<p>My family has a difficulty in picking UCB and UCLA for my son.
We live in San Jose (Bay area) and my son has been accepted by both in Undeclared major in College of Letters and Sciences.</p>
<p>Parents want him to pick Berkeley but the child prefers to go UCLA mainly because he heard that UCLA is less competitive and more relaxed than Berkeley. It is said that in Berkeley most students could only sleep 6 hours per day because there are too much homework and assignments. Also life in Berkeley is very stressful even if you do not want to “A grade” student instead of an average student (B grade).</p>
<p>My major question is that Berkeley much more stressful (less relaxed and less sleep) for an average student than UCLA?
Your every advice and information is highly appreciated.
Thank you so much for your time and help. </p>
<p>I think most would agree that it 1) depends on what he’s studying and that 2) in general, Berkeley is relatively more “stressful”. However, this doesn’t mean that UCLA isn’t stressful, because it still is. You should let him go where he wants, if he wants UCLA, then he’s not going to be happy in Berkeley.
And I can tell you that most college students everywhere only get 6 hours of sleep, some less. </p>
<p>I have a son at UCLA (senior) and a son at Berkeley (freshman). Academically, they both took similar classes freshman year, but my son at UCLA found freshman year much more difficult than my son at Berkeley. Also the quarter system seems to move much more quickly than the semester system. I would let your son pick wherever he feels he wants to go. </p>
<p>I am a sophomore at UC Berkeley, and have an ex girlfriend that goes to UCLA, also studying a life-sciences related major like me. Given what I have heard from her and others, and from what I have experienced, there is not a dramatic difference between the competitiveness of UCLA and UCB. What I mean by that is, I think if you take a Student named A, and A puts all of his/her effort into schoolwork, then either place would give him the grades he or she deserves.</p>
<p>Now any competitive school won’t feel as cut-throat and tough in every single major. For example, at Berkeley, the average GPA’s in each department vary widely, like Molecular and Cell Biology has an average gpa of 2.98, while Chemistry has an average GPA of 3.2, and Music has an average GPA of 3.71.</p>
<p>@laogan I agree with the others that he’s going to have to work equally hard at either school (depending on his major) so competition shouldn’t be the reason to choose UCLA over Cal. However, he might have other reasons … does he want to get out of the area and have a different experience? Where does he want to end up working after graduation? </p>
<p>PS If he’s worried that you will drop in on him too often, I can tell you from experience that it is far more likely that he will call YOU to ask if you will be in the area anytime soon … and if you are, could you bring X, Y, and Z!</p>
<p>The average amount of sleep each student gets is also different for each person. I attended CalDay and during a seminar, a senior student majoring in psychology said she went to sleep every night 11 at the latest. There is no set time that students go to sleep. Some majors may require more work than others and it all depends on your class load.</p>