UCLA vs UC Berkeley/Sciences Po Dual Degree

cabeachgirl
Tue, 13 Apr 2021 20:51:24 +0000

I was accepted to a bunch of schools and have narrowed it down to UCLA and the Dual BA Program between UC Berkeley and Sciences Po in France. Financially they are about the same for me. I’m not sure about my major, but something in the humanities or social sciences and I am considering grad school/law school. I’ll list some pros and cons:

UCLA:

Pros:

dream school since pretty much my entire family went

study abroad for 1 year somewhere OR study abroad one semester somewhere & another semester somewhere else

can take lots of exploratory classes to figure out what i want to major in

lots of school spirit & super good sports

amazing social scene

nice area/safe

can maybe bring my car

get to see my family/dogs more lol

Cons:

too close to home (about 15 miles/30 min away) so i’m worried i wont be as independent or grow as much as i would with my other option

triple dorms would kinda suck

communications major and some others are super competitive

not a lot of advising/kind of on my own

covid restrictions - possibility of not being on campus in the fall or not getting a dorm

UC Berkeley Sciences Po Dual Degree:
I would spend 2 years at Sciences Po in Reims, France (the campus with the Euro-American focus) and take social science based classes there and learn french. I would then spend the remaining 2 years at UC Berkeley where I can major in whatever and will graduate in 4 years with a degree from both.

Pros:

study abroad for 2 years (fully immerse myself in the culture/language, i don’t speak french tho but i will learn lolz)

multiple degrees/majors/minors so i could major in multiple different areas instead of just choosing one because i’m interested in a lot of different things

very unique/stand out program. i think it can help me stand out for jobs and grad school and overall be an awesome experience

will help me become more independent/grow

i like the activism culture at Berkeley and feel like i would learn a lot

i would be with a group of about 30-40 people in the dual degree with our own advisor & i’ve been assigned a mentor so i would have a lot of support

Cons:

Berkeley’s competitiveness, grade deflation, imposter syndrome

clubs can be competitive/really hard to get into, not as amazing of a social scene

worried about campus safety

restarting my junior year, maybe won’t be able to get lots of leadership positions if i’m not there all 4 years

not great sports teams but still good school spirit

wouldn’t really be able to take exploratory classes before declaring my major

covid restrictions - if anything happened my parents wouldn’t be able to visit because of covid restrictions, the biggest thing i’m looking forward to is traveling and the restrictions may prevent that