Degree of difficulty (Cal & UCLA)?

Cayton
Sat, 03 May 2014 20:51:21 +0000

Berkeley academics are known for being rigorous, but UCLA’s classes aren’t really known for being easier.

http://www.gradeinflation.com/Ucla.html

http://www.gradeinflation.com/Ucberkeley.html

UCLA students have lower average GPAs than Berkeley students. There’s a number of possible reasons why, but I believe it’s reasonable to think that you’ll do fine or terribly at both schools, e.g. if biochemistry classes at Berkeley are too hard for you, don’t expect UCLA’s biochemistry classes to be any easier. Nasty curves are used at both schools(Mainly in STEM majors, though). Even in the majors where curves aren’t used, I doubt there’s much difference in difficulty between the two schools.

UCLA and Berkeley are both huge and highly impersonal public research universities. Professors are often busy and more concerned with research than teaching. I expect, however, that transfers will have an easier time with these professors since they’ll mostly be taking upper-division classes with them where the class sizes are smaller and the professors devote more time to their students.

I don’t know about UCLA and Berkeley’s graduate school placement rates, but I imagine that neither school will make much of a difference in getting into the graduate school that you want to get into. They’re the top UCs with a national and global reputation to uphold. What matters more is how well you perform on the GRE, your GPA(More so in your upper-division classes), the research you’ve done if any, letters of recommendation, writing sample, and statement of purpose on your grad school applications.

In regards to socializing, I must admit, I don’t know too much about either school, although I’ve heard UCLA has a decent party scene(Not on the level of UCSB, but still good). I haven’t heard the same about Berkeley, but maybe Berkeley has a good social environment too. I recommend touring both campuses to get a feel for the social atmospheres.

There’s definitely enough time for most students to engage in extracurricular activities or anything else that isn’t strictly related to school or work, unless you happen to be an engineering major…engineering majors have very little free time, lol.

Sorry, don’t know much about internship opportunities at either school.

In regards to study abroad opportunities, UCLA and Berkeley have lots of them. They’re famous around the world, so it’s no surprise that they’d have great study-abroad programs.

According to USNWR, both UCLA and Berkeley have 4-year graduation rates of 71%. This is for freshman, presumably, but since transfers don’t take any longer to graduate, according to the UC system, we can assume that you have a very high chance of graduating within two years at either school. It’s a tie between the two schools here.

Student need-based resources? I wouldn’t know too much about that, but I know that the two schools have plenty of them. Both have tutoring centers. UCLA has 12 libraries(12 libraries!!), but Berkeley has more than 25 libraries. Berkeley probably has the upper hand here in regards to resources available to students to help them succeed.

I’ve heard UCLA’s dorms are better than Berkeley’s, but I don’t know how true it is. I don’t know much about off-campus housing near either school. Off-campus or on-campus are both expensive in both Berkeley and Los Angeles. That much I’m certain of.

If you care about sports, UCLA has a pretty good basketball team and ok football team. Unfortunately, UCLA doesn’t have its own football stadium; UCLA students have to go somewhere else to see their own team play.
Berkeley doesn’t have this problem. Then again, Berkeley’s teams kind of suck. :P