I’m a current high school senior and have pretty much narrowed down my choices to the three schools mentioned in the title. I’m looking for advise about making the final decision. Some quick information about me:
-I’m a WA state resident
-Cost isn’t a major factor in my decisions
-I’m thinking about doing some sort of Econ or business major
- I haven’t visited Berkeley or Carleton but I plan to this month
-part of me wants to get out of WA state but this just a minor factor in my decisions
I understand each of these three options are extremely different with Carleton being a rural LAC college, Berkeley being a massive public university, and the University of WA honors program sort of combining the two. For this reason I appreciate any advice/ thoughts about my situation.
Just a side note: I’ve run into a lot of Berkeley stereotypes in my research with people saying students are always overly stressed and relatively unhappy. To what extent (if any) is this stereotype true?
That Berkeley stereotype can actually be pretty true depending on your major. It is often the case with STEM majors, particularly CS/pre-med.
Berkeley is also so large that undergraduates are basically left to fend for themselves and seek out their own opportunities–if they don’t, nobody will help them. Class sizes are large, so connections with professors are definitely harder. There may also be quite a few classes taught by TAs (look into this).
But also keep in mind that while Berkeley’s Haas business program truly is world-class, competition is incredibly cutthroat to actually get INTO this program, and few succeed in doing so. I believe you need to be a stellar student in the first couple or so years in order to have any remote chance at Haas.
UW Honors I am not quite sure about, but are the benefits bestowed by the honors program significantly better than the undergraduate experience without honors? Without honors, it seems that UW is similar to Berkeley in its size and lack of focus on undergraduates, but inferior to Berkeley in its academia and possibly connections.
I think my vote goes to Carleton, but I personally have not read much about Carleton, simply because I myself applied to LACs on the coasts. But that was honestly just based on my whims at the moment, and I could have easily chosen to add Carleton to my list. So you should do your own research about Carleton’s econ program. I just feel that liberal arts colleges in general can provide a better quality of education for undergraduates than many of the top research universities, including the Ivy League. The class sizes are small, and you can easily forge a close connection with your professors to do research or get more opportunities through them. They can write you great rec letters for grad school, if that’s what you want to do, because you get to know each other better in these small classroom settings. They are also devoted to teaching rather than research, and many graduates of LACs come out more intellectually grounded with critical mindsets than those from large universities. Carleton is also nothing to scoff at, either.
Thanks for the advice! I’ll keep this in mind on my visits and going forward with my decisions
What’s your net cost at each? If you received minimal aid from Cal/Carleton, you should probably say yes to UW honors + in-state tuition. It’s a good program and the lower cost will make a graduate degree much easier (if you decide to go that route).
Also consider where you want to live/work post-graduation. Can you see yourself in Seattle, San Francisco, or Minneapolis?
I don’t have any aid from Cal or Carleton so UW would be a lot cheaper. 25 k a year compared to about 65 k. But like I said earlier even though the cost is important to me, I don’t want it to be a deciding factor
As far as post graduation life I definitely see myself living west coast. One of Carleton’s main drawbacks for me is its location. But I am trying to keep an open mind about living in the Midwest and experiencing a new climate/landscape.
Thanks for the tips!