<p>Quality of education: Higher ranking does not mean that one school dominates the other at academics. Ranking is more of a measure of prestige and name recognition rather than actual quality. Sometimes it’s correlated because higher ranked universities can attract better researchers, but when you’re at the “top tier” of prestige, the quality of researchers are pretty much the same across the board. But also, GOOD RESEARCHERS ARE NOT ALWAYS GOOD PROFESSORS. Berkeley and Cornell have some amazing researchers, but like any other university, these people may or may not be good at teaching. Likewise, some low-recognition school may have some professors who are terrible at research but may be some of the most dedicated and passionate instructors ever. In my case, all my professors at Cornell simply read off PowerPoints and try to get through the material as quickly as possible, and many want nothing to do with students other than short chats during office hours. The lectures are all theory and no application. I’m sure they do some interesting research and are well-known in academic circles, but they suck at teaching. At Berkeley, my professors in my department cared greatly that students learned the material, and designed lectures and coursework so that students would get firsthand experience in their research interests and in professional experiences. For me, Berkeley’s professors happened to be some of the leading researchers in my major so topics were discussed at very great depth from a research prospective. More of my professors at Berkeley also tried getting to know students in their upper division courses. So I would say that, for me at least, the professors I had at Berkeley were far better and made me more motivated to learn, and at a greater depth. This may not be true for other fields though. I’m sure that Cornell will have faculties which outclass Berkeley’s at teaching, but I can’t speak on those.
ADVANTAGE: Depends on your major. If you’re doing engineering, Berkeley without a doubt.</p>
<p>Academic environment: They say that at private universities, the school will hold the students’ hands until graduation and make things very easy for them. In my opinion, this is very true at Cornell. I know Cornell has a reputation of being the most rigorous of all the Ivy League schools, but from what I have experienced and from what I have seen of the undergrads at this school, they have things pretty easy compared to Berkeley students. What I mean by this is that professors are pretty lenient, curves are insanely generous, and grades are highly inflated. At Berkeley, there’s more of a “earn what you want” attitude. While professors will be there to help you out in office hours, they’re not simply going to give you answers. I know this sounds like a sweeping generalization but this is just how I experienced it and how ~80% of the undergrads I’ve seen behave. I’m sure there are plenty of smart kids at Cornell, but up until now it just seems like these kids just expect things to work out for them without working hard for them.
ADVANTAGE: Berkeley, because I believe that things in life should not simply be handed to you.</p>
<p>Competitiveness: One of the major factors which turn people off from both schools is that they perceive the academic environment to be very competitive between students. At Berkeley, this competitiveness only exists within pre-business students (you have to apply for the business major during sophomore year and only about half the students are accepted, so students try to beat each other out to earn spots) and some hardcore pre-med students (they want high GPAs to get into med school), but the intense cutthroat individuals are not common. It does not exist at all among any other majors. In fact, in engineering you’re heavily encouraged to work together (as in you should be helping each other understand the material, but not cheating). At Cornell, I can’t speak on anything outside of engineering. My classmate who did undergrad at Cornell said that students refuse to work together or share notes. One isolated incident involved a student sabotaging other students’ work in a laboratory overnight, which is something I’ve never seen elsewhere. Many of my professors discourage students from working together, which tends to lead students to not helping each other out in order to secure higher grades. One of my professors won’t even allow students to attend office hours together because they don’t want students to work learn together. This may sound like a contradiction to my previous point about Cornell making things super easy, but all I’m saying is that students still don’t want to help each other out, despite everything being made generally more easy for them to all do well.
ADVANTAGE: I don’t know enough about Cornell outside of engineering, but I would have to say Berkeley unless you’re pre-med.</p>
<p>Class sizes: Another misconception with Berkeley is that classes are much larger than you’ll find at any private school. This is actually true with Cornell too, or any university for that matter. There’s a class at Cornell with over 1600 students, and if you don’t consider that large, I don’t know what is. The main issue with large classes is that it’s harder to get to know the professor. Of course, with larger classes often you’ll be working through your grad student TA rather than the professor, so at least you have that. But once you reach upper division, at both universities you will have plenty of access to your professors to get to know them, get a better grasp of the material, and learn more about their research.
ADVANTAGE: Equal</p>
<p>Suicide: Both universities have a reputation of high suicide rates, supposedly because of the rigorous coursework. In reality, suicides occur anywhere, and at both the rate is blown out of proportion. In my four years at Berkeley, there was only one unfortunate incident and it is unknown if academics had anything to do with it. At Cornell, the reason why it’s blown out of proportion is that there are lots of gorges throughout the area, and an event like that would certainly draw a lot of attention. It fortunately does not happen nearly as much as it is reputed to.
ADVANTAGE: Equal</p>
<p>Name recognition and prestige: Berkeley has better name recognition on the west coast, because most people/employers on the west coast do not immediately recognize Cornell as a prestigious university. My parents had never heard of Cornell until I told them I was going there, and my coworkers had never heard of it either. Cornell has better name recognition on the east coast, and Berkeley is sometimes almost unheard of on the east coast. In fact, on multiple occasions this past year, multiple undergraduate students at Cornell talked down to me because I attended “some lowly public school” for undergrad. Keep in mind that I’m not saying that’s the attitude of everyone in each of these places, but it does seem to be the trend among those populations. Additionally, Berkeley has better recognition in Asia (according to my international classmates from China, Berkeley is regarded as the best university in the US). Cornell has better recognition in Europe. Most importantly, prestige only matters in getting your foot in the door. In the future, work experience is gonna count a lot more than where you spent four years developing your alcohol tolerance.
ADVANTAGE: Should not matter.</p>