OdontoBear66;842736778 said:
I am there right now Juarez. Rightfully, or wrongfully, a lot of people would pick G'town over Cal. Having been a Cal grad and UCSF grad, I could easily make the case for G'town. The campus, its location in DC, it's access to speakers all powerful, the talent drawn upon for education, not to mention the village of Gtown and its charm, the difficulty of admissions, the diversity, the give back of the alums in support, and a measured fun/control environment (party but don't mess the neighborhood), sports league in which they participate (the Big East) with all schools of generally similar academic focus---no ASUs, UofAs, WSUs, OSUs, UofOs in their league---making the playing field level.
The climate in G'town and DC easily rivals Berkeley unless you enjoy life to the extremes. Concepts and thoughts are challenged and for a non Catholic religion is minor (as in two general religion classes as a freshman). I suggest you might research better what you don't know.
Odonto - I probably reacted too harshly because I'm annoyed by all of these rankings that are obviously skewed totally against the public schools, and I absolutely acknowledge that Georgetown is a premier university. Sadly one ranking that never seems to hit the radar is how many undergrads continue on to get PhD degrees in areas that aren't necessarily financially based. The number one school would be Berkeley. That being said, I've actually researched Georgetown, have several friends who are alums, and spent a little time on the campus. As you mentioned, positives include access to the inside the beltway world, first class diplomacy school, smaller class size, decent diversity, quaint neighborhood, Catholic sports league with similar traits among the schools, no cut-throat competition among students. Basically, a safe, fun environment for the college experience. Absolutely nothing wrong with that. Now for the flip side of Cal vs G'Town...Aside from diplomacy/political areas of study, name ONE Georgetown department with a worldwide reputation. How's their engineering, life sciences, or hard sciences? What about English, Econ, Comp Lit, Computer Science, Architecture, Business, Natural Resources or Philosophy? If I wanted to be really nasty, I would call Georgetown something like Duke Lite. Largely preppy, private or parochial school grads who want to live in the city (as you said measured fun/controlled environment), but don't really want to go out on a limb and do something extraordinary. As for the Pac 12 versus the Catholic League (or whatever they now call the Big East), once again, you either want to play with the big boys or your don't. I was a golf recruit and wanted to play against the best in the country while getting the best possible education. That's what the Pac 12 can offer if you attend any of the California schools, Udub, or Colorado. When my high school friends from Dartmouth, Rice, Duke, and other smaller schools questioned me about class size at Cal, my response was the following: Berkeley isn't for everybody. Being an undergrad requires one to take initiative to get access to some of the brightest minds on the planet across every imaginable discipline. If you want to skate thru from the back of the room for four years, that's fine. I was a pesky student who sought out my profs and dug as deep as I could. The absence of coddling put a stick up my ass and taught me that if I wanted or needed something, I had to deal with it first-hand. I know the medical field is difficult and you're obviously a really bright guys if you graduated from UCSF. I made my way in an insanely competitive and cut-throat business (movie production) partly because at Berkeley, I learned I had to bring my A Game and not take no for an answer.
