Is a Berkeley undergrad degree worth it?

<p>1) I know it depends on the major, but lately ppl keep telling me that ur undergrad school doesn’t matter if ur going into grad (and even when applying for grad)…
[Then why have I been working my butt off in highschool?]</p>

<p>2) Regardless of major, can i get at least a pretty decent job right out of undergrad because of Berkeley’s prestige?</p>

<p>UCB is my dream school and is the only college I really want to go to…</p>

<p>however as usual money is the issue…</p>

<p>I am deciding between a fat loan at Berkeley and a full scholarship at a wayyy lesser known college (since everyone keeps telling me it doesn’t matter as long as you get high gpa)</p>

<p>anyone else in this situation?</p>

<p>Yeah,I’m in the same situation. I got ~$13000 in gift aid from berkeley, but that’s looking really small vs. my full ride to state university in my state.(i’m oos)</p>

<p>So most likely, I will be going to the instate school, because if I don’t like it,I can transfer out elsewhere. . .so yeah… it’s a bit disappointing since UCBis my dream school as well, but since I’m going to be a business major, there’s no guarantee that I will get into the Haas business program, and even if I do, I might not stand out among the best. </p>

<p>so in the end I’ll be heading to the no name college.</p>

<p>yeah im oos… with a 15,000 scholarship and 7,000 grants</p>

<p>ill cut it down to 30,000 loan… but still thats so much :(</p>

<p>does anyone know how hard it is to pay back a loan if with jobs out of undergrad (40k per year)?</p>

<p>im not tryin to be filthy rich… just wanna make enough to support my parents in the future at least</p>

<p>@dae528: From what I’ve heard, going to grad school is all about research. Berkeley provides a ton of research opportunities as a top research university. </p>

<p>@shoppingdiva92: If you want a job in business after college, the name and prestige of the school matters more than your actual major. Majoring in any major in Berkeley will give u better access to higher level business jobs than a business major from a no-name school.</p>

<p>In the end, I think UC - Berkeley will be worth it if you’re alternatives are a way lesser known college.</p>

<p>dae0528, I have three questions:</p>

<pre><code> 1. What kind of graduate program are you thinking of? Professional or academic? PhD or Masters?
2. What kind of job will you be pursuing upon graduation?
3. What is the “lesser known college”?
</code></pre>

<hr>

<p>shoppingdiva92, two questions:</p>

<pre><code> 1. What is the name of the in-state “no name college”?
2. Where do you intend on working after graduation? What sphere/field and where geographically?
</code></pre>

<p>Before you make any decisions, I think both of you should think of a college degree (when discussing costs) as an investment. The weight “UC Berkeley” will had to your resume is significant and real. Depending on the sector and geographic location, this can vary. But, you should not underestimate the value of having Berkeley as your alma mater.</p>

<p>Graduating 15-50 thousand dollars in debt may seem daunting–and for good reason–but the opportunities your time at Berkeley (or any similarly respected/eminent university) are worth the price-tag.</p>

<ol>
<li>University of Utah. Ok so it’s not exactly a no name, but it’s definitely not comparable to UCB.</li>
<li>Honestly the location does not matter to me. However, since I aspire to be an investment manager that will probably be in a bigger metropolitan area. </li>
</ol>

<p>Also, I will probably be graduating with >$100,000 in debt just saying. . .</p>

<p>You can pay off the debt, you have time to deal with that.</p>

<p>The thing that should matter right now is getting a great education and having a good college experience, right? I’d say go with Berkeley.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>UTTER bogus, whoever told you that.</p>

<p>The depth and breadth of offerings at a school, the eminence of your faculty all will influence both your experience in preparing for graduate school and your chances at admission just from a prestige standpoint hugely.</p>

<p>Berkeley is not prestigious as an “overall undergrad school” because it’s not that hard to get in. But it is hard to say there’s a place in the U.S. much better for research, depending on the field. Credentials from here go a long way for grad school if the student actually makes use of them similarly to strong candidates at other schools.</p>

<p>yeah I’ve been thinking about this too. I got a full ride at BSU (Boise State University) here in Idaho and approx $20000 grant and scholarship aid to Berkeley which is still 30,000 a year. But I figured that the average undergrad engineer makes around $60,000 (at least in Biomed and EE according to this Berkeley bio engineer I spoke to yesterday.) so you could pay it off in 5-6 years if you paid at least $2000 a month, and some companies will even pay for your grad school if you’re good. So all in all I decided it was worth it and you might find other aid or become instate (the second part is rare and almost impossible I know). And if you decide to go to grad school at a top university they’ll usually also give you an paid assistant ship so you could slowly pay off yoru loans while getting your grad degree (in the case of medical graduate school most banks will give you a giant loan since you’re becoming a doctor).</p>

<p>oh and my parents might give me 30-40K, so that helps :). But even without that I think it’s possible. One big aspect of capitalism is investment and all investments have risk.</p>

<p>You can check salaries here</p>

<p><a href=“https://career.berkeley.edu/Major/Major.stm[/url]”>https://career.berkeley.edu/Major/Major.stm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>

