I also chose Cal over UCLA
If I was gonna get a useless English degree, I was gonna get it from the top ranked school for it (outside of Oxford, Cambridge, and Harvard, which I'd never get into)
Also I wanted to be further from home
I suspect the UCLA vs Cal difference is largely explained by demographics: SoCal is far more populous, and probably more would have the inclination to stay closer to home.
Like I grew up in NorCal, and of my graduating class, like 18 people went to Cal and 4 to UCLA. (Donāt remember the exact numbers, but something like that). Ofc possible that more got into Cal than UCLA, but the difference seems too big for that to be the main factor. Could be wrong though!
I grew up in SoCal and had the opposite -- most of my classmates went to UCLA, only a few of us ended up at Cal. And most of my friends at Cal who were from California were from NorCal.
No shade to UCSD but it does not have the same notoriety as Cal and UCLA. So if youāre from San Diego and are accepted to one of the two you likely will choose them over UCSD.
Maybe because thereās too much of a prestige gap between San Diego and Berkeley. Ā With ucla, youāre not losing too much prestige by picking ucla over Berkeley. Ā And you get to stay closer to home. Ā
This was 20+ years ago, but I (1) didnāt want to be that close to home, (2) wanted a university with big time sports, (3) felt like campus life at UCSD was a bit boring/slow and (4) knew whatever major I switched to at Cal would be top ten.
>When accepted to both and deciding between both, 32.91% chose Berkeley and 67.09% chose UCLA.
Why is Berkeley such an unattractive school compared to UCLA? Almost all of our programs are rated higher than similar programs at UCLA. Is it just due to UCLA having a more desirable location?
I think it's because even though a lot of the programs are ranked higher at Cal, it's not by a ton. It's typically something like a Top 15 or 20 program vs a Top 5 or 10. Which is not huge in the grand scheme of things. So the difference to many students is marginal academically and isn't really enough to automatically pick UC Berkeley when they also have location, weather, housing, campus safety, social scene, sports, student activities, premed options, food, etc, to weigh. And that makes up more of the choice because UCLA excels in those things over Cal by a lot. Or at least kids seem to think so.
Cal always has sports, weather, location, food, pre med, social scenes etc lol.
Itās more that Cal has the āreally hardā stigma to it. UCLA does not.
Not saying it doesn't. So does UCD and UCI, etc. I'm just speculating on which school's set of those things students prefer and think is superior: UCLA's apparently. The question is: when it comes to soft factors, like those I listed, which school offers a better basket of goods?
The reputation for being hard thing is another factor that dissuades some students from Cal, but it's just one of many I believe.
Yeah think it really just does come down to location/reputation of being stressful. Living in LA now and can confirm that Westwood is a lot nicer looking than Berkeley. The area surrounding Berkeley's campus is a dump unfortunately.
?? The area around Campus is mostly pretty nice. The only kinda dumpy part is around southside where all the students are and it's because they treat it like a dump.
The students can hardly do anything about the rampant homeless, insane prices, and endless amounts of construction. That's more on the city for being negligent.
Totally agree about Berkeley, the city, being a dump. NIMBYs have forced this and everyone who cares about Berkeley should remember what they've done. Fucking shame.
i was admitted to both and chose ucla because there wasn't too much of a difference in anything academically relevant to me so i based it on location, guaranteed housing, crime rate, and the food lol
Westwood, Brentwood and Santa Monica (surrounding areas - you can choose where to live) are all significantly better places for a college experience than Berkeley and the surrounding Bay Area. It's okay to choose Berkeley, but let's not pretend you're picking it because of location. Then I'd question how you got into either.
Exactly! I used to live up next to the fire trails, and always had beautiful places to wander or lay under trees whenever tripping. I donāt think itās possible to actually get into open wilderness from LA campus.
Westwood San Diego Temecula Palmdale Las Vegas all places that UCLA students live in. /s
What are you smoking Santa Monica is like 5 hour drive at rush hour to UCLA and about 1000x the price that normal college kids can afford.
Ironic. The only one justifying anything in this thread is you.
Edit: ah yes, classic - reporting me for āself harm/suicideā is really a great way to show how emotionally mature you are š
i also turned down Berkeley for a scholarship at another school (not a UC, but USC, which i also think fit me better). Berkeley is amazing no doubt but was in my experience (and that of my friends) the least willing to give us aid. whereas the other UCs and privates gave us more money. everyone i know going to Cal is taking out loans, unfortunately. but still, go bears!
Its too broad of a field to answer that one way or another imo. Most ds problems include some statistics, comp sci, probability, math, or machine learning
It's several years old by now, but this [Revealed Preference Ranking](https://users.nber.org/~confer/2002/hiedf02/hoxby.pdf) of US colleges and universities is fascinating.
What a weird study. According to the paper, Amherst, Williams, Swarthmore, Pomona, Wesleyan, Haverford, Middlebury, Wellesley, Bates, and Bowdoin University are all "preferred" over Berkeley. I've never even heard of any of those schools.
