Rice or Berkeley?

 Rice or Berkeley?

眼看就要逼近5月1号了，老大在Rice or Berkeley之间挣扎着。在参观RICE的时候，他非常EXCITING，几乎肯定的说要把DEPOSIT放到RICE。可回到加州之后，他又有些倾向Berkeley了。

记得在德州朋友家，朋友问他选哪个，他说，从finacial的角度来说，我应该选BERKELEY。朋友说，Finacial是你父母应该考虑的问题，不是你考虑的问题。他的回答让我出乎预料：正因为父母说无条件的支持我，我才要为他们考虑。天啊，什么时候变得这么懂事了？

听他跟同学聊天说：我的两个TWIN BROTHER上大学的时候，我爸爸妈妈就该退休了，我应该从现在开始，尽量为他们省钱。哎吆，这平时跟他无意念叨的几句话，也没见到他有啥反映，怎么这时候全用上了？

我倾向RICE，男孩子嘛，出去锻炼锻炼，摔打摔打，挺好。
老公倾向Berkeley，他每去过RICE，对那当然没感觉，觉得Berkeley，挺好。

朋友当中，大部分倾向RICE。住在硅谷，停了太多关于BERKELEY的TOUGH：比如说，亚裔很多，竞争很强，学生太多，经济缩减，还有人说选课选不到，5年才能毕业。。。。。。我把听到的所有“传说”都倾泄给老大了，以便“帮助” 他做决定。老大说了：妈妈，我知道你想让我去RICE，爸爸想让我去BERKELEY，但是我不会听你的，也不会听爸爸的，我要跟我在BERKELEY读书的朋友们多写一些EMAIL，多听他们怎么说，然后再做决定。

我知道，这是她的4年，不是我的，最后的决定，还是要他自己来做。

老大想学文科，ECON，为了让他更进一步了解RICE，我让朋友的女儿（她在RICE，很喜欢那里），帮他在RICE找了一个在RICE 读ECON的同学，了解一些内部具体情况，老大拿到EMAIL后，马上给这个同学发了个EMAIL（同时，他也给在BERKELEY读书的3个朋友发了类似的EMAIL）

HI， I'm a prospective Rice student who hasn't yet submitted his SIR and is wavering between Berkeley and Rice. I received your email from a mutual friend, who referred me to you as I plan on studying some form of economics/managerial studies at either school and was hoping you could provide some insight into the courses there. More specifically:

1. How are the quality of the courses there? I know that Berkeley's economics department is more prestigious and renowned around the U.S. but would you say the quality of teaching at Rice is top notch? Any courses you would recommend/warn of etc.

2. How are research opportunities at Rice? I would like to go to grad school after undergrad and want to look into research, internships and the like to get a head start on building my resume. Is it easy to find opportunities to work with professors, competitiveness, accessibility etc.

3. Is it easy to get a job outside of Texas after Rice? I know that Rice is heralded as the Southern Ivy and is very well respected in Texas, but on the west coast for example very few of my peers know of it. In your opinion would I be better off going to Rice or Berkeley assuming I'd like to work for a few years on the East coast after graduating?

4. Quality of life? How is the social scene as in do people date/party hard/nerd it up/go to clubs and bars etc. I'd really like to get a holistic college experience where I can have fun and gain a valuable education. How is Rice in terms of this?

If you have any other tips or comments feel free to share! I have to SIR to one of these two colleges by Friday so any feedback is much appreciated! Thank you!

其实我给他找“内线”，多少有点软PUSH 的成分在里边，人人都说RICE好，那里的学生一定很HAPPY吧。

可是啊可是，老大FORWARD给我RICE同学的回信，却让我我却立刻傻了眼：


glad to help man.

1) the quality of the courses range from poor to mediocre. there’s a few good classes but mostly I haven’t been super impressed with any of my classes.

2) Research opportunities are super minimal. I don’t know anyone doing economics or business research. the opportunities usually go to grad students.

3) most people I know are working in texas. that said, it can be done, but the network is mostly Houston.

4) people at rice seem to like the quality of life. I’d say its 50% party 50% nerdy in terms of demographics. the girls are okay.

to be honest, I’m largely going to rice because of a full scholarship I received. I’m having a good time here but the econ department is not very strong. that’s the honest truth.

Sincerely,

XXX




估计这结果老大也没想到：“well not exactly what i hoped to hear, but thanks for being honest; it'll help me in my college decision process.” 那边的回应：“ya sorry about that. Rice is a great school but our econ department is abysmal.”

我有点懊悔，不知道自己这叫不叫“弄巧成拙”，不过，能听到一些诚实的声音，总是好的。

与此同时，3个BERKELEY 的朋友都有了回音，两个直接通了电话，出乎预料的是，3个反映有很POSITIVE。大意就是：你在LYNBROOK闯都过来了，BERKELEY不成问题。是的，这里学生多，学校大，没有人手把着手教你干这干那，但是这正是你需要锻炼的地方，因为真实社会就是这样。。。。。。

老大说，他想学经济，总体来讲，BERKELEY的BUSINESS SCHOOL 要强些，NETWORK要广些，他要选BERKELEY，他听了很多关于BERKELEY的负面消息，但是他已经做好准备，Take the all challenger in Berkeley。。。。。。。

事到如今，我知道他决意已定，他已经方方面面考虑了，我能说能做的也都说了，做了，现在剩下的，也就是，尊重，放手，祝福！