Grad schools care much more deeply about GPA than the prestige of your university. Berkeley is worth cookie points but it’ll probably deter more students chances of grad school by lowering their GPA than help. Some of this can be balanced off, of course, by internship opportunities available at the university but you have to exert yourself as always.</p>

<p>

Caltech literally by miles and miles… Half of their undergrad students do research under the SURF program. However, Berkeley does well for its rank.</p>

<p>@dae and shoppingdiva
Don’t go to Berkeley if budget is a huge concern. Especially don’t go to Berkeley if it means you won’t be able to afford grad school. </p>

<p>While Berkeley is prestigious, I would not deem one of its undergraduate degrees more valuable than a bulk of graduate degrees. At your state school, you will have less competition. Maybe you guys could look to Berkeley for graduate study. State school is the “safer” choice.</p>

<p>The dream of any stock investor, to be able to predict the performance of a stock. What better stock investment than yourself baby? Just work your ass off.</p>

<p>Long live Capitalism and Berkeley!! :)</p>

<p>@sentimentGX4</p>

<p>These days it seems all universities claim their students are doing undergrad research, the true question is what kind of research and the importance of it. Boise State University states that 76% of it’s undergraduates participate in an internship or research during their four years there, but are those internships and research offerings of the same caliber as those of Berkeley or Caltech?</p>

<p>sentiment, I am talking about graduate, not professional schools. Your GPA is certainly important, but for those who are actually serious about graduate study, it should hardly be a problem to obtain a good GPA at Berkeley. You just have to learn your basics properly and not take courses from the few professors who don’t know how to teach or run courses. The letters of recommendation are what actually get you in. Who said so? People on actual admissions committees, in as many words. </p>

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<p>As a site for research, Berkeley churns out world class work, and frankly it is a marvel that Caltech is at all such a research powerhouse as it is given its small size, but it’s certainly respectable. It is nonsense to call Caltech better at research, however – that would come from someone who doesn’t know a thing about what the faculty are doing and looked something up on the internet trying to sound smart :D. If you’re referring specifically to undergrad research…Caltech is a tiny school, and its admissions is specifically tailored to admitting fairly academically minded (and often research-minded) undergraduates. As far as opportunity, any Caltech-caliber student I have known at Berkeley has had the unique privilege of getting as much individual attention as they sought, because frankly, most undergraduates here just don’t care enough to work that hard at research. Those who try get whatever they want, and frankly they have access to one of the most broadly excellent faculty ever – no better way to try one’s hand and figure out what one wants to focus on in future times.</p>

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<p>I specifically state I don’t consider there to be much prestige attached to getting into Berkeley undergrad. But Berkeley is a simply amazing place in the world where things beyond what one can fathom are accomplished. And to consider the undergrad and grad programs entirely unrelated is a matter of pure ignorance. People like to give up on trying to figure out what the accomplished scholars are doing, and then place the blame on Berkeley for being impersonal and full of inaccessible treasures…and then circulate nonsense like “you might as well go to an easy school and then come to Berkeley for graduate school.” </p>

<p>Graduate school at Berkeley is no joke. The graduate students can be top notch students from very good schools – in my area of interest, for instance, students from top international schools, students from MIT who achieved very well on the Putnam and completed 2 majors and a minor…it’s a joke to think you can game your way through and get into good graduate programs with a good GPA from a less serious school. You will get creamed by the people who know what they’re doing and trained themselves properly.</p>

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<p>This, however, may be good advice. I would definitely say it’s more important to think about putting the money into graduate study. Although I will remind people that many PhD programs offer ways for students to fund themselves through teaching and research assistantships.</p>

<p>well if Berkeley offered you some loans you financial aid package to cover the cost that the grants didn’t, I checked and most of those loans I believe you only have to pay back “one you have completed your education” thus if you are still in school like graduate school, you could still go on to graduate school and pay back those loans after grad school.</p>

<p>@divvo : thats what i was thinkin of too, that we can defer our loan payments until after college… btw were yours unsubsidized or subsidized… most of mine were unsubsidized and i called to ask if the could help me out with it but they told me the max amount of subsidized loan was 3,500…</p>

<p>@ektaylor :</p>

<ol>
<li>What kind of graduate program are you thinking of? Professional or academic? PhD or Masters?</li>
</ol>

<p>This is the real “problem”! I have no clue what I want to go into. I wont go into business engineering or medical science for sure, but im fairly interested in advertising, public relations and marketing (but all they have is Media Studies)… and possibly Law school… </p>

<ol>
<li>What kind of job will you be pursuing upon graduation?</li>
</ol>

<p>same problem as above ^ But I at least want to be able to hold a decent job out of undergrad and was hoping the Berkeley name would help me do that… so I could pay at least some of the debt before I would possibly go into grad school…</p>

<ol>
<li>What is the “lesser known college”? UT Dallas… I know its not horrible but even the environment seems :(… because its mostly a commuter school… however no debt :)</li>
</ol>