<p>Until two days ago, Caltech was the choice. Full ride to UChicago changed the situation. Please help me decide, greatly appreciate any comments.</p>
<p>UChicago > Caltech unless you do engineering.</p>
<p>Thank you Friedman and darthvader1! I am planning to major in Math and probably minor in physics. Does this change your suggestion?</p>
<p>@darthvader1, I tried to send a PM but it is not letting me send because I have not made 15 posts yet. Can you please elaborate on your message. I can receive the Private message though.</p>
<p>I could be biased since I got accepted at UChicago and Dartmouth but rejected at Penn-Wharton and waitlisted at Columbia, but I may even go as far as saying Dartmouth (in terms of teaching undergraduates) might be even better than Penn or Columbia and maybe on par with Chicago.</p>
<p>Top 15 prestigious univs in the US of A (my opinion) :</p>
<ol>
<li>Harvard</li>
<li>Princeton</li>
<li>Stanford</li>
<li>MIT</li>
<li>Yale</li>
<li>Columbia</li>
<li>Caltech</li>
<li>Berkeley</li>
<li>Duke</li>
<li>Cornell</li>
<li>UChicago</li>
<li>UPenn</li>
<li>Brown</li>
<li>UCLA</li>
<li>Dartmouth</li>
</ol>
<p>AUser22
UCLA and Berkeley and Cornell and Brown better than Dartmouth???</p>
<p>Hey!! as far as prestige goes…The only schools we here would consider in India over any IIT (Indian institute of technology) are MIT,Stanford,Berkeley and ivies(only Cornell/Princeton) for engineering and in general Oxford/Cambridge/Harvard/Columbia/Penn-Wharton for non engineering.</p>
<p>Any of these is considered really prestigious!!</p>
<p>@harasNN I never said better. However, here in India, and I’m pretty sure in other Asian countries as well, UCLA, Berkeley, Brown and Cornell are more well known (prestigious) than Dartmouth. That does not mean that Dartmouth isn’t a great school!</p>
<p>Okay maybe not UCLA on second thought, but certainly Berkeley and Cornell. Brown is considered at par with Dartmouth many times too.</p>
<p>User22,</p>
<p>I’d swap Chicago and Berkeley, then swap Duke and UPenn. Wharton just propels Penn as a whole significantly.</p>
<p>^^I wouldn’t do that if I were You…EVERYBODY knows Berkeley…I don’t think any know UChicago outside of the US…!! i mean it…even my most ignorant relatives know of UCB as some “awesome engineering…(Im from India .yes ;)) school”…Actually the only schools most people know here is UCB/Stanford and Harvard ::)</p>
<p>My List (for undergrad):</p>
<p>1). Harvard/Princeton
3). Yale/Stanford
5). MIT
6). Columbia
7). Caltech
8). Penn/Duke
10). Chicago/Dartmouth
12). Brown
13). Cornell/NU/JHU</p>
<p>@quiverfox
I guess “any outside of the US” has been redefined to mean “my relatives from India”. In fact, you go on to acknowledge your sample’s weakness but nonetheless predicate an opinion on it…</p>
<p>Most of my Indian friends (I’m from India as well, yes) think of UChicago as an extremely good school. Indeed, they expressed a good deal of surprise when a close friend said that she was considering UCB over UChicago (for Physics). </p>
<p>But I guess it boils down to how you define prestige. If you choose to consult your relatives in India, well then power to you.</p>
<p>I myself would not put Berkeley in the top 15 (at least not unless it’s graduate schools are considered).</p>
<p>Also what are the top 15 most prestigious pants?</p>
<p>Here’s the answer:
[World’s</a> Best Universities; Top 400 Universities in the World | US News](<a href=“http://www.usnews.com/education/worlds-best-universities-rankings/top-400-universities-in-the-world]World’s”>http://www.usnews.com/education/worlds-best-universities-rankings/top-400-universities-in-the-world)</p>
<p>interestingly enough, the top 3 colleges are all located in “Cambridge” lol
also UK actually matches the US in amount of elite+ colleges</p>
<p>Hey jak…I got into both schools and well I think UCB pulled over UChicago in most departments–related to engineering.(Chicago does not even have one…I got into Math)</p>
<p>And when I meant ignorant relatives…I meant most people who give sh*it to any other school other an IIT( which Is like half of our country)…but Im only talking Engineering…not in general.
Uchicago is a great school(thats why I applied there…lol) But Berkeley has its own( maybe cause of its grad school) cause of some of its programs…</p>
<p>Oh and wait…this was list of most prestigious universities…not UG/Grad school in particular…But pls. be sure that more people would have heard of UCB rather than UChicago…though UChicago may be a better school…I’ll leave that choice entirely to you :)</p>
<p>Oh and I thought EECS at UCB was considered prestigious…the classes ae supposed to be really hard…well I’ll find out soon:)</p>
<p>Definitely agree with quiverfox, UCB is a big name in India.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>@quiverfox,</p>
<p>I think you’re confusing prestige with popularity. While the latter has more to do with the breadth of influence (the quality of being well known), the former depends more on commanded social cachet (the quality of being well regarded), even if among the educated few, rather than the plebeians. Here’s an example from India that you may appreciate. Amity Univ is popular, but IISc Bangalore is prestigious. The UCB/UChicago dichotomy is similar, although the two are far more evenly matched, since each is very well-known and very well-regarded.</p>
<p>I also think that it’s a little myopic to only use India (indeed, a small part of India) as your sample. My school sends about 50% of it’s students to universities in the US/UK, and therefore most of my peers (and students at other schools which send a sizable portion of their students abroad) recognized UChicago as one of the best colleges in the world. While Berkeley does enjoy more popularity in India (though not uniformly among the more educated populace), I’d say that it’s standing is waning, and most people realize that it’s relatively easy to get into.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Well, since we are in the College Search & Selection sub-forum of College Confidential, I think it’s only fair to assume (as most others, including myself, on this thread have) that the question pertains to the undergraduate part of the schools (as do most questions on CC). That is why I said, whilst considering the prestige that stemmed from it’s undergraduate schools:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>UCB is an excellent school, with fantastic pedigree and an amazing faculty. For Grad, it’s considered alongside HYPSM, Caltech, Columbia and Chicago as one of the top schools (indeed, THE top in several fields). It’s just that it’s undergraduate body isn’t as uniformly strong as at those universities (as indicated by selectivity, average test scores and GPA, performance in prestigious scholarships etc.) and it doesn’t fare nearly as well in per capita endowment, students to faculty ratio, class sizes, PhD productivity/Grad placements etc.</p>
<p>Congratulations on your acceptances though. Berkeley and Chicago are among the top 5-6 schools in the world for mathematics! I plan on doing mathematics as well btw, and Berkeley, along with Harvard, Princeton and MIT are the only schools I would even consider over Chicago.</p>
<p>Chicago is “the best school in the world”. We get it. Move along now :)</p>