Berkeley vs. Waterloo

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KimPossible123

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I am a Canadian student, and have been fortunate to have been accepted to Waterloo and UC Berkeley for optometry. I am having a really hard time making this decision and would love some insight!
Initially, my first choice was Waterloo because the tuition is so much less (60K vs 250K CAD), not to mention the cost of living leading to my having to apply for a loan of about 400K CAD to cover the worst case scenario costs of school (combined with how low the Canadian dollar is).
But after visiting both campuses for the interviews, I really fell in love with UCB, the people were so friendly and actually made the day fun compared to Waterloo which was just full of nerves and extremely fast. I also feel the clinical exposure is better, not to mention the huge adventure the whole experience would be. Have any other Canadian students have to make the choice between Waterloo vs an american optom school? Do you think the pros of an American and worth the significant con of the debt?

Thanks for any insight!

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Definitely not worth the huge amounts of extra debt. I would highly recommend Waterloo, even if you personally enjoyed Berkeley better. Remember that OSAP provides grants as well for Canadian students, which would further reduce the cost to attend at Waterloo.
I do agree with your point on clinical exposure though, but imo it's definitely not worth the extra 200kish to attend in the USA.
 
Not Canadian, but I also think keeping costs down is probably more important. Ultimately, everyone ends up with the same degree.

On the other hand, you want to be happy about where you spend 4 years of your life, and each school will have its pros and cons. You'll have to decide what's personally best for you. If you have any questions about UCB let me know. Hope this helps!
 
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I would recommend Waterloo. The comparison of cost is obviously one fantastic point. Are you interested in academics? Berkeley stands pretty strong, but so does Waterloo. Students I've met from Berkeley seemed a little weaker clinically versus other US schools, I can't speak for Waterloo, though I know their reputation is pretty good. Plus, if you decide to do a residency that'll help with your clinical ability. But, like you mentioned you have to choose where you'll be happiest.

School is temporary but debt is forever ;-)
 
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