The transition between high school and college is like liftoff-the roaring thrill of the first booster rocket those lunches the great adventure of life. United States of America, the Mecca of education, where great universities and unlimited opportunities gathers. Unlike any other country, even if one failed in high school, one is always given a second chance by starting the higher education in local community college, and once the student realized the importance of education, in another words, the value of knowledge, there are always great universities that awaits him. For a college student whom majors in business management and administration field, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and University of California-Berkeley are two great choices for higher education. Even thou these two schools provides similar education quality, the student body and social environment are very different from each other.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the nucleus of east cost engineering, science, business, and mathematics. New York Times newspaper acknowledges the school as, “the ultimate place for information overload, endless possibilities and expanding your horizons.” Indeed, with sixty-three MIT related Nobel Prize Winners, the school obtains some of the most creative minds in United States. Additionally, the school focuses on providing an education to students that combines both academic study and real time discovery. Moreover, since MIT is a private institution, class size is small, fewer than ten students. The student faculty ratio is about seven to one, in another words, each student can accesses to their professors easily.
Undoubtedly, under such altruistic environment, life in MIT is no fun. For every high school students who wishes to attend MIT, the school expects every candidate to be creative, hard working, problem solving, and most importantly, be able to manage and prioritize daily affairs. For instance, during academic semesters, on weekdays especially, every student needs to spend about eight hours per day studying. An undergraduate asserts, “ It may seem… like there is no life outside the problem sets and studying for exams, but with good time management skill or the ability to survive [a] lack of sleep, there are always things you can do on campus.”
Besides all the opportunities the school provides and the workload that is beyond comfort level, MIT is a school made up with engaging people. Although one forth of its student-body does look like Albert Einstein, the rest of them seem to be ‘ordinary’ student. Although, each student’s interests may vary from athletic activity to building robots, but there is one thing all students have in common—creative and hard working. Simultaneously, the school environment is enriched by different ethnicity, culture, language, and religion. With three hundred and thirty organizations, twelve media organizations, sixty-four ethic, language, and internal student organizations, thirty religious organizations…the school promises to every student “ No matter what your culture, interests, or background, you will find an open door at MIT”
Similarly, in spite of the differences of location and weather in winter, University of California-Berkeley’s academic is just about as challenging as MIT. At Berkeley students are offered with a wild variety of undergraduate courses and research opportunities. Additionally, the university library holds more than nine million books volumes, ninety thousand current serial publications, and sixty-four thousand videos. Most importantly, the school gives their students freedom for discovery and investigation. Professor Yellen from Hass School of Business comments, “research allows student to pursue their interests, to learn new things, to sharpen problem solving skills, and to challenge themselves in new way.”
However, University of California—Berkeley is a public university, and it is using a very different admission system. With more than twenty three thousand undergraduate students, more than ninety percent of lectures in Berkeley are held in large lecture halls-more than a hundred students. An undergraduate student emphasizes, “ If you walk into a lecture hall and you had to group people into what ‘crowd’ they were in high school, it would be near impossible.” Moreover, yet Berkeley has more than three hundred organizations, but many students still felt disconnected from the social scene. An undergraduate once stated in Los Angles Times newspaper, “students live up to hours away via car or BART, since high rent prices in the city of Berkeley force many out of the city’s limits. If kids don’t find a niche in some group or activity, they end up completely lost for a social life.”
Finally, University of California-Berkeley has a very special admission system. At Berkeley the school considers academic GPA, application essay, rigor of secondary school record and state residency as the most important factors. In comparison, the admission office in MIT considers character, personal qualities as the most important factor, and then it is academic GPA, class rank, extracurricular activities, interview and recommendation. As a result, with forty one percent of Asian, thirty two percent of White, eleven percent of Hispanic, and three percent of African American, Berkeley does not hold a diverse education environment,
In conclusion, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and University of California-Berkeley are two great universities. However, different students with different personalities may make different choices. MIT creates a hand-on learning environment, while Berkeley lets their student to be independent, and learn things on their own.