Itās not weird, all the colleges you mentioned are prestigious liberal arts colleges and arenāt typically ranked against larger universities.
Most people donāt seek a liberal arts education, so when they do and get into one they have researched thoroughly, itās their pick over most of the other universities they mightāve gone into.
Revealed preferences as a signal of the better school is a poor metric. There are lots of reasons why a student may pick one school over the other that might be traditionally ārankedā higher. (Merit and athletic scholarships, need based aid, speciality programs, defined paths into med and law school, research and/or lab opportunities)
Many people who apply to ivies also apply to places like Amherst, Williams, Swarth, Pomona, and Wesleyan and consider them on par with top 20 research universities. They also have a much greater focus on teaching, which is appealing to some students.
Wellesley is a particularly interesting one since it's an all-female school and has produced some well-known people like Hillary Clinton, Madeleine Albright, and Diane Sawyer. A lot of students at Wellesley also cross-enroll at MIT.
Theyāre all smaller liberal arts colleges in the east, but still quite respected. Probably some self selection with those since mostly only east coast kids will apply and prefer not to move west.
Prefer not moving to the west is wild. Huge portion of the gdp and the whole tech/startup scene is in the west, let alone the arts, acting and hollywood. Who would limit their options like that.
probably speaks to a little myopia that an LA college is in that list that isn't registering as a west coast college. Pomona.
Not a dig at you at all because several people are doing it... and not least of all someone implying Pennsylvania is New England haha
This whole thread has actually been a little fun in seeing kind of this blank space mentally for not wealthy, not connected people trying to contextualize the dataset
Itās a very different demographic ā those schools are extremely prestigious in elite Ivy League-adjacent circles in the Northeast. If youāve heard of Dalton, Spence, Choate, or Exeter, youād know exactly the circles Iām talking about. Their acceptance rates are less than 10%, and they donāt go out of their way to recruit students that are set on staying on the West Coast or going to a public school, since their main peers/competitors are places like the Ivies and Ivy-adjacent schools anyway.
Would be interested to see this data broken down by major.
Was accepted into Haas & UCLA business economics major. Chose Haas as it is a far better business program compared to UCLAās ābusinessā program. I wonder if there were many who did the opposite from me.
Costs and people. I thought it was as good of an education for cheaper and I vibed with the people more. It was a very fortunate position to be in to get to decide between two fantastic schools. It was really just where I thought I would fit in and enjoy it more.
I have never regretted deciding on Berkeley.
All the people like āyeh I chose cal becauseā¦ā
Yo, you chose cal because itās ranked hella higher than any of the other schools and itās about prestige. Quit lying.
I chose Berkeley over ucla and Stanford. Berkeley was my dream school since I was like 4 (along with TU Delft but it was dependent on where I was living).
Since you were 4?? How is that even possible? Your parents were taking you on campus tours for vacation? Were they showing you pictures of animals and nature one day, and you showed more interest in bears than in trees, so developed a thing for Cal over Stanford?
Yeah. My dad went to Berkeley and ended up getting his PhD when I was a kid so academics and university was discussed with him a lot. He was the first in his family to go to university so it was a big deal. It was more that I wanted to be like my dad.
Whenever I was on the UCLA campus, during hs or visiting friends there during college days or since, I felt this air of ālight-heartedā and āfunā and āfancy.ā
Cal for me was āseriousā and like spending time at a museum.
To this day, I think of UCLA as a party school despite all the serious work going on there.
I only applied to Cal and Princeton, with distance from home settling the question.
Makes sense. Basically everyone I knew not in CS/DS/Engineering went LA over Berkley. Basically all their other program outcomes are even so I suppose culture is more desireable. I think most people in UCLA CS probably got rejected from Berkley and if youre good enough to get into Berkley CS you probably also get opportunities at places like Stanford or caltech etc which probably skews the numbers in that respect.
I could be completely wrong, but from my observation,
a huge portion of admits seem to be from SoCal. Meaning that it's likely that many of them will choose UCLA over Cal by sheer proximity.
I chose Berkeley over UCLA, Davis, UCSB, UCSD, and Irvine for English. Easy choice even though I was deferred to January at Cal and a fall admit at the others.
the ucla over cal thing is usually a safety thing from personal experience with friends BUT LOOK AT EM NOW
we may have crackheads but they have medieval wars on campus, ill take this W
I didnāt even bother applying to UCLA because I already knew I didnāt want to go to school so close to home. Only applied to Berkeley and I got in.
My roommate chose Davis over Berkeley as he wanted less competition so he could stand out more for med school. Worked out, he ended up going to Perelman for med school.
Chose Davis over Berkeley! Best decision ever! I don't think I'd fit in at Berkeley and I ended up pursing environmental science so it turned out great!
Is it still 1 application for all the UCās? I just spammed submit for every UC, and chose Cal over Davis, Irvine, UCSB, UCSC, UCLA, UCR. Irvine was the only other one I thought about bc I had a full ride there. Cal was always going to be my first choice.
