Berkeley, NYU, CMU, UChicago

RML
Mon, 28 Mar 2011 08:49:16 +0000

What is “brand power”? How do you observe and measure it? Are we talking about universities, or toothpaste?



School brand power is often measured by employers, scholars and academicians. How employable the graduates are, how much are they paid and what position do they hold are some indicators of strong school brand power.

Let’s put value on some of these indicators.

The PA score of Berkeley is 4.8 (sometimes 4.7), which is often rated equal to Yale and / or Caltech. The PA score of Chicago is only 4.6. In many years, it was just only 4.5 and it never was a 4.7 in its entire history.

Here’s the salary scale of graduates of both schools:

Berkeley – $53,100 / $109,000
[Best Schools in California By Salary Potential](Best Colleges in California | Payscale)

Chicago – $50,000 / $100,000
[Top Midwestern Colleges By Salary Potential](Payscale Best Schools by Salary Potential)

Colleges Worth Your Investment: [Average Cost for College - Compare College Costs & ROI](Best Value Colleges | Payscale)

Berkeley # 16
Chicago # 35

High School Counselor Rankings: [High School Counselor Rankings | Rankings | Top National Universities | US News](http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/high-school-counselor)

Berkeley 4.6
Chicago 4.5

Having said that, I still think Chicago offers a more “convenient” undergraduate education, as it has a smaller faculty-to-student ratio. But if you after school prestige and higher salary scale after graduation, then Berkeley is the way to go between the two.