USC vs UC Berkeley (and more) for (mainly) Comparative Literature

hi! need some help deciding between (mainly) USC and UCB for comparative literature (with consideration to other options like uiowa, hamilton, UCSB, UCD, and UCI and waiting for waitlist results from columbia, middlebury, UCLA, umich)

ACT 36 and SAT 1590 (not sure the relevance but following the pinned post here)
college costs are fully covered

USC: presidential scholarship, would major in comparative lit (literature/media/critical thought track), hopefully eventually double major in business administration, and minor in creative writing OR narrative studies. parents’ second choice.

UC Berkeley: no scholarship, major in comparative lit, simultaneous degree with another major in business. my highest ranked acceptance and my parents’ first choice.

UIowa: english and creative writing major, merit scholarship money… around ~20/30k extra beyond tuition. honors program, would most likely also apply for a double major in business administration or a similar focus but haven’t done my research yet

UCSB: comparative literature major and creative writing (writing & literature) in the CCS

UCD: majoring in comparative literature, with honors

UCI: majoring in comparative literature, with honors (30k merit)

hamilton: the only east coast school. english/literature or creative writing. again, not much research done with dual degree/double majoring.

WAITLISTS:
of my waitlisted schools, mainly just waiting to see if i can hear back from columbia or UCLA, but i applied to comparative literature for both.

i won’t be able to visit campuses aside from the ones i visited last summer (middlebury, hamilton) and prior to this application season, i have always been a much bigger fan of the east coast weather-wise and in terms of the general atmosphere/experience.

from experience, definitely loved brown’s campus and prefer more rural, quiet campuses that are closed-off. most likely will live off-campus after freshman year if i go to LA, so nice housing is not a super big concern but still a normal-sized one. really enjoy rainy weather and can’t function well in heat beyond maybe 25+ degrees celsius. so, for non-academics, all my california schools are kinda on the same playing field, though USC is slightly more preferably just because i have visited before 3ish years ago.

my current plan is to overload in courses in my second (or first) semester of freshman year depending on how i take the workload while i see how i like the school i end up going to. if i absolutely do not click with california, will definitely attempt transferring.

any advice is welcome, thank you all for your help! if more detailed info on stats would be helpful, i have a previous thread on my profile (?) with almost all of my major-relevant ECs.

Are you already admitted to the business major? If not, would this university still be of interest if you aren’t admitted for the simultaneous degree?

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i only applied for comp lit, but honestly as long as i can still take classes related to business a simultaneous degree isn’t too important

Given these comments, I wonder if your parents’ top choices (UCB, USC) aren’t your favorites? Where do YOU really want to go?

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honestly, of the schools available, hamilton probably caters most to my preferences for environment and such… but also choosing hamilton over berkeley and usc would definitely be a bit of a silly choice especially if i end up trying to transfer after my second year anyways

It would absolutely not be a silly choice, if it is the school where you would be happiest and have your best academic and personal fit. Hamilton is an excellent college, and if what you really want is an East Coast LAC, it looks like the best fitting choice on your list.

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If that’s where your heart is, it is 100% NOT a silly choice. At all. YOU are the one who will be there for the next four years, not your parents. You need to be where YOU feel at home. Assuming your parents are willing to pay for your school choice, then you need to choose for you.

My advice: wherever you end up going, do NOT go in with the attitude that you are likely to transfer. Go with the intention of staying. Yes, you may have the option of transferring if it’s really not working for you, but 1. Transferring can be difficult to do, there are no guarantees that you’ll be able to transfer where you hope and 2. Mentally, if you have transferring in the back of your mind, you are less likely to immerse yourself where you are because you’re going in with the door behind you open.

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Beyond representing the most selective school to which you were accepted, Hamilton appears to offer — and in many ways would be ideal for — most of what you seek. (With respect to business, you could take finance courses through its economics department.) However, if your intent, even at this nascent stage, would be to transfer, then some aspect of the school doesn’t seem to resonate with you?

Regarding UCB and USC, I believe you could decide comfortably between them based on further research and intuition.

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Business is a capacity-limited major, which likely means that there is little or no space in upper division business classes for non-business majors.

However, some upper division business classes at UCB have analogs in L&S departments:
UGBA 101A ~ ECON 101A or 100A (microeconomics)
UGBA 101B ~ ECON 101B or 100B (macroeconomics)
UGBA 103, 131-137 ~ ECON 136, 138, 139, 144 (finance)
UGBA 104, 142 ~ DATA various, ECON 148 (data science, analytics)
UGBA 105, 150-154 ~ SOCIOL 116 (sociology of work)
UGBA 141 ~ IND ENG various (operations research)
UGBA 143 ~ ECON 104, C110 (game theory)
UGBA 194S ~ SOCIOL 117 (sports)
(see Courses < University of California, Berkeley for course descriptions)

For other schools that you may be considering where it may be difficult to take business classes, or where there is no business department, you can check whether similar analogs to typical business classes are offered in other departments (economics, sociology, industrial engineering, data science / statistics, math, etc.).

