UCSB, Berkeley or UCLA? Forum

[shump92]

It isn't hard to get a decent gpa at Berkeley. Your classes will be filled with a bimodal curve of smart kids who work hard and idiot kids that copy work whenever possible and don't commit to getting an actual education. For a philosophy major, you're going to need to do a bit of homework on professors to see who fits your learning style. If you stay focused, you should have no problem beating out the latter group. Then fight for every point at the top.

Pretty much this. I went to Stanford, which is a peer of Berkeley, and I found this was true across all classes. Like other posters (myself included) said earlier, Cal should be a no brainer because it will just be easier for you to do well. My entire trajectory can honestly be traced back to simply joining one of my good friends in speaking with a professor we had after her final. You would probably succeed at any of these schools, but Cal, or even UCLA, will open so many more doors for you. Do whatever makes you happy. But know that you honestly get a major boost for your future prospects by trying hard at a top UG vs. a decent UG. For law school, I would be willing to say that many more T14 students came from T14/Ivies that lack a law school, than schools like ASU or UCSB. If you really like Cal and the difference in COA is not a major concern, I don't see why you wouldn't go there.

[still]

while not hard to get a good gpa at ucla/ucb, these schools still have quite a bit of grade deflation relative to most schools

also, it is VERY hard to get a good gpa in hard majors at these schools as well as other grade deflated schools

i did biomedical engineering with a minor in civil engineering at ucla

i literally think its much harder to score above average on one impacted chemical engineering course than get a 170+ on the entire lsat.

as in it requires more studying + natural intelligence to do better than half of the kids in your class on a single engineering midterm than it is to score in the 98/99th percentile of all kids taking the lsat

but ultimately for the most part gpa is just a number to addcoms so if your 10000% sure on law school just do the easiest major at a good school grade deflated or not

[kartelite]

My career advisor told me that at least one person gets into HLS every year, and into YLS every other year. Answer: yes, it is possible.

Not saying this doesn't happen, but how would the career advisor know what law schools people got into? Pretty sure they didn't cc my acceptance letters to my UG advisors.

[LawsRUs]

My career advisor told me that at least one person gets into HLS every year, and into YLS every other year. Answer: yes, it is possible.

Not saying this doesn't happen, but how would the career advisor know what law schools people got into? Pretty sure they didn't cc my acceptance letters to my UG advisors.

The advisor probably meant "goes to".

[Big Dog]

To make my question less vague I'm a philosophy major and am shooting for a GPA of 3.80+ which is why I'm questioning Berkeley.

Yikes. You picked the one really difficult hume major at Cal. It prides itself for having a lower mean GPA (B+) than the standard premed major, MCB. (Search the Daily Cal for past articles on the Phil department.

If you are prelaw, pick anything other than Phil if you attend Cal. It's an awesome department, but the rigor/grading policy ain't worth it for a prelaw type who needs A's. In contrast, most other Lit/hume departments grade on a A- curve for all but Intro/Frosh courses..

[Big Dog]

To make my question less vague I'm a philosophy major and am shooting for a GPA of 3.80+ which is why I'm questioning Berkeley.

Yikes. You picked the one really difficult hume major at Cal. It prides itself for having a lower mean GPA (B+) than the standard premed major, MCB. (Search the Daily Cal for past articles on the Phil department.

If you are prelaw, pick anything other than Phil if you attend Cal. It's an awesome department, but the rigor/grading policy ain't worth it for a prelaw type who needs A's. In contrast, most other Lit/hume departments grade on a A- curve for all but Intro/Frosh courses..

Not saying this doesn't happen, but how would the career advisor know what law schools people got into?

Some students use career services to process their recs, so when a student is accepted, they report back to the advisor.

[gnomgnomuch]

To make my question less vague I'm a philosophy major and am shooting for a GPA of 3.80+ which is why I'm questioning Berkeley.

Why not go to Berk, major in something legit (or at the very least not something completely useless)? I'm all for going to undergrad to have fun and to explore yourself, but that's what electives and minors are for. Hell, if you go to Berk, major in political science you'd have better career prospects and pretty much the same GPA. At least poli-sci departments at the top schools teach legit skills like research methods and stats.

Philosophy won't do anything for you, plus there is never a guarantee that you'll ace those classes anyway. All it takes is one or two bad grades and your GPA can get screwed. (I got a D in financial calc 1 and a C in financial calc 2, and even though my GPA was a 3.93 the rest of the my 3 years in undergrad, I don't even have a 3.8.)

[gnomgnomuch]

To make my question less vague I'm a philosophy major and am shooting for a GPA of 3.80+ which is why I'm questioning Berkeley.

Yikes. You picked the one really difficult hume major at Cal. It prides itself for having a lower mean GPA (B+) than the standard premed major, MCB. (Search the Daily Cal for past articles on the Phil department.

If you are prelaw, pick anything other than Phil if you attend Cal. It's an awesome department, but the rigor/grading policy ain't worth it for a prelaw type who needs A's. In contrast, most other Lit/hume departments grade on a A- curve for all but Intro/Frosh courses..

They grade based on the law schools way? X percent get A's, X percent get A-'s... etc?

[Big Dog]

They grade based on the law schools way? X percent get A's, X percent get A-'s... etc?

It really doesn't matter how the curve is implemented...it just could be that Cal's Phil Professors are really stringent in giving out 90's (which convert into an A/A-). Or, the tests are just that hard such that the mean test score is a 60.

But note, Cal's Phil dept is an outlier in Lit/Hume grading.

[still]

philo sounds really fun but if the grade deflation is that bad then its definitely not worth it. (disclaimer: i did my international baccalaureate in philo - doesnt mean anything but i do know a little about it and found it enjoyable)

typically the tradeoff of having a grade-deflated major is that they typically enable you to get a decent skilled job out of college whereas humanities almost certainly requires an advanced degree or connex

some of the majors i personally think have good grade deflation-to-job prospect out of undergrad ratios

statistics and bioinformatics - relative cakewalk but jobs may eventually (or already have) been replaced by computerization
civil engineering - easiest engineering by far and still tons of jobs in the transportation sector
computer science - you can make good $$ coding freelance, even without a college degree. seriously if you are cs you will get a job no matter what

also, a non-humanities major may give you a very slight diversity-plus bonus when it comes to law admissions.