RE: Should I go to Oregon, Stanford, or Berkeley?

The University of California system, Stanford, USC, Cal Tech are at the very top worldwide in the sciences and in engineering.

I have a feeling that TrackCoach is paying a lot of money to send his kids to Villanova and Bucknell.

If you can get into Stanford and Berkeley, then you'll definitely get into Oregon. Anyway, go with Stanford or Berkeley. Better education, better locations, better weather, etc. Stanford has better facilities than Cal, if you want a trump card between those two. Definitely rule out Oregon, though.

I live in California (northern California) but I love Eugene... great place. I know I would be happy there, but I don't know if it would be wise to give up a Stanford or Berkeley degree to go to Oregon.

Are there any top programs in Oregon such as the honors program (that I believe Hasay has talked about) etc that have a good reputation/departments as good as some of the other schools?

Follow your dreams...

The only people that think that Cal is as good as Stanford are Cal grads. One is a top 5 school. The other is a top 25 school. Berkeley is a good school but most of the graduates have an inferiority complex from not being able to go to Stanford. Now it is easy to get to SF from Berkeley (as long as the BART cops don't shoot you). Stanford has a "prettier" campus from a running point of view.As far as money, you have to look at the whole package since financial aid makes the list prices pretty irrelevant.

TrackCoach wrote:

birthday boy wrote:

A degree from Berkeley carries as much weight as an Ivy school. It's a wash with Stanford.

Perhaps Berkeley is as good a school as the Ivys, but in terms of reputation, I would say it is more like a Duke or perhaps a Villanova. I suspect Berkeley stands out a lot more on the West Coast, but on the East Coast there are so many excellent schools that may have never heard of such as Bucknell, Swarthmore, Amherst, etc. that Berkley would not stand out as much. It is debatable whether the Ivys deserve their reputation, but never-the-less, they stand alone in terms of reputation.

Another perspective wrote:

heyyo wrote:

Go to the school with the students who are more like you.

I think that if you want the best education and experience, you should do the exact opposite.

So everyone on this board should have gone to Morehouse, Grambling, or Prairie View A&M?

Berkeley is ranked top 25 but that's only because they are a public school and have to accept a certain amount of people every year. But they have world class programs etc and their departments etc would easily be top 10.

TrackCoach wrote:

Perhaps Berkeley is as good a school as the Ivys, but in terms of reputation, I would say it is more like a Duke or perhaps a Villanova. I suspect Berkeley stands out a lot more on the West Coast, but on the East Coast there are so many excellent schools that may have never heard of such as Bucknell, Swarthmore, Amherst, etc. that Berkley would not stand out as much. It is debatable whether the Ivys deserve their reputation, but never-the-less, they stand alone in terms of reputation.

UC-Berkeley has a much greater national reputation (including up and down the east coast) than Bucknell, Swarthmore, Amherst, etc. do. The latter might have nearly as good of a reputation within their states and maybe in neighboring states, as well, but otherwise it isn't even close.

Not A Golden Bear wrote:

UC-Berkeley has a much greater national reputation (including up and down the east coast) than Bucknell, Swarthmore, Amherst, etc. do. The latter might have nearly as good of a reputation within their states and maybe in neighboring states, as well, but otherwise it isn't even close.

Apples and oranges (or in the case of Bucknell, a rotten tomato). Amherst and Swarthmore are recognized as among the very best small liberal arts colleges in the country. That's very different from being a huge research university. Not necessarily better or worse, depending on the individual student, but certainly different.

See what I mean about the inferiority complex? Instead of being happy with being a top 25 program they make up excuses of why they aren't ranked higher.

,...................... wrote:

Berkeley is ranked top 25 but that's only because they are a public school and have to accept a certain amount of people every year. But they have world class programs etc and their departments etc would easily be top 10.

Perhaps comparing Berkeley to Nova and Bucknell is a stretch, but I would not put it on par with Stanford and Duke and certainly not on par with any of the Ivys. Again, I am just talking reputation, becasue as a lot of us know, reputation does not always match reality.

I\'ve spent my whole career in corporate America, working for F100 companies and believe when I say, an Ivy education gets you noticed; no matter which one it is...outside of that, there is Stanford and Duke and then everyone else. I am not including schools who specialize like John Hopkins or MIT.

With out a doubt, Berkeley is excellent school, but I thinks its reputation in Cali is not the same as the East Coast. When people think of acedemia on the West Coast, it is Stanford, Stanford, Stanford...