A few thoughts:

  1. You said USB is your highest ranked acceptance. By this do you mean your personal rank (in addition to your parents) or as in a college ranking like US News? If the latter, the ranking difference between USC and UCB is insignificant. They are comparable schools reputation-wise. I would consider it a non-issue. And if the former, as in your personal rank, if that’s the case, you’ve answered your own question – go there.

  2. I’m unclear why you anticipate the possibility of transferring. These are all first rate schools and you don’t want to go in with the assumption you aren’t fully committed.

  3. Given your stated preference for a more rural, isolated campus, why would you care about the waitlist results from UCLA or Columbia. They are the opposite of your stated preference. And ranking-wise they too are in the same top tier as your existing choices. Only reason to want off those lists is if one of them specifically appeals to you for some specific reason.

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Have you been to these schools? The kind of person who would like Berkeley would likely not like USC and visa versa. USC you can study whatever you want, small classes, beautiful dorms with lots of options for singles in the honors dorms. Easy access to professors, etc. But it is a bit of a party school. Berkeley is more intense, definitely less cushy environment but great education. You will likely have trouble taking classes outside your area and your class sizes will be dramatically larger.

Average starting salaries and percent employed after graduation are very similar. Rankings are honestly BS. Look at the top four rankings lists and you will see huge difference in how these schools rank based on how various factors are weighed. And the rankings seem to change dramatically all the time! Think about what you want to get out of the next four years!

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Hamilton or UCSB’s CCS would be my recommendations.
Hamilton because it sounds like the best fit for you and while your parents may not recognize the name, it is highly selective, nationally known for your academic interests, and will offer a personalized, undergraduate-focused experience. In addition, all classes in the Economics department would be open to you and Hamilton Econ grads place very well in various business fields from Boston to NYC and Philly.
I would flip your transfer narrative: If Hamilton doesn’t suit you, you can totally reapply to UCs during Sophomore year - and it’d mean you’d graduate from one.
(It’s much harder to transfer into a smaller, highly selective college because very few students leave so there a very few spots for ttansfers, whereas large public universities are set up for transfers.)

USC doesn’t really sound like your vibe (it certainly won’t be cool&rainy there :wink: ) but the major does sound good for you and the private school setting means you won’t have to deal with impaction or overflowing classes.
UCD has the environment you like (cool&relatively rainy weather, campus feel) but not sure it’s the best choice for your major of interest.
UCB doesn’t have the vibe you want. Can you save it for grad school?
As for CCS, it’s the opposite of Hamilton but may be a possible CA choice - a very large school but within it a focused environment&a unique, self directed curriculum. The vibe is more intellectual than the regular university but you have to really want the curriculum, it’s a very niche program.
(Note that at UCs courses have too many students who want to take them so you can’t just register for whatever class tempts you, popular/competitive subjects like econ or Business are prioritized for majors and even for them it may be a bit hard though not undoable; for random students though these in demand courses are unlikely.)

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I agree with everything in your post, except I disagree on Davis weather :wink:

My kids also love cool rainy weather, and they don’t feel that Davis weather is a fit, even though they love the school! It’s kind of like Berkeley in the winter, but because it’s not coastal, it gets a lot hotter in fall and spring (and summer, if you happen to be there during the summer)

For looking at climate in various places, I’ll recommend https://weatherspark.com which also has a great compare tool!

Here’s a comparison of Davis and Berkeley weather if that helps.

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Really cool tool! Thanks, I will bookmark it.
They’re quite similar during the school year though, the difference being greatest in June-September. Of course, YMMV, to me hot=90s summers/70-80s Winter, so Winter in the 50s and Fall/Spring (except for September!) in the 70s is cool … but to OP or to you it may seem warm/hot - it’s objectively cooler than SoCal though.

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Hamilton seems like it would make an excellent choice for you. You should research its course descriptions in detail before proceeding further. If it passes that test, then consider it as well for its exclusively undergraduate focus, fully available curriculum and abundant general resources. Moreover, you defied the odds there by getting in without an ED application.

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I love weatherspark. Use it all the time.

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While John Galt credibly advised, “If any part of your uncertainty is a conflict between your heart and your mind—follow your mind,” it’s unclear where the OP’s mind is on this aspect of her decision. In other words, why is there a conflict at all? Are there financial concerns, for example?

While we don’t know, OP references parents’ preferences several times. My concern is that the OP follow their own desires and not succumb to parental pressure (assuming parents are willing and able to pay, of course).

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This is the OP’s other thread, in case it helps give more background (OP mentioned in post above that we should look here for more info)

Yes, I was also struck by this, because we don’t usually see this mentioned so explicitly in a student’s post, unless there is some conflict or difference between the desires of the parents and the student.

Also note that the OP indicated in the other thread that their planned job after college has something to do with the family. So there may be more complexity than just the usual family concerns about cost of college, or perceived prestige helping their child to launch; I don’t know.

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If parents want their child to be involved in news/media, I think USC would offer the most industry connections.

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