Why choose UC Berkeley (Boalt) over higher-ranked schools? Forum

[cesium]

I'm curious: What are some of the reasons people would choose UC Berkeley (Boalt) over higher-ranked schools? I have personal reasons for Berkeley being one of my choices (family nearby, IP program, close to Silicon Valley), but I'm curious to know what makes Berkeley stand out from its peers.

[Yanky91]

but I'm curious to know what makes Berkeley stand out from its peersquote

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZd_YyFzPD0

[TigerDude]

because going there will truly piss off your crazy fight-the-tyranny conservative uncle.

[worldtraveler]

Stand out from its peers or from higher ranked schools? Those aren't the same thing.

[BigZuck]

You posed your question too broadly, you're not going to get any good answers. Do everything in the sticky at the top of the forum if you want constructive responses.

[TigerDude]

it's probably going to be location & atmosphere. Like people don't want to live in NYC or Chicago or Cornell or Michigan, and do want to live in what Boalt calls "the best zip code on the planet."

[californiauser]

makes sense if you want to live/work on the west coast and can't get HYS

[Kimikho]

no grades A grading system that has grades, and can be used to approximate a class rank (if one so desired), but that is not reported to employers (not including clerkships) and where employers (still not including clerkships) are highly discouraged from using grades to evaluate candidates.

warning: 0L

didn't mean to trample on Yale's grading system, cicero.

[Cicero76]

no grades

warning: 0L

Your warning is pretty important, because you're wrong.

With a fixed curve and a talented student body, an Honors grade represents a substantial achievement and a High Honors grade an outstanding one. For internal purposes, the Berkeley campus translates both Honors and High Honors grades into its system as A's. (However, if you receive a transcript which lists letter grades from a Berkeley Law student, please return it to the student and require that he or she provide a transcript from the law school Registrar's Office, not from the main campus.)

[Kimikho]

no grades

warning: 0L

Your warning is pretty important, because you're wrong.

With a fixed curve and a talented student body, an Honors grade represents a substantial achievement and a High Honors grade an outstanding one. For internal purposes, the Berkeley campus translates both Honors and High Honors grades into its system as A's. (However, if you receive a transcript which lists letter grades from a Berkeley Law student, please return it to the student and require that he or she provide a transcript from the law school Registrar's Office, not from the main campus.)

I was under the impression that these were never released, though.

[brotherdarkness]

.

[Cicero76]

no grades

warning: 0L

Your warning is pretty important, because you're wrong.

With a fixed curve and a talented student body, an Honors grade represents a substantial achievement and a High Honors grade an outstanding one. For internal purposes, the Berkeley campus translates both Honors and High Honors grades into its system as A's. (However, if you receive a transcript which lists letter grades from a Berkeley Law student, please return it to the student and require that he or she provide a transcript from the law school Registrar's Office, not from the main campus.)

Perhaps you missed the part where it made clear that employers (i.e., the only people that matter for purposes of this discussion) are not to receive or consider transcripts that have our actual grades.

His comment was that Berkeley "has no grades," which is pretty clearly not true when your grades (HH, H, P, etc) are based on a strict curve. You just don't have letter grades. It's perfectly fine to consider that an advantage, but I wouldn't call it "no grades," especially when they can apparently be used to approximate class rank:

Third, in evaluating student records with more Pass grades, it is important to remember that a significant number of students receive such grades even though they have written examinations that placed them above or near the class median. At schools with more conventional grading systems, median performances often earn a grade of B+. Thus even a record with no or few High Honors or Honors grades may conceal considerable academic distinction. For example, each year a few Berkeley Law students whose exam performance places them at or above the class median in their first-year courses fail to achieve a single Honors grade. Sometimes such students can provide letters from their instructors documenting their strong performance.

[worldtraveler]

Class rank can only be released for clerkships or other limited purposes. Grades can be released whenever the student wants.

In other words, you're all wrong.

[rpupkin]

Yikes. There's a lot of confusion here.

Everyone at Boalt has a transcript filled with "curved" grades. The grade options are: HH/H/P/SP/NP

A transcript with these grades would be available to law firms, judges, and anyone else to whom a student sends a transcript.

As for the campus's "internal translation" of H and HH grades into A's, I imagine that's something that the central campus administration (i.e., not the law school part of UCB) requires for some reason. Those translated grades are not transmitted, published, or used by the actual law school.

[Cicero76]

Class rank can only be released for clerkships or other limited purposes. Grades can be released whenever the student wants.

In other words, you're all wrong.

So there are grades? They exist? Because that was basically my only point.

It's a useful distinction for the OP, who is wondering what sets Berkeley apart.

[worldtraveler]

Class rank can only be released for clerkships or other limited purposes. Grades can be released whenever the student wants.

In other words, you're all wrong.

So there are grades? They exist? Because that was basically my only point.

It's a useful distinction for the OP, who is wondering what sets Berkeley apart.

There are grades of HH/H/P, yes. Those are actual grades.