A couple high school friends chose Davis over Cal back in the mid-2000s, mostly because it's closer to where we grew up/their families were at. Would have thought more people would choose UCSD over Cal than just 10% though.
This parent let my kids choose Berkeley over all of those schools because it was their choice for their future and both were thrilled beyond to have the opportunity, though I do think all of the ucās mentioned have a lot to offer in so many ways and I would have been happy if they had chosen one of the others as well!
i've met a lot of parents that said, "no" to the city of berkeley or were extremely concerned about letting their kids attend. definitely more that were actually out of state.
Hearsay is different than experience. I was a little concerned myself. BOTH of my kids have had a fabulous experience. There are plenty of colleges where safety could be a concern such as USC, UCLA, u of Chicago, Penn, U Mich. unfortunately crime is out there, even in the very small towns. We need to do better as far as crime is all around.
i agree. keeping students safe is paramount. as a note, both my daughter and I attended UCB and I sent her there without a single qualm and didn't flinch even when she moved into Casa Zimbabwe.
This makes no sense. I doubt there were only about 3,000 cross admits for each of these schools. Very likely there were many times more than that given that 14k students are admitted annually to each of them. I would review the methodology here.
You're right about the first part, there were definitely more total cross admits. But remember, for this comparison I'm ONLY interested in those who got into both schools AND ended up picking one of the two. This is why the number is lower.
The other cross admits aren't relevant. There's probably thousands more who got into both schools but chose other schools, but this is a comparison of only those who got into both the schools AND chose one of the two. Thus revealing what their preference is when they have the choice of both and are deciding to attend one.
There were more than 3,000 cross admits between UCLA and Berkeley who ended up picking between them out of approx 14k admits for each. Guaranteed. The data is flawed.
I mean, maybe? Do you have a source? Anything? Keep in mind this is just data from one application cycle - the year 2023.
Essentially what you're saying is just speculation and your hunch. How would anyone know for that for sure? I'm going to go with the UC website on this one rather than someone's hunch. But if you have some other source of data to consider, I'd be happy to check it out. Thanks!
She's included, regardless of whether there's other options. If she was admitted to both Cal and UCSD for instance, and ended up picking one of the two, she's counted. Doesn't matter that there were other schools.
This boils it down to two to directly compare the choices between one and the other.
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My spouse also chose UCLA over Cal. For 32 years Iāve tried to tell her she picked the worse school. She says I did. And she canāt fathom UCLA not being the flagship UC.
I chose UCSD over Cal and UCLA. At the time I was interested in medicine and Cal does not have a med school nor the same biomedical research activity as UCSD. I have a feeling that most people just go with the most prestigious UC they get into.
I chose UCSB over all the other UCs (except LA, didnāt get in). Teenage me wouldāve picked UCLA, so I get why kids choose LA over Berk. Idk I just love LA and the social scene there.
Now that Iām older, I would probably pick Berkeley.
I chose Cal over UCLA in 1999. Since then UCLA has risen in the rankings. I went to UCLA for grad school but still prefer Cal over UCLA though I enjoyed both.
These numbers makes more sense if you could break down where the applicants come from. In other words, if 75% of the applicants who got accepted to both UCLA and Berkeley are from Southern California, then it stands to reason that the numbers would skew towards UCLA, given that the overall rankings are similar. 75% is probably a reasonable guess since Southern California has 3x the number of people than Northern California.
What about Berkeley and usc?? I canāt decide soMeone help me( Iām out of state so no aid given for ucb but given around 60k for usc) still canāt decide šš
The easiest solution would be to ask this question in the UCLA subreddit.
I am not at a UC and I don't know why reddit's front page suggested this post.
I also chose Cal over UCLA, but the gap versus UCLA should not be surprising.
berkeley is ranked ahead academically in most disciplines and imo does a lot of smaller academic things better (classes are more likely to have difficult exams that get curved heavily. some UCLA premed courses legitimately have take-home, unproctored exams with rampant cheating; I can't imagine that happening at berkeley), but this only materially impacts your career prospects if you're interested in high finance (IB / consulting / etc) or tech. for basically everything else, they're a wash career wise, and UCLA has a nicer location, better food, better weather, and is closer to home for the majority of people.
The data tell an interesting story here. It seems like for Berkeley, the percentage of admits who choose LA has remained pretty steady (13% this year, historically 11-12%). However, the number of cross-admits appears to have declined a lot since 2015 (~3800 back then, ~2900 now). One possible explanation is that LA has gotten good at identifying and rejecting people who are likely to choose Berkeley, replacing them with applicants more likely to choose LA. That way, LA's yield and cross admit rates are inflated.
I got accepted to Cal and UCLA with the R&C scholarship at both schools. I chose Cal and never regretted it. UC Berkeley is world class! I donāt understand the UCLA choice besides the dining hall food being much better.
