<p>To answer all of your questions:
UCBChemEGrad: The rankings really mean nothing because this is how they rank the colleges: they send form to deans at every college across the nation and ask them to rank a list of colleges in the order they like. Then, they accumulate all the responses and form the final list. Also, I wasn’t saying that I will not get a good education at Berkeley. I meant because of the size of the classes, I just won’t have the same experience as in the other colleges.
Batllo: Yes, I will be attending both programs
UCBChemEGrad: I have received pretty similar financial packages from each one, so that is no longer a factor I need to consider.
Techie1988: I am definitely willing to work hard and I like studying so in that sense I fit in. I am sure there is some applied research at Caltech…?! but since I do value some social time and sports perhaps Stanford is the best option after all.</p>