UPenn vs UC Berkeley vs UCLA for Biochem

sbaum1994
Sat, 31 Mar 2012 18:57:53 +0000

Sorry about adding yet another comparison thread. I’m just completely torn between these schools. I plan to major in biochemistry.

I know a lot about the undergraduate opportunities at University of Pennsylvania, especially the Vagelos Scholars Program MLS thing which I got a letter about. I’m trying to look at UPenn without the program though, seeing as there’s a large chance I won’t be able to keep up with it and drop out after freshman year. As far as the undergraduate opportunities at the other schools, I don’t know much about UCLA and even less about UC Berkeley. I’ve been to UCLA’s campus and liked it a lot. I plan on visiting Berkeley’s campus next week. I doubt I’ll be able to visit UPenn’s campus.

My parents have about 100k saved up for school, anything more will be covered by student loans which I will eventually pay back. We are in an unfortunate position where our income bracket is such that we received no financial aid. We live in California, so it’ll be about 33k a year for the UC system and 55k if I were to go to Penn. My parents are strongly in favor of Berkeley, mostly because of the cost if I were to go to UPenn.

According to them, if I were to go to Berkeley they’d be able to afford study abroad programs etc. whereas if I go to UPenn they won’t so I won’t be going anywhere. But I think this is mostly just bribery to try and get me to go to the less costly school.

I got invited to the Traditions thing at Cornell and was also accepted to UCSB, UCSD (both with small scholarships), University of Rochester (20k/year), Loyola Chicago (17k/year), Fordham Lincoln Center (full ride), Trinity (full ride), and NYU. So if anyone has anything to say about the merit of those schools it would also be appreciated! UCLA, Penn and Berkeley are just my top three right now. If NYU had given me scholarship money I would go there in a heartbeat (the student life, culture, study abroad all matches me perfectly. I really wanted to go to a school in New York), but since they haven’t I’m afraid I can’t afford to consider it.

Thank everyone for the help and opinions!