Berkeley Prestige=Perception of Selectivity?

[mathboy98]

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someone who is good at math who is GIVEN the opportunity to take the Putnam while taking Chicago’s honors analysis program will not do so, which is very unlikely.

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<p>I definitely agree Putnam fellows are some amazing mathematicians, but when you’re talking math research and top math PhDs, it’s not the same game. Good performance on the Putnam requires serious preparation I’d imagine, just like the IMO. I’m sure quite a few people with extremely high math talent would just rather do something else. Ever met professors at a school like Berkeley who don’t have a huge IMO track record?</p>

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Perhaps you misread my post. I was merely stating that the top students of China have no respect for Berkeley, but the middle-upper-tier do (the Tsinghua/Beijing rejects). Keep in mind my cousin was in the IPhO camp, not the IMO camp, and thus had no desire to take such a math course (nor did his acquaintances). I also explicitly stated that the middle-upper-tier is the crowd with respect for Cal, so I see no conflict in argument.

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<p>Maybe, but if there was misreading, it was mutual. I don’t doubt that top internationals’ first choices of undergraduate schools might be the schools you pointed out. They do possess a certain name recognition that CalTech and U. Chicago do not, although these schools tend to be great at feeding students to top PhD programs (in fact, a student making a top tier program may not even be close to the top student).</p>

<p>What I am suggesting is that there is some discrepancy; if you suggest top internationals routinely apply to Berkeley’s graduate schools, yet your friend never even heard of the school, am I not right in wondering what on earth? Everything points to Berkeley having academic name recognition. I don’t think we can say that someone could have heard “Berkeley, that school with the amazing grad schools” and then go “Berkeley the undergraduate school? Huh?!” The only reason I see for Berkeley’s undergraduate not being the most attractive choice is that its allegiance to Californians prevents it from recruiting talent, because it steadily acquires the reputation for a safe school for students who couldn’t make, say, Harvard or Stanford.</p>

<p>Otherwise, Berkeley does not seem to suffer from the problem of CalTech or U. Chicago, that is, of having low name recognition in the international community, as you yourself mention with the upper/middle tier. So it seems some of sakky’s suggestions could be reasonable, although very much dependent on modifying admissions policies to slowly start recruiting top talent.</p>

<p>To be very clear, I’m not sure we’re disagreeing at all either.</p>

<p>EDIT: in fact to add, I noticed you added Yale as a distant other choice for the top students you spoke of, yet never even mentioned CalTech or Chicago.</p>

<p>At least among many American acquaintances, someone attending Yale for math undergrad unless in love with the school, without really considering say CalTech or Chicago, would sound a bit strange. Aside, of course, from the fact that Yale fits into the acronym HYPSM…</p>