Hello! I was also undecided between SUNY and Berkeley. I did a lot of thinking as you can read for yourself below. Enjoy
Cost:
I'm a CA resident so I may be slightly biased. I actually did a VERY ROUGH estimate on how much it'll cost me to live in Berkeley and NYC. Tuition-wise, SUNY has about a $9000 advantage over Berkeley (assuming the tuition fees at either place remains the same from now through 2012...which is probably highly unlikely). However, when I calculated the cost of living of NYC by pretending that I will be paying $1000/month for rent and transportation (which is probably a generous estimate) compared to the $500/month I'm paying right now at Berkeley for rent, I end up saving more than $20000 over the 4 year period! Once again, very rough estimates but it gave me some idea at least. So cost-wise, Berkeley has a slight advantage overall.
Curriculum:
Berkeley's clinical program ensures every student to have examined 2000+ patients over the period of 4 years. However, one little downside to Berkeley's program is the choice of externship locations. Berkeley doesn't have too many out-of-state locations compared to some other optometry schools in the nation. However, the selection is still decent. Berkeley's academic program is going to be awesome. I also like how Berkeley's first year will kind of ease you into the graduate level education rather than SUNY's first year where I've heard complaints from several current SUNY students. If you look at a sample schedule of a first year student at SUNY that's posted on their website, you see that on some days the student's schedule goes from 9am through 6 or 7pm at night with little break in between!! That personally scares me. I know for a fact that Berkeley's first year schedule is nowhere near that intense since I live with a current first year student right now. Not saying it's so much easier at Berkeley but for sure the first year will be very manageable.
Clinic:
I'd have to give SUNY a slight edge in this area as many of you pointed out before my post. SUNY has probably the biggest clinic out of all the optometry schools AND it draws its patient base from the greater NYC area (8 million people). Berkeley, while having a good clinic facility as well (I've been in the clinics before), probably doesn't draw as many patients as SUNY does. But don't quote me on that one, it's just my intuition
Location:
Finally, location, location, location. NYC will be EXCITING to live in for sure, even if the cost of living is quite a bit higher than that of Berkeley's. However, since we will all be optometry students at prestigious institutions with pretty challenging curricula at both places, I'm not sure if NYC will still be as exciting as we're making it sound to be after the first couple of years. We will probably be too swamped in exams and practicing our techniques in the clinics to have much time to really go out and have a crazy nightlife all 4 years. Personally, my body prefers Berkeley's climate over that of NYC's. I was born in a humid climate and my body did not like that too much when I was a little kid. SF is right across from Berkeley for people like me who love the city life so we won't be totally be devoid of city life
Wow this has been a super long post! Sorry! I hope this somewhat helps you with your decision but as everyone has said, it really comes down to personal preferences. This was definitely one of the hardest decisions I had to make in my life so far. Good luck and I may see you on Admit Day in Berkeley!
