<p>@Foraminifera: it is true for graduate school, and Berkeley’s departments easily are up to snuff. I think most foreigners who want to go to MIT or Stanford seem to use Berkeley the same sentence.</p>
<p>Not so if their eyes are on Harvard, perhaps.</p>
<p>Also, I find your friend’s experience strange. Someone who was at an IMO/IPhO camp would surely be looking at Harvard if looking at MIT. </p>
<p>Berkeley is admittedly chained from accepting as many undergrads on academic talent alone, because of its allegiance to CA students, although it does not practice this much if at all for grad school.</p>