<p>I know this is an aged thread, but I’ll post an additional reasons (because I hope current juniors/seniors, and their parents/advisors, may consult germane CC postings):</p>
<p>Current “prestige” is continuously debated, however, for today’s seventeen or eighteen year old potential applicant, isn’t likely “future stature” really more germane? If so, Pratt is on an exceptionally ascendent track (as is Duke, in aggregate), while the UC system – and this is not criticism of Berkeley or of its Engineering School, both of which are outstanding, but it is entirely factual – is suffering from significant financial pressures, which unquestionably will adversely impact the achievement of future, academically-relevant objectives (for example, the VERY competitive recruitment/retention of top-faculty/researchers). </p>
<p>To document, in the last years the best UCs (including Cal Berkeley) have admitted largely increased numbers of out-of-state students, principally to obtain enhanced tuition revenues to – in small part – offset declines in public funding. At the same time, Pratt’s status rapidly improves and Pratt’s/Duke’s fund raising – which obviously fuels substantially enhanced facilities, faculty, research, financial assistance, interdisciplinary work, and much more – annually creates new records (in just-concluded FY-14, for example, Duke received over $440M, another new benchmark in charitable donations).</p>
<p>I hold Berkeley in the highest esteem, but were I a teenager seeking a superb undergraduate education, I’d attempt to look a few decades into the future. After all, that’s when it will be most critical to have peerless credentials (young, distinguished alumni of either institution will have NO problem with initial career or postgraduate placement). </p>