the East Bay and my S will be attending Wesleyan over several UC options, for exactly the reasons I mentioned. Good luck with this decision.

moi26

yes, $100k is a mind blowing amount of money, but my parents are willing and able to spend it (my grandparents have been saving up since I was in kindergarten), so I feel like I should not ignore that. I wouldn't have to take out any loans, at least for undergrad, so it would be do-able...

calgal: The idea of Wesleyan for undergrad and Berkeley for grad school is very appealing to me, it's kind of like the best of both worlds. By the time I get to grad school, I will have a better idea of exactly what I want to study, and will be more able to "fend" for myself, so making friends/getting lost will be less of an issue. And financially, going to a public grad school means that I probably won't have to take out loans. Also, the fact that nobody has heard of Wesleyan wouldn't matter as much since I would go to a big name grad school. But there are no guarantees... how do I know I'll get into Berkeley again?

BedHead

A couple of random thoughts: I had a friend who went to Wesleyan and after two years transferred to Berkeley. I remember being struck by what he said: "The people in Berkeley were grown-ups." I don't know; this is one opinion from one of my very close friends who's actually twisted.

I adore Berkeley, but I think this depends on a couple of things. The first is how stretched will your parents be to support you at Wesleyan? If they are really well off and it's not so much skin off their teeth, I'd recommend going to Wesleyan. The second is if you put together a plan of action to account for the "lost semester," I would look at that very favorably and that might swing me in favor of Berkeley.

My parents met at Berkeley. I went there undergrad. There is plenty that Berkeley offers particularly for someone self-actualized. However, you raise a valid concern about the challenges of the place and getting to know friends after starting late. But you can overcome these if you are good at making friends. The bigger issue, I think, is what you said about discovering a new place and seasons and really culture. Your life will be enrichened if you get away from California and go Back East, in many ways that you can only speculate about now. Trust me on this. And by the way, I'd make the same argument for an East Coaster considering, I don't know, Dartmouth or UVA vs. a West Coast school.

Finally, and on the other hand, a semester or year spent seeing the world would give you a breadth of experiences that could really serve you tremendously. I can't look back at your post quickly, but didn't you say you learned 6 years of Mandarin? So work your connections and get into some kind of program or internship in Beijing for a few months that allows you to take classes and maybe work in a company -- don't teach English. Or go to Guatemala and learn Spanish or something. PM me if you want help or ideas.

Finally, if you want to go into development, whatever element of it you want to do (health, environment, etc.), you will be helped by having international experience, knowing languages, and by learning economics. Berkeley, along with Harvard and MIT, is the top of development economics. But it's rigorous and you want to do the math-focused track.

I think the bottom line is you've got two great choices. (By the way, I've had plenty of friends who graduated from Wesleyan and they were interesting and well-educated).