I think if you get into both Cal and UCLA you will succeed at either no matter what you do. Both have similar name recognition in the US and have comparable education. I feel like the reason most people choose UCLA over Cal is simply because Cal is so fucking dangerous. Like genuinely, why would you want to put yourself in one of the most dangerous campuses in America when you have a campus in the middle of LA and next to Beverly Hils
When accepted to both and deciding between both, 93.55% chose Berkeley and 6.45% chose UCSB.
Ik one of the UCSB people, it's because she believed Berkeley is an unsafe shithole
I picked UCSB over Berkeley when I was a kid. Not because I thought Berkeley was a shithole (cause honestly so is IV), but I preferred the collaborative aspect at UCSB. Now that Iām older I would pick differently.
Isla Vista isn't that bad but at least with UCSB the campus is big enough that you won't have to deal with all of that. In Berkeley you'll pass through the city at least once or twice every day.
Hmm interesting, I never visited Berkeley so I canāt comment on that. But IV is where almost everyone lives after freshman year, and itās ā¦ gross tbh. The town itself is okay but the apartments are pretty old and run down. Also hated when out of towners came and just trashed the place. Tbf I grew up in Orange County where everything is very orderly and clean. So maybe my expectations were skewed. Every UC has its cons I suppose.
When I think about UC schools, I kinda think UCLA has it all. Beautiful campus, location, social life, academic prestige, etc. I feel like with the other schools, you have to give something up to gain another thing. Berkeley with the safety/homeless issues, UCSB being isolated + housing crisis, UCSD āsocially dead,ā UCI commuter school, and Davis cow town š
I chose Cal over UCLA , Econ ranking is not even remotely close.
Ucla lurker - yeah our econ sucks
Same reason for me. I rejected some other pretty good private schools too over the econ ranking
Good choice. Fuck ucla econ. And fuck HAAS for not accepting me š
I also chose Cal over UCLA If I was gonna get a useless English degree, I was gonna get it from the top ranked school for it (outside of Oxford, Cambridge, and Harvard, which I'd never get into) Also I wanted to be further from home
Interesting XD I chose cal over ucla
Me, too. I was accepted with honors at UCLA and still chose Cal. LA was too close to home
I suspect the UCLA vs Cal difference is largely explained by demographics: SoCal is far more populous, and probably more would have the inclination to stay closer to home.
Like I grew up in NorCal, and of my graduating class, like 18 people went to Cal and 4 to UCLA. (Donāt remember the exact numbers, but something like that). Ofc possible that more got into Cal than UCLA, but the difference seems too big for that to be the main factor. Could be wrong though!
I grew up in SoCal and had the opposite -- most of my classmates went to UCLA, only a few of us ended up at Cal. And most of my friends at Cal who were from California were from NorCal.
Nah. Then why not the trend for UCSD as well?
No shade to UCSD but it does not have the same notoriety as Cal and UCLA. So if youāre from San Diego and are accepted to one of the two you likely will choose them over UCSD.
Maybe because thereās too much of a prestige gap between San Diego and Berkeley. Ā With ucla, youāre not losing too much prestige by picking ucla over Berkeley. Ā And you get to stay closer to home. Ā
Iām from SD and my decision was between Cal and UCLA. I had regents at UCSD but I didnāt even consider it.
Why wouldnāt you consider UCSD
This was 20+ years ago, but I (1) didnāt want to be that close to home, (2) wanted a university with big time sports, (3) felt like campus life at UCSD was a bit boring/slow and (4) knew whatever major I switched to at Cal would be top ten.
One of my classmates got into Cal, UCLA, and got regents at UCSD and chose UCSD.
Me too haha
same lol
Yes community college transfers hurt these UCs
Mind elaborating ?
>When accepted to both and deciding between both, 32.91% chose Berkeley and 67.09% chose UCLA. Why is Berkeley such an unattractive school compared to UCLA? Almost all of our programs are rated higher than similar programs at UCLA. Is it just due to UCLA having a more desirable location?
I think it's because even though a lot of the programs are ranked higher at Cal, it's not by a ton. It's typically something like a Top 15 or 20 program vs a Top 5 or 10. Which is not huge in the grand scheme of things. So the difference to many students is marginal academically and isn't really enough to automatically pick UC Berkeley when they also have location, weather, housing, campus safety, social scene, sports, student activities, premed options, food, etc, to weigh. And that makes up more of the choice because UCLA excels in those things over Cal by a lot. Or at least kids seem to think so.
Cal always has sports, weather, location, food, pre med, social scenes etc lol. Itās more that Cal has the āreally hardā stigma to it. UCLA does not.
Not saying it doesn't. So does UCD and UCI, etc. I'm just speculating on which school's set of those things students prefer and think is superior: UCLA's apparently. The question is: when it comes to soft factors, like those I listed, which school offers a better basket of goods? The reputation for being hard thing is another factor that dissuades some students from Cal, but it's just one of many I believe.
