<p>ROT, I am a huge Chicago fan, as it’s a wonderful school for “pure intellectuals,” and it has an absolutely amazing mathematics department. But what you characterize as a weakness of Berkeley’s, I actually think could become a strength. </p>
<p>In short, my view is that UChicago is undeniably a stronger school for the traditional intellectual undergraduate experience. You are correct in stating there is little faculty contact in freshman classes at Berkeley, but this issue totally disappears as you get into the coursework for your major in the math department. Berkeley is, according to both people who’ve been grad students and undergraduates in mathematics at Chicago and eventually found themselves to careers here, a much, much more flexible school, where you sort of feel you can do whatever you want. Its faculty are so broadly accomplished that you basically never won’t be able to find an expert in things you want to ask about if you care. And the mathematics is top tier here. The wealth of resources is definitely worth the money to the motivated individual.</p>
<p>But for actual teaching inside the classroom and stress on a strong undergraduate focus, Chicago wins hands down. But not to acknowledge the school has a very different style from Berkeley is not good either. I think Chicago focuses more on having intense classes in math than very many top tier schools, and they seem much more exam-centric than most schools. Intense undergrad focus can actually involve things which some students may want to avoid.</p>