For all you guys out there on the east coast, how is Cal Berkeley perceived? How much of a discount does a Berkeley education receive on the east coast versus a Harvard/Princeton/etc.
Would be helpful insight, thanks.
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bump w/ regards to USC
Having grown up in NYC, Cal doesn't get much respect around here in comparison to other top schools. Right or wrong, it's definitely considered behind all the Ivies, Stanford, MIT, Cal Tech, UChicago, Duke, Northwestern, Georgetown, Johns Hopkings, Williams and Amherst. And probably generally considered behind schools like Middlebury, Emory, Vanderbilt, and WashU. I'd say it's probably considered on par with Tufts, Carnegie Mellon, Rice, and UMich. USC (which, btw, I loved more than any other school when visiting, but decided not to go that far west) is probably a small step down from there. I think people are aware that it's a good school, but it's so far off of people's minds that it doesn't get anywhere near the reputation that it does in California. Whether this is right or wrong, I don't know.
Agree, although I think it's about on par with the last 5 schools.
I'd say they're ahead of these schools, if for no other reason than because these schools aren't near the biggest financial centers in the US.
Definitely ahead of Tufts, Carnegie Mellon, and Rice. Both UMich and Cal Berkeley should be up in the same area with Northwestern, Georgetown, Johns Hopkings, Williams and Amherst, in my humble opinion.
Berkeley is probably not where you want to go for undergrad if you want to work in the BB. They get solid recruiting for Big4 and MM. If you go there, be sure to major in Political Economy of Non-Idustrialized Societies or Econ/Biz, otherwize you have no shot. But if you work really hard, you can get a great job! My friend is now running his own book at Handbridge Capital Partners, LLC, and he got his degree in PolEcNIdS (or Developmental International Political Economy). Just know that you wont get the same kind of internation exposure that someone at say George Washington (Elliot School) or Kenyon or Harvard or Princeton or Stanford or NYU would get. Those are the schools to be at.
But who knows? It worked out for my friend at Handbridge Capital Partners LLC.
Haha...Structured Investments, Explosive Returns. Already bought some swag.
Berkley is very well represented. Don't believe me? Look at their MBA report...
HandbridgeCap recruits from Cal, Kenyon, etc...
Otherwise Northwestern would be better than Yale.
A top performer from Cal (right degree of course) can definitely land a gig a BB in SF or LA offices. They usually place one or two electrical engineers in tech groups out west as well.
"Cowards die a thousand deaths, but the brave only one," Bill Shakespeare
Thanks for the insight. Fairly informative. My question was mostly concerned with undergrad as I know Cal MBA is doing fine. barter4size...stop being useless and spamming all these boards with your crap
lots of info in here...if you want to get to a bb, definitely major in business at cal. its a perennial top 5 ug business program and all the major players come on campus to recruit. tons of people get into bbs in sf, silicon valley, and la. a good number get into the west coast office of the good boutiques as well (moelis, greenhill, etc).
if you want to go to ny, it'll be harder, as you will compete against the east coast targets. not saying that it cant be done. my classmates got into the top groups at gs, etc, not to mention one (maybe two?) who went to blackstone private equity straight from undergrad.
in summary, definitely a strong target on the west coast. respectable, but more difficult for those who want to try east coast.
dont even think about east coast. getting a banking gig in west coast is challenging enough. i know some banks in souther cali interview usc kids, but its pretty difficult. not impossible, but i definitely dont see many of them around.
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