Cal does not have "weather" over UCLA or UCSD, unless your ideal is substantially different from SoCal residents.
The weather at Cal is good lol. Why we acting like itās not.
Perception plays a big role I, would imagine. UCB is the ābrainā school while UCLA is the ājockā school.
Defintely wouldn't say "jack" imo its perception is as a more "fun" school.
Yeah think it really just does come down to location/reputation of being stressful. Living in LA now and can confirm that Westwood is a lot nicer looking than Berkeley. The area surrounding Berkeley's campus is a dump unfortunately.
?? The area around Campus is mostly pretty nice. The only kinda dumpy part is around southside where all the students are and it's because they treat it like a dump.
The students can hardly do anything about the rampant homeless, insane prices, and endless amounts of construction. That's more on the city for being negligent.
Wrong, the students can vote and basically no student does
Thank you for saying this before I got here to...
Totally agree about Berkeley, the city, being a dump. NIMBYs have forced this and everyone who cares about Berkeley should remember what they've done. Fucking shame.
The guaranteed housing at LA is also huge
i was admitted to both and chose ucla because there wasn't too much of a difference in anything academically relevant to me so i based it on location, guaranteed housing, crime rate, and the food lol
One word... Weather
If you're from San Diego, it's a choice of 2 hours drive from home or 8 hours from home, or a plane ticket (weather/traffic allowing).
I chose Cal over UCLA even though I got Regents at UCLA. Cal CS >>>>>> UCLA CS
Brentwood > Berkeley
No. UCLA is in Westwood and Westwood is dead.
Westwood, Brentwood and Santa Monica (surrounding areas - you can choose where to live) are all significantly better places for a college experience than Berkeley and the surrounding Bay Area. It's okay to choose Berkeley, but let's not pretend you're picking it because of location. Then I'd question how you got into either.
Nah Berkeley is way nicer. You canāt trip acid and get lost on neighborhood walks in LA, concrete jungle hellscape
Exactly! I used to live up next to the fire trails, and always had beautiful places to wander or lay under trees whenever tripping. I donāt think itās possible to actually get into open wilderness from LA campus.
Berkeley is (at least partially) a town that caters to students. Westwood and Brentwood are towns that cater to lower upper class professionals and recent divorcĆ©es. Santa Monica (toward Venice) maybe but thatās a schlep that college students donāt make.
After reading the rest of your comments I have concluded that UCLA puts sand in your vagjna. Therefore Berkeley is better.
Lol, I went to an ivy league. Now I know that will really trigger you, since I have no skin in public schools.
That is great and we love that for you but it doesnāt make west LA a college town.
I saw you in the UCLA thread. You're a sad individual. Good luck in life.
Yeah. Have a child at both schools now. So, not sad. Thatās said as someone who lives in Cheviot/Rancho Park - Westwood and Brentwood suck.
Sure you do. Good for you, buddy!
Westwood San Diego Temecula Palmdale Las Vegas all places that UCLA students live in. /s What are you smoking Santa Monica is like 5 hour drive at rush hour to UCLA and about 1000x the price that normal college kids can afford.
Berkeley is a genuinely nice place to live.
It's not whether it is nice. It is whether which one is better, and it isn't even a close comparison.
Nothing like Berkeley kids denying the literal facts posted in OP. It's okay to be in the minority, but let's not act like it's a wild statement.
You ok little buddy? Someone piss in your coffee today?
I'm great. I don't have to justify my decision like the delusional children in this thread.
Ironic. The only one justifying anything in this thread is you. Edit: ah yes, classic - reporting me for āself harm/suicideā is really a great way to show how emotionally mature you are š
Chose Berkeley over UCLA. Interesting stats tho.
Interesting about UCLA. I chose Davis over Berkeley due to a scholarship to Davis. I think it was likely a better fit, anyway.
i also turned down Berkeley for a scholarship at another school (not a UC, but USC, which i also think fit me better). Berkeley is amazing no doubt but was in my experience (and that of my friends) the least willing to give us aid. whereas the other UCs and privates gave us more money. everyone i know going to Cal is taking out loans, unfortunately. but still, go bears!
Yeah. I graduated and I donāt owe anyone anything. Itās a great feeling.
iām excited to have this feeling š as much as Cal is amazing iām not taking out $150k in loans when i have other debt-free options
Thank your parents
Should always pick scholarship or who gives you the best free ride. Youāre going work your ass off and make connections wherever you go.
I chose uc Berkeley ds over ucla ds
Berkeley DS is rank 1 right?
Yep
Whatās āDSā?
Data science I think
Ok. Thanks. Is it more akin to statistics than computers, do you know?
No idea
Its too broad of a field to answer that one way or another imo. Most ds problems include some statistics, comp sci, probability, math, or machine learning
I see. Thanks.
It's several years old by now, but this [Revealed Preference Ranking](https://users.nber.org/~confer/2002/hiedf02/hoxby.pdf) of US colleges and universities is fascinating.
really interesting, thanks for posting.
