Cal vs. Santa Clara . . . please help.

bessie
Sun, 26 Apr 2009 04:00:58 +0000

You cannot lose either way! Santa Clara is a well respected school even if it does not have the cachet of Berkeley’s ranking. And ranking isn’t everything! Sometimes is better to be a big fish in a small pond. At SC, you will be one of the top incoming students and will be able to get great grades. You may end up with better opportunities such as internships reserved for top students, etc. You will meet many friends at Santa Clara so do not let the fact that you know more people going to Berkeley enter your decision making process. If anything, having them all at Berkeley while you are at Santa Clara will give you the opportunity to take the train to Berkeley and visit them on the weekends. You will meet double the people. Your parents will not want to force any decision on you even if it hurts them financially. My son turned Berkeley down for a full tuition scholarship elsewhere last year and he has no regrets. Good luck with your decision. Appealing financial aid now will be tough as you probably have to turn in your SIR within a few days and Berkeley may not be able to get back to you quickly. You can always take the Santa Clara money now while times are tight and then transfer to Berkeley if you get accepted into Haas as a junior (only 50% of applicants will get accepted). Hopefully, your financial picture will have brightened by then. At least at SC, you probably know from the get go that you can major in Business.