UC Berkeley or UC Irvine?

Question

So I'm going to be a junior this fall in high school, but have been thinking a lot about college. I don't have any idea what I want to do yet, but I recently visited the UCB campus. I originally wanted to go Berkeley because I thought it was the best UC school, but I don't know anymore.

I seriously hated the weather and it is far from home (I live in Irvine). Also the near by neigboorhoods were not pleasant (Being close to Oakland and all). So can someone tell me if Irvine or Berkeley is a better school? I just want to go to the best one but I really like living in Irvine.

Answer 1

Berkeley has the better reputation, and is located near Stanford and the Silicon Valley. I also heard that it can be insanely competitive. But obviously it's going to rain a lot since it is in Northern California. Irvine also happens to be where some notable companies are headquartered at as well. It's really up to personal preference, I suppose. Berkeley looks better on the resume, but are you willing to work hard in the given weather conditions for it?

Answer 2

Both of those schools are good. It is all up to you, do not let people opinions and college rankings affect your decision. Just because you go to Berkeley does not mean you will get a job instantly. It is all about your attitude and and how capable are you for getting the job done. My mom had some interns from both UC Irvine and UC Berkeley. The one from Berkeley did not know how to get the job done and was very often grumpy and had a bad attitude. While the person from Irvine was very friendly and knew how to get the job done. My mom ended up hiring the one from Irvine. In my opinion I would say you go to Irvine.

Answer 3

Uc Irvine College Prowler

Answer 4

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You're kidding, right? If that's going to be you logic, you should be comparing Berkeley vs Disneyland. Disneyland would be a hellava lot more fun than Berkeley any day of the week. Actually, if you even have to ask the question you'll probably never get in anyway.

Answer 5

I would say UC Berkeley, because it is significantly stronger academically (and as far as I know, its psychology department is excellent). Plus, the location is great, and anyone I know who went there said that they really enjoyed their time in the area.

Answer 6

`Berkeley has a tiny bit better reputation but academically, I would say that UCI is not affected as badly by the budget cuts.



Myself, I would prefer UCI because of the weather. But then I used to live in Costa Mesa.



If you live in Irvine then UCI is the obvious choice as you will save huge money by living at home.



UCI still has an excellent reputation and if you major in the sciences, remember there are fantastic internship possibilities in Irvine as it is the number 3 technology center in the USA. While Silicon Valley is like 40 miles from UCB.

Answer 7

I'm going to assume that your academics are good enough to get you into both.

Irvine is definitely a "shadow school" because not as many people around the country know it as they do Berkeley.



Here is a little comparison...



http://collegeprowler.com/university-of-california----berkeley/

http://collegeprowler.com/university-of-california----irvine/



So as you can see, Berkeley takes the crown for the better school, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it's better for you.

Answer 8

Berkeley is definitely the "better" school. That is not to say Irvine isn't fantastic, it's just if you can get accepted to Berkeley, and you choose to attend there, it will look really good when applying for jobs or grad school.

Answer 9

Don't base decisions on the weather that prevailed for one day or a weekend or even a week. Berkeley has a fantastic climate. The major differences are that it is not as warm in December and January, when a student is going to be at home anyway, though the low temps are comparable, and it gets more rain. In the summer it is not as hot, again when most students are not in town. Air conditioning is rarely used.

The academic reputations of the two universities are significantly different....

http://www.arwu.org/ARWU2010.jsp

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2011-2012/reputation-rankings.html

Another issue is that Irvine along with Davis and Riverside have two hour finals that take two hours and also the lowest GPA's at graduation in the UC system while Berkeley has three hour finals that take two and a half hours and the highest GPA in the UC system. At Berkeley, students have a week to ten days from the end of classes till the time finals begin to prepare for Finals. At UCI they have one day to a weekend.

http://statfinder.ucop.edu/library/tables/table_139.aspx

Another issue is that Irvine has a very skewed diversity that is more appropriate to a university in Hong Kong than California, about 70% Asian, the highest level in the UC system. Oakland is a wonderfully diverse city with a few bad areas, West Oakland and East Oakland. These areas are not near the UC campus. Rockridge is about a mile down College Avenue from the campus and a great area of Oakland. Piedmont is nicer than any neighborhood in Orange County. On the Northside of the campus, the area called Holy Hill has the highest concentration of seminaries in the US. There is no comparison in the campus environments. It is like comparing apples and oranges. Irvine is a suburban campus where there is no meeting of town and gown whatsoever similar to Stanford, whereas Berkeley is on the traditional university model where it is often difficult to differentiate the town limits from the university similar to the Harvard or Oxford model.

Good Luck!