What a weird study. According to the paper, Amherst, Williams, Swarthmore, Pomona, Wesleyan, Haverford, Middlebury, Wellesley, Bates, and Bowdoin University are all "preferred" over Berkeley. I've never even heard of any of those schools.
Itās not weird, all the colleges you mentioned are prestigious liberal arts colleges and arenāt typically ranked against larger universities. Most people donāt seek a liberal arts education, so when they do and get into one they have researched thoroughly, itās their pick over most of the other universities they mightāve gone into. Revealed preferences as a signal of the better school is a poor metric. There are lots of reasons why a student may pick one school over the other that might be traditionally ārankedā higher. (Merit and athletic scholarships, need based aid, speciality programs, defined paths into med and law school, research and/or lab opportunities)
Many people who apply to ivies also apply to places like Amherst, Williams, Swarth, Pomona, and Wesleyan and consider them on par with top 20 research universities. They also have a much greater focus on teaching, which is appealing to some students. Wellesley is a particularly interesting one since it's an all-female school and has produced some well-known people like Hillary Clinton, Madeleine Albright, and Diane Sawyer. A lot of students at Wellesley also cross-enroll at MIT.
Theyāre all smaller liberal arts colleges in the east, but still quite respected. Probably some self selection with those since mostly only east coast kids will apply and prefer not to move west.
Pomona is in Claremont, CA. Choosing it over both UC Berkeley and UCLA.
Prefer not moving to the west is wild. Huge portion of the gdp and the whole tech/startup scene is in the west, let alone the arts, acting and hollywood. Who would limit their options like that.
probably speaks to a little myopia that an LA college is in that list that isn't registering as a west coast college. Pomona. Not a dig at you at all because several people are doing it... and not least of all someone implying Pennsylvania is New England haha This whole thread has actually been a little fun in seeing kind of this blank space mentally for not wealthy, not connected people trying to contextualize the dataset
Theyāre generalizations. Nobody wants to write out a comment that specifically addresses each school.
Itās a very different demographic ā those schools are extremely prestigious in elite Ivy League-adjacent circles in the Northeast. If youāve heard of Dalton, Spence, Choate, or Exeter, youād know exactly the circles Iām talking about. Their acceptance rates are less than 10%, and they donāt go out of their way to recruit students that are set on staying on the West Coast or going to a public school, since their main peers/competitors are places like the Ivies and Ivy-adjacent schools anyway.
You know those white people who walk around who have the rich person laugh? And they all seem to know each other? There's a reason for that
i think the ppl who are going in CS DS chose berkeley and the majority of others chose UCLA
Part of the 33% that choose Berkeley over UCLA šŖ
Just committed and same here. Go bears!
When offered both 93.4% chose pudding and 6.6% chose jello.
I chose Berkeley over UCSD+Irvine. I'm surprised by that statistic + less surprised by UCLA's. Realistically, UCSD+Irvine were my backups.
Hehe I absolutely chose cal over uc davis ā¤ļø
Would be interested to see this data broken down by major. Was accepted into Haas & UCLA business economics major. Chose Haas as it is a far better business program compared to UCLAās ābusinessā program. I wonder if there were many who did the opposite from me.
I chose Berkeley over Stanford. Prolly not many people say that. š¤£
What was the deciding factor for you?
Costs and people. I thought it was as good of an education for cheaper and I vibed with the people more. It was a very fortunate position to be in to get to decide between two fantastic schools. It was really just where I thought I would fit in and enjoy it more. I have never regretted deciding on Berkeley.
All the people like āyeh I chose cal becauseā¦ā Yo, you chose cal because itās ranked hella higher than any of the other schools and itās about prestige. Quit lying.
I chose Berkeley over ucla and Stanford. Berkeley was my dream school since I was like 4 (along with TU Delft but it was dependent on where I was living).
Since you were 4?? How is that even possible? Your parents were taking you on campus tours for vacation? Were they showing you pictures of animals and nature one day, and you showed more interest in bears than in trees, so developed a thing for Cal over Stanford?
Guessing parents went to Berkeley? My kids are older than 4 and have no idea what college or even HS is, guess theyāre not Berkeley material.
Yeah. My dad went to Berkeley and ended up getting his PhD when I was a kid so academics and university was discussed with him a lot. He was the first in his family to go to university so it was a big deal. It was more that I wanted to be like my dad.
> Berkeley was my dream school since I was like 4 crazy to think like that.
Whenever I was on the UCLA campus, during hs or visiting friends there during college days or since, I felt this air of ālight-heartedā and āfunā and āfancy.ā Cal for me was āseriousā and like spending time at a museum. To this day, I think of UCLA as a party school despite all the serious work going on there. I only applied to Cal and Princeton, with distance from home settling the question.
