作者Caltech本科，UCB Ph.D 在读. UCB 研究生院确实国际顶尖。本科教育有差距。主要是僧多粥少。
另外，作者说 "UCB ceiling (最优秀学生) is about at the same level of ceilings of M/S/Caltech, but the floor is much lower", 也不无道理
作者也提到由于UCB的地利，也有一些相对独到优势.
其它州大与这些私立名校相比，当然差距就更大了
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Why is UC Berkeley not elite like MIT, Stanford, or Caltech?
Alright, well as someone who has a Bachelor's from Caltech, is in a PhD program at Berkeley, and has plenty of friends I visit at Stanford and MIT, I feel sortof qualified to answer your question.
One thing worth clarifying is “elite for whom, or for what purpose?”. That's an issue I always have with college rankings: they take the simplification a bit too far. I feel like you could come up with a much more useful ranking if you split it into 5 or so categories, so that's what I'll do:
- Prestige as a research institution. For this purpose Berkeley is indeed elite, and is recognized as such. There's tons of impactful research happening here, and the faculty are famous in their fields. Berkeley is the home of CRISPR, the Manhattan project, the discovery of more elements than any other institute, and many other massive scientific achievements. Of course, different schools will vary bit in different fields. Stanford definitely has one of the best MDPhD programs in the world (the other schools mentioned don't even have one). Caltech is probably the best research institute for theoretical physics (and was just awarded another Nobel prize this year). But Berkeley is certainly among their ranks, and Berkeley Computer Science and Biology are on fire!
- The best academic undergrad experience. This is a different thing entirely, that isn't necessarily that correlated with a school's prestige as a research institution. In fact, I would say that some of the best undergrad educations come from schools that focus entirely on undergrad, like Harvey Mudd, or Olin. But, that being said, I think the other three schools may outclass Berkeley a bit here. Berkeley is simply spread a bit too thin for the undergrad. There are too many students competing for the same resources. It's hard for undergrads to get into classes they want (not at all an issue at the other schools mentioned), it's difficult to get any individual attention, and the teaching experience is a bit impersonal. When I TA'd at Caltech, I was responsible for about 12 students, and I could check up on all of them to make sure they were learning. GSIing at Berkeley, I am responsible for 90, and well, the squeaky wheels get the grease, and I can't give anyone near the same level of attention. Research is even worse. It's easy to work in a lab over the summer at Caltech or MIT. At Berkeley, students have to compete heavily for research opportunities. The institute caters to students much less, despite charging similar amounts.
- Public vs private institutes: While Berkeley may be the best public university in the world, in the end, there's definitely some prestige that comes from the money of a private university. One thing I noticed is that all the professors had secretaries to handle their scheduling and finances at Caltech. At Berkeley, they're lucky to have an RA/lab manager that can help with some of that. Profs spend a lot of time fighting beaurocracy, where at Caltech it seemed much more like the institute was catering to them. Berkeley floats a lot on the strong research community it has built, and its proximity to Silicon Valley to retain professors.
- Undergrad admissions bar: A lot of the time, being elite is synonymous with being selective. Berkeley is selective, especially for out-of-state students, but it’s not in the same league as the other schools mentioned. This directly affects how valuable your degree is seen as by future employers. The highest-achieving students (the ceiling) may be brilliant, but unless the lowest-achieving students (the floor) are as well, the degree doesn't prove as much.
- Networking: Part of what makes an elite school elite is the network of peers it gives you access too. Berkeley does not give you automatic access to an extremely high-achieving network the way the other schools in the list do. It's just too big, and while the ceiling is around the same height, the floor is a lot lower than the other schools. You can build a great network at Berkeley, but you'll have to intentionally do it while you are there.
In summary, Berkeley IS elite, in some aspects. But in others, it is a little bit outclassed.
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