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<p>I presume that vicissitudes is talking about a cross-registration or other such cross-exchange system between Stanford and Berkeley, parallel to what exists between Harvard and MIT. The other issues, such as grading and selectivity, have already been discussed.</p>
<p>Interestingly enough, Stanford and Berkeley do have a cross-exchange program…for graduate students. Heck, it’s even specifically called the “Stanford-Berkeley Exchange Program”, and is available to any grad student past the 1st year who has at least a 3.0 GPA (which any half-decent grad student should have as a matter of course) and obtains the necessary approval (which I don’t think are that hard to get). Berkeley grad students can, through the Exchange Scholar program, obtain access to a myriad number of other top schools, including Harvard and MIT. </p>
<p>[FAQ:</a> Degrees](<a href=“Degree Progress - Berkeley Graduate Division”>Degree Progress - Berkeley Graduate Division)</p>
<p>Furthermore, Berkeley graduate students are allowed full visitor access, with borrowing privileges, to the libraries at Stanford, including the Green Library (which is a very nice library). However, Berkeley undergrads are specifically barred.</p>
<p>Faculty, academic or professional staff, and currently registered graduate students at UC Berkeley, Stanford University, and UT Austin are eligible to obtain materials that are needed to support teaching, learning, research, and other University-related work through RLCP. Undergraduate students and visiting scholars are not eligible for RLCP privileges.</p>
<p>[SULAIR:</a> RLCP: Eligibility and Registration](<a href=“Interlibrary loan | Libraries”>Interlibrary loan | Libraries)</p>
<p>I believe that’s just another indication of how the undergrads at Berkeley are basically second-class citizens (or 3rd class, if you consider the faculty and grad students to be 1st and 2nd class respectively). </p>
<p>However, on a practical note, I think the problem simply boils down to money. Berkeley has to pay fees to Stanford for every exchange student it sends, just like Harvard has to pay a fee for every student that cross-registers at MIT. Harvard and MIT have plenty of money and their undergrad programs are roughly the same size anyway, so the net fees from one school to the other are probably small. However, not only does Berkeley have far less money than those private schools, there are also far far more Berkeley undergrads than there are Stanford undergrads. Hence, the migration would be largely one-way. Couple that with the fact that a lot of Berkeley undergrads either didn’t get into and/or couldn’t afford Stanford but would probably want to spend a semester or two there just to get a taste of the Stanford experience that they couldn’t get otherwise. Heck, I would have done that. </p>
<p>But again, that’s just another example of how much more valued the grad students are at Berkeley.</p>