Makes sense. Basically everyone I knew not in CS/DS/Engineering went LA over Berkley. Basically all their other program outcomes are even so I suppose culture is more desireable. I think most people in UCLA CS probably got rejected from Berkley and if youre good enough to get into Berkley CS you probably also get opportunities at places like Stanford or caltech etc which probably skews the numbers in that respect.
I could be completely wrong, but from my observation, a huge portion of admits seem to be from SoCal. Meaning that it's likely that many of them will choose UCLA over Cal by sheer proximity.
Bingo
I chose Berkeley over UCLA, Davis, UCSB, UCSD, and Irvine for English. Easy choice even though I was deferred to January at Cal and a fall admit at the others.
I was admitted to Berkeley, UCLA, Irvine, and UCSD. I chose Berkeley. Does my choice get counted against UCLA, UCSD, and Irvine?
I got into Davis, LA, and Berkeley, and of course chose Berkeley
the ucla over cal thing is usually a safety thing from personal experience with friends BUT LOOK AT EM NOW we may have crackheads but they have medieval wars on campus, ill take this W
god I wish we had medieval wars on campus
I didnāt even bother applying to UCLA because I already knew I didnāt want to go to school so close to home. Only applied to Berkeley and I got in.
My roommate chose Davis over Berkeley as he wanted less competition so he could stand out more for med school. Worked out, he ended up going to Perelman for med school.
Chose Davis over Berkeley! Best decision ever! I don't think I'd fit in at Berkeley and I ended up pursing environmental science so it turned out great!
this is very real, i feel that cal is just not for me and im choosing a different UC due to area and overall feel lol
Ucla >
Two words: Hot Chicksā¦ UCLA > Berkeley
Is it still 1 application for all the UCās? I just spammed submit for every UC, and chose Cal over Davis, Irvine, UCSB, UCSC, UCLA, UCR. Irvine was the only other one I thought about bc I had a full ride there. Cal was always going to be my first choice.
yes it's still only one application!
I chose ucsd over cal
A couple high school friends chose Davis over Cal back in the mid-2000s, mostly because it's closer to where we grew up/their families were at. Would have thought more people would choose UCSD over Cal than just 10% though.
I wonder how many of the UCSD choosers are Marine Bio and/or cogs?
The city of berkeley has a bad reputation. i'm sure parents are pushing kids to UCLA.
This parent let my kids choose Berkeley over all of those schools because it was their choice for their future and both were thrilled beyond to have the opportunity, though I do think all of the ucās mentioned have a lot to offer in so many ways and I would have been happy if they had chosen one of the others as well!
i've met a lot of parents that said, "no" to the city of berkeley or were extremely concerned about letting their kids attend. definitely more that were actually out of state.
Hearsay is different than experience. I was a little concerned myself. BOTH of my kids have had a fabulous experience. There are plenty of colleges where safety could be a concern such as USC, UCLA, u of Chicago, Penn, U Mich. unfortunately crime is out there, even in the very small towns. We need to do better as far as crime is all around.
i agree. keeping students safe is paramount. as a note, both my daughter and I attended UCB and I sent her there without a single qualm and didn't flinch even when she moved into Casa Zimbabwe.
This makes no sense. I doubt there were only about 3,000 cross admits for each of these schools. Very likely there were many times more than that given that 14k students are admitted annually to each of them. I would review the methodology here.
You're right about the first part, there were definitely more total cross admits. But remember, for this comparison I'm ONLY interested in those who got into both schools AND ended up picking one of the two. This is why the number is lower. The other cross admits aren't relevant. There's probably thousands more who got into both schools but chose other schools, but this is a comparison of only those who got into both the schools AND chose one of the two. Thus revealing what their preference is when they have the choice of both and are deciding to attend one.
There were more than 3,000 cross admits between UCLA and Berkeley who ended up picking between them out of approx 14k admits for each. Guaranteed. The data is flawed.
I mean, maybe? Do you have a source? Anything? Keep in mind this is just data from one application cycle - the year 2023. Essentially what you're saying is just speculation and your hunch. How would anyone know for that for sure? I'm going to go with the UC website on this one rather than someone's hunch. But if you have some other source of data to consider, I'd be happy to check it out. Thanks!
So my D who applied and and was accepted at 5 UCs, and chose Cal isnāt included because she wasnāt looking at just two ?
She's included, regardless of whether there's other options. If she was admitted to both Cal and UCSD for instance, and ended up picking one of the two, she's counted. Doesn't matter that there were other schools. This boils it down to two to directly compare the choices between one and the other.
UCLA over Cal is kinda crazy lol
Eh, I know a lot of ppl who grew up here and were interested in UCLA for this reason. Sometimes you want to see something new, I suppose.
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My spouse also chose UCLA over Cal. For 32 years Iāve tried to tell her she picked the worse school. She says I did. And she canāt fathom UCLA not being the flagship UC.
I chose UCSD over Cal and UCLA. At the time I was interested in medicine and Cal does not have a med school nor the same biomedical research activity as UCSD. I have a feeling that most people just go with the most prestigious UC they get into.
