venky_nag wrote:
Pelihu
I was wondering whether you are considering Berkeley part-time. Haas and Stanford GSB are the only good schools in the West Coast, if you don't want to apply to UCLA, right? I am in the Bay area, so am applying to these two schools, but Stanford is a long-shot for me given my age.
Venky
Hi Venky,
I'm applying to Haas full-time and as far as I know, you can only apply to one program per year. I will be applying to UCLA, I did my undergrad there and I have a lot of friends in the area. However, I do believe that Berkeley's reputation is trending upwards (their admit rates are getting tougher, their rankings have been moving up, their test scores have been climbing quicker, etc.) while UCLA will probably continue to maintain its current position. Also, I currently live in the Bay Area so Berkeley would be somewhat more convenient for me.
I'm older as well so I definitely consider myself a long-shot at Stanford; as of right now I'm still planning to apply but I'm pessimistic about my chances. I wouldn't say that Berkeley, Stanford and UCLA are the only good schools on the west coast, but I would agree that there is a drop-off in terms of name recognition and top-level job access after these three. Obviously Stanford will provide the best access, but UCLA and Berkeley will both allow for noticeably better access than anything from a lower cluster.