You said that you'd like to sit down and talk with some people who have experience with all these schools....maybe I can give you some impressions:

We lived for awhile in the Bay Area and I had the utmost respect for the academic quality of both Stanford and Cal Berkeley (though, I wondered about the atmosphere around Berkeley). When we left the Bay Area, we settled in Portland, Oregon and when it came time for our daughter to go to college, she pretty much had her pick of top universities. When it came down to deciding, a boyfriend had more influence than did we, and she chose University of Oregon Honors College. Because she was in-state, and though she received scholarship funds for most of her costs, we benefited from her staying in-state and close to home. Unless your parents are super-wealthy, or you will get substantial academic scholarship aid, you might keep in mind the savings of attending Cal Berkeley over either Oregon (out of state for you) or Stanford (private). To continue, our daughter loved the Univ of Oregon Experience and the city of Eugene and the Honors program. She graduated with a 3.80 (approx) and subsequently applied to Stanford for a masters program. She was told that Stanford was impressed by her Oregon curriculum, and she was accepted. Someone said...Stanford is difficult to get accepted into, but also difficult to fail once in. That is true, but the learning atmosphere is beyond compare. The only downside to Stanford was the very high cost of attending (this is a private U, and you can figure to spend about $50K a year). There is no question that Oregon (and most any quality institution) can offer you as much as you put into it. I would recommend that you stay away from a University that will offer you only large classroom sizes. The US News type ratings mean nothing to an undergrad because they are heavily weighted on grad level research programs/funds. Honestly, you probably can't go wrong with any of these schools, so long as you understand that Liberal Arts Universities are not for everyone, but where do think Socrates would want you to go? Stanford sometimes has a preppy reputation, but we found it the opposite. They are very much inclined to favor free-thinkers and diversity. The University of Oregon, of course is in an absolutely stunning setting, and Berkeley is unique (not for everyone, but perfect for many). Good luck on you choice.

TrackCoach wrote:

Perhaps comparing Berkeley to Nova and Bucknell is a stretch, but I would not put it on par with Stanford and Duke and certainly not on par with any of the Ivys. Again, I am just talking reputation, becasue as a lot of us know, reputation does not always match reality.

I've spent my whole career in corporate America, working for F100 companies and believe when I say, an Ivy education gets you noticed; no matter which one it is...outside of that, there is Stanford and Duke and then everyone else. I am not including schools who specialize like John Hopkins or MIT.

With out a doubt, Berkeley is excellent school, but I thinks its reputation in Cali is not the same as the East Coast. When people think of acedemia on the West Coast, it is Stanford, Stanford, Stanford...

I think it depends on what you mean by "reputation". If you are referring to "name recognition" from your average man on the street, then certainly most of the Ivys (but not all -- Brown doesn't have near the national wow factor of a Duke or Stanford) have that, along with a few others.

But who cares what the man on the street thinks? You can't be serious that F100 companies think that there's "the Ivys, Stanford and Duke" and then everyone else. The University of Chicago has a national and international reptuation that far exceeds the lesser Ivys and Duke, and I'd put Berkeley, Rice, UVA, and Michigan in the mix, too.

The point to the OP is that if you want to impress Aunt Carol and Uncle Frank, go to Stanford. But if you just want a good job and a good education, you won't go wrong either way. (But if I'm being honest, it'd be hard to pass up Stanford...)

go to Stanford, kid.

All this academic talk is great, but this is Letsrun, so...are you planning on running for the teams? Have you talked to any of the coaches?

depending on how fast you are, you may not even make the squad at Stanford or Oregon....are you OK with that?

just GO TO HELL YOU TROLL

Justine Fedronic, Diana George, or Jennifer Bergman?

The University of California is very comparable to Stanford, both are top five schools academically and have a terrific national and international reputation. Berkeley's graduate program is a little better than its undergraduate program, and its distance program is showing some improvement.

The Stanford posters on here tend to take a few cheap shots at UC-Berkeley here, but it's a rival insitution. I would take them with a grain of salt. Both are excellent schools.

I went black wrote:

Another perspective wrote:

I think that if you want the best education and experience, you should do the exact opposite.

So everyone on this board should have gone to Morehouse, Grambling, or Prairie View A&M?

Although you are taking an extreme example, there is no way you can tell me that if you would have gone to one of those schools that you wouldn't have learned a shitload more stuff about a variety of topics that you wouldn't have learned at any other university. Or at least you would have learned things from a much different perspective. You may feel uncomfortable at first, but after that first year you'd be fine.

People need to get out of their comfort zone. It's when somebody is constantly in their own bubble of "sameness" that life comes and slaps them in the face.

This is why I would also recommend Berkeley. What you would learn from Berkeley is far greater than what you would learn at Stanford. Because not only would you get a great academic experience, but you learn with people who come from a variety of different perspectives and backgrounds, and their input and discussions are oftentimes just as valuable as the class material itself.

Also, the whole Stanford "One you get in, it's hard to fail" is quite true from what I've heard. People rarely fail, but only because there is an extreme amount of coddling and guiding towards the right answer or situation. Although this may not be true, I've heard that Stanford students can drop a class up to the day of the final. Whereas Cal is much more like real life. You sign up for something, you commit to it, you get it done.

But again, the choice is yours. If you do want a "nice" experience, with people that are "like you", and a "nice" name to tell people about, then yeah go Stanford.

If you want to go to Cal then I applaud you for stepping out of your comfort zone and getting a truly unique experience.