joshh34

same as another topic

1. prestigious
2. diverse
3. better education
4. job opportunity in the U.S. after graduation
5. competitiveness among students
6. chance of getting into Ivy-League graduate schools in the U.S.

sillyworld

1. prestigious - McGill or Berkeley
2. diverse - Toronto
3. better education - Berkeley
4. job opportunity in the U.S. after graduation - Berkeley
5. competitiveness among students - Berkeley?
6. chance of getting into Ivy-League graduate schools in the U.S. - Cornell? Berkeley?

I'm just guessing.

collegehelp

In what subject do you want to major? Where do you live?

little_galaxie

1. Berkeley, then Cornell
2. Toronto
3. depends on what you want to study! although Cal is prob. good for everything
4. again, depends on what you want to do with your life. Although you should probably elmiminate the Canadian colleges for this.
5. Berkeley
6. any

BIGTWIX

1. prestigious- Berkeley is hands down. World famous at grad level, thus internationally, since the only thing countries usually know about schools is their contributions to the world's pool of knowledge. In the US we are often too stupid to comprehend true greatness and often think the personal undergrad=best school. Go talk to a harvard academic or someone of the same status though and they won't be able to say "yeah, Harvard...we're better than Berkeley", because top academics know Berkeley=Harvard=Stanford, etc.

Cornell, Toronto, McGill are pretty much equal in prestige (worldwide). Cornell will be best known in the US though out of all four you mentioned simply because most people in the US don't know jack about what's outside of the US, nor do they know anything about what makes schools great to mankind (research), so the name cornell is a bit better known amongst dummies than Berkeley is (and most people in the real world are dummies when it comes to knowing schools...sadly)
2. diverse- Berkeley is diverse is you mean lots of asians and whites all from the same place (california). Not my opinion of diversity.
Cornell- dont know that much about its diversity, though assume it is very white and american.
Toronto- very diverse city, but tons of the kids are from ontario and it doesnt have too many internationals.
McGill- wins most diverse from me. There are a handful of US students, but still also tons of internationals, not to mention the diversity of Canadian French VS. English speaking canadian/americans is there. There school is very white, but often times "white" has nothing to do with culture. Have a group of white Americans, often their traditions will be similar. At McGill though it will be a lot different. A lot of kids I know there are from all over europe, or from Canada but raised in their parent's european traditions (I go to McGill btw).
3. better education- Cornell im sure will be the most personal. Toronto will be the least personal (one of the biggest schools in north america, if not the biggest). Berkeley has the best departments. All four I hear have amazing grade deflation that should be to your advantage in grad school admission. I've heard though that in terms of deflation for the 4, it goes McGill=Toronto>Berkeley>Cornell, meaning McGill and Toronto have the most delfation.
4. job opportunity in the U.S. after graduation- Cornell and Berkeley
5. competitiveness among students- Probably the 3 publics will be most cutthroat
6. chance of getting into Ivy-League graduate schools in the U.S. - Superb chance with all 4, assuming you do well (3.5+)

davy.davy

so what do you mean by "white"? would an asian kid be accepted by the majority of the student body and go well with students with different ethnic origins?

bjomountsi09

Prestigious: Surprised so many chose Berkeley over Cornell, I'd say Cornell but really Berkeley's just as renowned

Diverse: Berkeley- not great
Cornell- actually fairly diverse for an Ivy

Education: Even, both Berkeley and Cornell are superb, completely underrated in sheer quality

Jobs: I'd give Cornell slight edge for location and Ivy-status

Competitive: Cornell is notorious for being cut-throat, Berkeley more laid back like California

Grad School: Cornell

I know nothing about the others, but these are the best 2 your looking at

UCBChemEGrad

Heh, ever taken Math, Chem, or Bio 1A at Berkeley?

BIGTWIX

hahaha,

that's the first time i've ever heard someone say cornell is more difficult than berkeley.
That aside, I'de say I disagree with every word bjomounts said, other than both being underrated.

Jocer333

10 bucks says BIGTWIX goes to berkeley...i second cornell having more prestige than berkeley...berkeley is a state school after all and cornell is an ivy

Rutgers89

World Prestige: McGill( Go to England, Spain, France, etc and people will know McGill)
Best Education: Berkeley
Diversity: Toronto
Job Opportunity: School won't matter... what you do at it will.
Best undergrad experience: McGill
Best opportunity for ivy league grad level: McGill and Tufts

RML

1. prestigious: Berkeley > Cornell > U Toronto > McGill = Tufts

2. diverse: no idea

3. better education: Berkeley > Cornell > Toronto = McGill = Tufts

4. job opportunity in the U.S. after graduation: Berkeley > Cornell = Toronto = McGill > Tufts

5. competitiveness among students Berkeley = Cornell = Toronto = McGill > Tufts

6. chance of getting into Ivy-League graduate schools in the U.S.: Berkeley = Cornell > Toronton = McGill > Tufts

RML

Rutgers89

Berkeley is very well regarded in England or much more so than McGill is or any of the school in the list. The only American school that is better regarded than Berkeley in the UK is Harvard.

I've lived in England for 4 years.

BIGTWIX

haha Jocer,
nope. I got to McGill.

You have the same mentality that your typical American has (I'm american actually...born and raised in california). Why I ended up in Canada, I can't really put my finger on it. Anyway, it appears that you are looking at prestige purely from a domestic stance. In the US most people think the top privates> top publics in both education, departments, and prestige. But the thing is, the true greatness of a university--that is, what makes the world know its name-- is measured by its grad programs. Graduate education leads to graduate research. Graduate research is what leads to all the crazy new discoveries, developments, and revolutionizing of entire fields.

As for difficulty, generally i'de say lots of people agree that top publics are harder. Think about it! Why is it that EVERYONE in the US complains about the bureaucratic nature of large public schools--complaining how much they don't care about you, how competitive the students are, etc?

You should look into graduate programs if you really want to see where world prestige lies. Read any graduate school ranking based on departments and Berkeley's departments will be ranked top 1-3 almost always without fail (on both domestic and international rankings). Cornell is great, don't get me wrong. In fact all the 4 schools being compared here are amongst the best in the world, constantly pumping out amazing research each day by the tons.

Now in terms of prestige, consider the scientific discoveries of Berkeley. It'd be almost insane to say Berkeley is not as prestigious as Cornell (maybe in the US, but that's because the collective "WE" is stupid and doesn't apreciate berkeley's accomplishments). Berkeley is responsible for discovering more elements on the table of elements than any institution in the world, not to mention the Manhattan Project (the reason why we won WW2) was headed in Berkeley labs. And the list could go on forever.

Greybeard

I've attended two of the schools on your list, but they're all fine schools.

I wouldn't focus too heavily on the Ivy League for graduate school, however. There are good graduate schools in the Ivy League, but there many schools with comparably outstanding graduate offerings, such as Chicago, Berkeley, Michigan, Stanford, UCLA, Wisconsin, Johns Hopkins, MIT, Cal Tech, Northwestern, UT, Illinois, Rockefeller, to name a few.