<p>Slurryseal, I think many on this forum appreciate that you spent much time to write up the post, including me. However, your view is from a different aspect. I will only touch on some of your points.</p>
<p>Activities: Keep in mind that experience as an undergraduate student and a graduate student are entirely different even in a same university, let alone different universities. My experience as a graduate student is very different from my friends who were undergraduates during the years I was there. Graduate students care much less about activities, clubs, and student organizations, this may be why YOU don’t see a lot of activities at Cornell. But there are 500+ clubs at Cornell, I don’t think you saw them everywhere but they were happening all the time. (also check Cornell website event schedule, you will see things going on all the time.)</p>
<p>I took my D to visit Cal before. The weather is usually nice, but the campus is much smaller than I expected, given the number of students at the university. We saw students who were tanning or playing Frisbees on the lawn. You would see that all the time during your 20-minute walk through the whole campus. For those who like the full-of-people atmosphere, they will find it at Cal. Cornell on the other hand is with a much bigger campus, in most cases bigger and better-maintained buildings, and many student events/clubs/organizations. However, one will need to understand that activities are not concentrated at one place.</p>
<p>Your experience isn’t with both schools for undergraduate and mine was mostly from my D and the times we visit these universities. If one really wants to get ideas from those who have experience with both schools, he should ask transfer students. I know of my D’s three friends transferred from Cal to Cornell, all of them are happy at Cornell and like it better, though these are subjective opinions. (I’ll try to get them to come on CC) I also asked a friend’s daughter, a current senior at Cal, if any of her friends heard of anyone who transferred from Cornell to Cal., there were none. And why is that? Maybe I should imagine that it is becasue these students never have done any research on whether they should transfer to the other school?</p>
<p>Political environment: Cal is having more Republicans lately. I heard that a new trend is to become a Young Republican – maybe there are too many Democrats for too long and continue to be a Democrat is conservative. It is a new trend everywhere as well. Everyone can always find their political group.</p>
<p>Competitiveness: “Many of my professors discourage students from working together”. You are a graduate student, you are asked to do independent research and take classes independently. It is normal for a graduate student to study, take classes, and do research alone with the instructions from his advisor. This is to train researchers to be independent. Undergrads are different; my D has a lot of study time and project collaboration with her classmates. They just need to aware that it doesn’t mean they can copy anyone’s work.</p>
<p>Cal and Cornell are great/ tippy top schools. Gets into both is a huge accomplishment for OP and he deserves a celebration. I agree that since OP is a California student, Berkeley will be a much more affordable choice. I guess that is a largest factor for ‘fit’.</p>