UC Berkeley Haas vs UCLA Business Economics Undergrad
Hey everyone, I've just been admitted to these two wonderful schools! UC Berkeley for Business Administration and UCLA for Business Economics. This is the first year that UC Berkeley has done direct admission to Haas as well. I'm currently struggling to pick between the two schools; I prefer the social scene at UCLA, but the prestige of Haas cannot be overlooked. My end goal would be to work in PE or IB in NYC, but I wouldn't be mad working in SF or LA either. I'm limited to just these schools and cost is not a factor. Would choosing UCLA over Haas put me at such a big disadvantage?
Thank you so much!
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Firstly congrats on both offers!
To echo what others have already said the IB prospects from CAL are better than UCLA, but the truth of the matter is UCLA is a strong enough school where you can almost definetly land an offer if you put in the right work.
As a UCLA student I'll shed some light here (even though it's very prevalent on other forums). A lot of UCLA's IB placement will come from the two main programs (IB Workshop and Sharpe Fellows) and its main finance clubs (BAM, BIT, BHF, and BVI). Those clubs have their job placements listed on their website if you want to check them out, you can definetly get a NYC offer from UCLA. It's worth noting that all of the above programs and clubs are incredibly competitive, and although it is possible to recruit without them, you'll have to put in significantly more work without the same access to opportunities, networks, and guidance.
Overall CAL is definetly a safer option, but if a more social atmosphere and sun is what you want, UCLA won't hold you back.
Great insights above. I’ll just add that you will have 10x more fun at UCLA than Cal.
Absolutely go to Haas. It isn’t even close. UCLA can and will hold you back. There are opportunities available at Cal that simply aren’t there at UCLA, especially in tech PE and VC.
UCLA is good, Berkeley just has a better rep. Placements this year are exceptional and there’s representation at every BB and EB (including PJT RSSG, EVR RX/M&A, Q, LAZ NYC, MOE NYC and LA etc) and even MF PE (Vista, Bain, BX non corp pe, KKR non corp pre, Ares etc)…
Cal will definitely take you further if your goal is IB. Of course, that’s not all there is to college so keep that in mind too.
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