Bigger Impact: Cal or Stanford (Los Angeles, Riverside: transfer, schools, university)

[edsg25]

Which university, Cal or Stanford, has a greater impact on the Bay Area economically and educationally (or other ways as well...even athletically)? I know Cal gets high marks as being the state school and larger, but what Stanford has generated in the Silicon Valley is an economic miracle.

[baybook]

Why Cal, of course!

[BayAreaHillbilly]

Over the long haul, Cal. Although Stanford indeed helped spur Silicon Valley, Cal graduates and has graduated far more inguneers and others working in the biz.

[krudmonk]

I'd say Stanford, but I'm closer so that could play a part.

Also, "Cal" is a moniker applied mainly to sports. They're UC Berkeley in the academic context.

[baybook]

Originally Posted by krudmonk

I'd say Stanford, but I'm closer so that could play a part.

Also, "Cal" is a moniker applied mainly to sports. They're UC Berkeley in the academic context.

Cal is for the sports stuff, but also identifies the "flagship campus".

If we are going to get techinical, I'd say Berkeley for the school, not UC. ;-)

[krudmonk]

Originally Posted by baybook

Cal is for the sports stuff, but also identifies the "flagship campus".

If we are going to get techinical, I'd say Berkeley for the school, not UC. ;-)

Well if we're already on the subject of colleges, then I'd say "Berkeley," too. Otherwise, it's "UC Berkeley." "Cal is a sports brand and "University of California" is the greater system composed of ten campuses, flagship or not.

[edsg25]

Originally Posted by krudmonk

I'd say Stanford, but I'm closer so that could play a part.

Also, "Cal" is a moniker applied mainly to sports. They're UC Berkeley in the academic context.

C'mon, krudmonk, go to Cal's website and see how many references to "Cal" you see that are not on the athletic website. SFGate has had numerous articles about the university off the field and court and called it Cal.

Of course the "official" shortened version of the name is UC Berkeley, but you can't tell me that loads of people still refer to the school as Cal.

Cal is Cal, krud, just like UT Austin is Texas, UW Madison is Wisconsin, and UNCCH is North Carolina or just plain Carolina. And not just in sports.

Cal is special as the first campus and founder of the system and is allowed to keep that special character by getting to keep the Cal label. Just like the other powerhouse school in the system gets to be UCLA....and never, ever, past, present, or future, something known as UC Los Angeles, or California-Los Angeles.

I'd say that Davis, Irvine, Santa Cruz, Riverside, and you will just have to live with Cal being.....well....Cal.

[hsw]

Easily Stanford b/c of SV and all the founders, engineers and VCs who are Stanford alums (one of the CompSci profs even became a billionaire from his early google investment), but lots of Berkeley alums are top engineers and founders in SV (and engineering profs at Stanford)

IIRC, Stanford and Berkeley are similar-sized engineering schools (no. of grads annually)

Notice nearly no tech cos. or start-ups are HQd in EastBay suburbs, despite Berkeley's superb engineering school...most valuable co. in EastBay is Chevron...so lots of Berkeley's top students leave Berkeley for PaloAlto area upon graduation, thus the rather extraordinary socio-economics in PaloAlto area b/c of all the top grads from various top colleges in CA, MA, PA, IL who converge upon SV to pursue their careers

BTW, may be an engineering thing but have several family members and friends who are Stanford or Berkeley engineering PhDs who always refer to "Berkeley", not "UC" or "Cal"

[batransplant]

It is my understanding that CAL Berkeley attracts a certain type of very extreme liberal student. I have some friends who went to Berkeley and felt uncomfortable because they were the only "normal" people in their classes. There are always people protesting something at the school, and creating havoc on campus. Its my understanding these malcontents make it difficult for the students who are trying to learn and enjoy their college experience. One of my friends actually transferred out of Berkeley because she felt so uncomfortable there with the group think mentality. She went to UCLA instead and thrived.
You never hear about that sort of thing happening at Stanford,UCLA, or USC, who are all ranked similar to CAL in California.

[baybook]

HSW, most of your post is correct, but I would encouarge you to think about the WHYs of business development in SV.

Berkeley is landlocked and has been here for ages. SV up until the last 25+ years has much more room for growth in terms of square footage alone. Where do fledgling companies go?? The place with lower costs, more room to grow, etc. You can't afford to run a start up in SF or the East Bay. That is why you saw tech companies galore along the corridors from the highly dense East Bay and SF along the less dense to the South Bay and Eastern CC areas. Plus Berkeley and Stanford are an arms length away. There isn't a lack of talent in the wider Bay Area. ;-) Much of the phenomena you are referring to is a result of the boom in the last 20-15+ years in personal computing.

Originally Posted by hsw

Easily Stanford b/c of SV and all the founders, engineers and VCs who are Stanford alums (one of the CompSci profs even became a billionaire from his early google investment), but lots of Berkeley alums are top engineers and founders in SV (and engineering profs at Stanford)

IIRC, Stanford and Berkeley are similar-sized engineering schools (no. of grads annually)

Notice nearly no tech cos. or start-ups are HQd in EastBay suburbs, despite Berkeley's superb engineering school...most valuable co. in EastBay is Chevron...so lots of Berkeley's top students leave Berkeley for PaloAlto area upon graduation, thus the rather extraordinary socio-economics in PaloAlto area b/c of all the top grads from various top colleges in CA, MA, PA, IL who converge upon SV to pursue their careers

BTW, may be an engineering thing but have several family members and friends who are Stanford or Berkeley engineering PhDs who always refer to "Berkeley", not "UC" or "Cal"