<p>I got into Berkeley for this coming fall, and I think the main reason I was admitted was because of my essay, due to my inclusion of personal struggle I have been going through (a medical condition). However, due to this, I am afraid that I may not be able to handle the work at Cal, seeing as how most people here have insane GPA, SAT, and everything else.</p>
<p>I have about a 3.9 weighted GPA, 150 hours of community service, and always take the hardest (i.e. AP and Honors) courses available. </p>
<p>I hope I'm not getting over my head. Help would be appreciated.</p>
<p>You aren't. Relax. Be happy. The school works with students with medical conditions in various ways, and many Berkeley students have fairly normal GPA, SAT, and even etc. Averages mean half fall below, right? And sats are a poor indication of college grades.</p>
<p>Yeah...I mean if your in something like Mass Communication, then sure Cal is a cakewalk. But if your in like Chemical Engineering or EECS, then take a good look outside your window and say goodbye to the grass, the trees, the sky and sun. You won't be seeing any of that for the next four years. On the other hand, welcome to Soda hall; your new prison - err home, I mean - for the next four years.</p>
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LOL Strykur...I think there are quite a few Berkeley science and engineering students who would disagree with you.
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<p>And plenty of humanities and social science students. Talk to the English and philosophy students and ask how much of a cakewalk their courses are. And history majors (who have tons of reading and have to complete a thesis to graduate), to name a few. But I guess anything not science can't be hard?</p>
<p>DRab, how hard is English at Berkeley? It's all relative of course but I just wish you could elaborate on amount of readings per week, average page length of papers, and so forth.</p>
<p>Similarly I'm worried too that I won't be able to handle the rigors of Cal work. I do intend to try my hardest. How hard is it for Film or Sociology majors? I know they fall up under Letters and Sciences. I really would appreciate any feedback.</p>
<p>This is normal behavor. Try to relax, you'll make your way. Everybody gets nervous about something new and we all deal with it differently. </p>
<p>When you get there, look around, check out a club or group or two. Go to the Gym, swim laps, join the Water polo team.. find something to take stress away or at least minimize it. </p>
<p>Second guessing one's self is part of life. Have a stress reduction plan for school.</p>
<p>Guys, Cal is not hard. College is not hard. It is definitely not harder than high school. Think about high school: daily homework, going to school at 7AM and having 8 hours of class a day, 5 days a week, PLUS extracurriculars on top of that. College is half the amount of time spent in class, harder homework (but less of it), with plenty of time for extracurriculars.</p>
<p>Forget all of the nonsense about college being hard. I don't know why people always say it's tough, because it really isn't. That's not to say it's easy. Just come prepared to work hard and have fun, like you'd approach anything else.</p>
<p>Seriously, if you're in the crowd that took 8+ APs in high school and some college classes, Cal will not be terrible for most, unless you take a high end major.</p>
<p>CardinalFocused, I'm not the best person to ask. </p>
<p>College is hard in a different way than high school is hard, that's for sure.</p>
<p>Writing essays is certainly a big part of doing well in the social sciences and humanities. It's usually not everything, but it's often a big part of things.</p>
<p>From someone who felt the same way this time last year, PLEASE don't over stress yourself about the crazy hard college-ness that everyone likes to advocate. Yes, some classes are hyped for the workload (which, btw, I know many engineers who can't even imagine doing the amount of reading required for some of the "fluffy" history, English, anthro, and soc classes) but it's also fun to go to college coming from the background that we do. I mean, watching your friends freak out at their first B ever, is highly amusing. There's a niche at Berkeley for everyone. If you're worried about classes, you can always get help and professors/GSIs are really helpful. Don't worry... at least not now :)</p>
<p>Maybe it's just the high school I went to but I found college work to be FAR less time consuming and FAR less challenging than high school work. You're going to be surprised about how many dumb people you're going to meet @ cal. Don't get me wrong. There are the super-smart nerds, but I found myself wondering how certain people graduated high school, let alone got into CAL.....</p>
<p>By the way, I went to a plain public high school... nothing special about it except it's hippy rep.</p>
<p>I think it depends on your study habits. I have a lot less nightly work (History Anthro double major), than I did in high school. Yeah, the coursework is more rigourous, but I'll never ask for the busy work of high school again.</p>