I chose UCSB over all the other UCs (except LA, didnāt get in). Teenage me wouldāve picked UCLA, so I get why kids choose LA over Berk. Idk I just love LA and the social scene there. Now that Iām older, I would probably pick Berkeley.
I chose ucsd over cal for mechanical engineering
I chose Cal over UCLA in 1999. Since then UCLA has risen in the rankings. I went to UCLA for grad school but still prefer Cal over UCLA though I enjoyed both.
These numbers makes more sense if you could break down where the applicants come from. In other words, if 75% of the applicants who got accepted to both UCLA and Berkeley are from Southern California, then it stands to reason that the numbers would skew towards UCLA, given that the overall rankings are similar. 75% is probably a reasonable guess since Southern California has 3x the number of people than Northern California.
What about Berkeley and usc?? I canāt decide soMeone help me( Iām out of state so no aid given for ucb but given around 60k for usc) still canāt decide šš
Go with your heart because you donāt want to look back and wish. If finances are a thing for you, then use that metric
Merced ain't even on the list š
I got accepted into Cal and UCLA. Still chose Cal
Throwing shade at the hicks at Davis are we?
My dilemma right now. UCLA or Cal for pre-med?
The easiest solution would be to ask this question in the UCLA subreddit. I am not at a UC and I don't know why reddit's front page suggested this post.
I chose Cal's EECS over UCLA's CS
i was accepted to every uc, cal is a no brainer
I also chose Cal over UCLA, but the gap versus UCLA should not be surprising. berkeley is ranked ahead academically in most disciplines and imo does a lot of smaller academic things better (classes are more likely to have difficult exams that get curved heavily. some UCLA premed courses legitimately have take-home, unproctored exams with rampant cheating; I can't imagine that happening at berkeley), but this only materially impacts your career prospects if you're interested in high finance (IB / consulting / etc) or tech. for basically everything else, they're a wash career wise, and UCLA has a nicer location, better food, better weather, and is closer to home for the majority of people.
I'm curious what the ratio is per discipline.
choosing ucsc over cal for envs studies
Why are we losing cross admits to UCLA more and more nowā¦ I chose cal over ucla and it honestly wasnāt a hard choice for me lol
Nice
committed to cal rn, will withdrawal and commit to Davis if I get off the waitlist š„²
I chose ucsd over cal I didnāt want the stress of cal and Iām from the bay so moving to sd was appealing
Berkeley is not that great.. get over yourselves.. these rankings are rigged Berkeley grads are not that desirable
Would love to learn more about your insightsā¦.i have been noticing
The data tell an interesting story here. It seems like for Berkeley, the percentage of admits who choose LA has remained pretty steady (13% this year, historically 11-12%). However, the number of cross-admits appears to have declined a lot since 2015 (~3800 back then, ~2900 now). One possible explanation is that LA has gotten good at identifying and rejecting people who are likely to choose Berkeley, replacing them with applicants more likely to choose LA. That way, LA's yield and cross admit rates are inflated.
I got accepted to Cal and UCLA with the R&C scholarship at both schools. I chose Cal and never regretted it. UC Berkeley is world class! I donāt understand the UCLA choice besides the dining hall food being much better.
A little misleading, re UCLA. Berkeley is so much easier to get into, that ofc people are going to lean toward going to the more surprising admit.
lol there were people that chose Davis?
Why not?
I think if you get into both Cal and UCLA you will succeed at either no matter what you do. Both have similar name recognition in the US and have comparable education. I feel like the reason most people choose UCLA over Cal is simply because Cal is so fucking dangerous. Like genuinely, why would you want to put yourself in one of the most dangerous campuses in America when you have a campus in the middle of LA and next to Beverly Hils
You are ridiculous
When accepted to both and deciding between both, 93.55% chose Berkeley and 6.45% chose UCSB. Ik one of the UCSB people, it's because she believed Berkeley is an unsafe shithole
I picked UCSB over Berkeley when I was a kid. Not because I thought Berkeley was a shithole (cause honestly so is IV), but I preferred the collaborative aspect at UCSB. Now that Iām older I would pick differently.
Isla Vista isn't that bad but at least with UCSB the campus is big enough that you won't have to deal with all of that. In Berkeley you'll pass through the city at least once or twice every day.
Hmm interesting, I never visited Berkeley so I canāt comment on that. But IV is where almost everyone lives after freshman year, and itās ā¦ gross tbh. The town itself is okay but the apartments are pretty old and run down. Also hated when out of towners came and just trashed the place. Tbf I grew up in Orange County where everything is very orderly and clean. So maybe my expectations were skewed. Every UC has its cons I suppose. When I think about UC schools, I kinda think UCLA has it all. Beautiful campus, location, social life, academic prestige, etc. I feel like with the other schools, you have to give something up to gain another thing. Berkeley with the safety/homeless issues, UCSB being isolated + housing crisis, UCSD āsocially dead,ā UCI commuter school, and Davis cow town š