an honest portrait of berkeley, please

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Berkeley
1

<p>hi, everyone. i'm a senior right now trying to narrow down my college choices to the ones i really honestly think i could see myself attending.</p>

<p>so while i am interested in berkeley, i was wondering you guys could give me a completely honest portrait of what it's like to be a student there.</p>

<p>maybe you could answer the following questions?</p>

<p>1.) what are the classes like? extremely hard? fairly easy? interesting? lectures? small, discussion-based? etc.
2.) i want to be a movie editor/producer/filmmaker. i know brown is not well-known for film. i am applying to schools known for film (usc, chapman, nyu, etc) so if i were to go to berkeley instead of a film-centric school, would i pretty much kiss my chances of being a filmmaker goodbye?
3.) i'm a bi guy, and i know berkeley is gay-friendly, but are there plenty of bi guys/girls too? i want to make sure i fit in and everything. also, i generally get along better friend-wise with straight or bi guys than gay guys. i do have gay friends though, but i want to be able to have all different kinds of friends, gay, straight, bi. are all orientations well-represented at berkeley?
4.) does it get boring at berkeley? i hear that the neighboring city doesn't offer much and that it can boring. true? false?
5.) what do people generally do for fun at berkeley? i'm interested in joining a lot of student clubs. but i don't like drinking or doing drugs. are clubs big ways of socializing? how prevalent is drinking/drugs?
6.) i'm liberal and all, but i'm not one of those loud, outspoken, arrogant, druggie type of liberals. are there are lot of those at berkeley, honestly? what are most people like at berkeley?</p>

<p>and any other info about what it's REALLY like to be at berkeley would be really helpful. </p>

<p>like is there any certain criteria i NEED to fit to be happy at berkeley? (for instance, it's a lot better to be liberal at brown than republican.) does anything like this apply to berkeley? thanks a lot guys!</p>

2

<p>i wanted to do film and im still pursuing it through clubs and jobs but not through school. at berkeley, it would simply be put a bit to the side. there are film studies classes though. ive seen a lot of obviously-gay people but the population is a lot of nerdy engineers, crazy liberal humanities majors, and mostly normal people. i dont personally have any gay friends though. it CAN get boring, but sf is cool, berkeley is alright but seeing the stinky old liberal ******bags all the time can get old quick. clubs are a good way to meet people.
while most ppl are liberal, there are outspoken ones and most that don’t know a thing about politics except republicans are racist and war is bad.
you dont have to be involved in politics at all unless u take classes where that is what you study. the ppl on sproul are definitely not representative of the population.</p>

3

<ol>
<li><p>Lower-division classes are mostly large (from 70 up to 500-700 people in Chem1A and Psych). As the classes get more specific, they become much smaller. You will usually get a lecture, a discussion, and if it’s a science class, a lab class. Discussion and lab might be bunched together. They can range from easy to difficult; ask people, and they’ll tell you what the easy classes and the “weeder” classes are. Just like at any university, you’ll have fantastic teachers, and you’ll have boring teachers. Use ratemyprofessors or CourseRank to make sure your professors are good. </p></li>
<li><p>Berkeley really isn’t know for film. Actually, I don’t know a single Film Studies major. However, in student life, you can find a TON of organizations that are devoted to film. If you want to see some student-produced work at Berkeley, check out the Campus Movie Fest movies. </p></li>
<li><p>I don’t know about bi guys and girls specifically, but generally, the LGBTIQQA community is at once tightly-knit and integrated into the main student body. Some social groups will be made up of primarily gay men, women, Asians, African-Americans, etc, but there are also that are a mix of everything. </p></li>
<li><p>If you want to get involved in the community, there are many opportunities. Sometimes I feel bored, but it might be because I’m not trying hard enough. Most people seem to be engaged in multiple activities, which take up their time. I like to argue that Berkeley’s position is perfect because if you want the city life, just take BART, and 15 minutes away is SF. If you want a campus town feel, just walk around the streets. It’s not like Princeton, where you’re basically in a bubble. Here, the university is part of the city, and the city is part of the university. </p></li>
<li><p>If you want to drink/do drugs, you’ll find a group to do that in. If you don’t want to, there’s just as many (if not more) whom you can hang out with. Organizations here like to get people extremely busy - if you’re dedicated, you can spend almost every day of your week with one club. Most clubs here, even if their main purpose isn’t for socializing, will provide a social outlet for you. If those aren’t enough, there are the clubs specifically for “connections” and “networking” and socializing that you might like.</p></li>
<li><p>People tend to keep their political opinions to themselves. I do find myself in political debates once in awhile - but that’s something that you’ll find at any academically competitive university. None of the liberals that I know here are “arrogant” - if you’re an arrogant liberal, then you really shouldn’t call yourself a liberal. There are the leftists who hand out flyers on Sproul Hall; then again, there are the right-wingers who hand out things on Sproul. Honestly, I thought Berkeley would be more liberal than it really is. When I went to CalSO, I was a little shocked by how many conservatives I had met.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>If you want to be happy here, be open to many things. Try as many things as you can - eat at Thai, Ethiopian, Japanese, Italian, Tibetian, Vietnamese, and whatever other restaurants you can find. Be proactive. Make liberal friends, make conservative friends. Take matters into your own hands. Join clubs. Remember that you’re here to learn, but you’re also here to experience life. </p>

<p>Berkeley’s size has its advantages and disadvantages. People complain about the huge who class sizes and the “impersonal” feel that the university can have sometimes. It can feel like the school doesn’t care about you, since you’re one out of ~40,000. On the other hand, having so many people at UCB means that no matter you like, what scene you hang with, what you ride, how you dress, and how you act, you’ll find someone that you can get along with. And because of the fact that it’s one of the most academically prestigious institutions in the country - you’ll find many, many amazing people.</p>

<p>I hope this helps in your search for a school. I think that the most important thing, in the end, is not the school, but how one interacts with it. If you want to be happy at the school that you’re at, and you’re taking steps, then it’ll be fine.</p>

4

<p>I came in wanting to look into majoring into film also, and the film program here (major only, no minor) is mostly theory. It’s very tough to get into the film prerequisite classes (Film 25a and 25b - film history) as a freshman; I couldn’t even get myself on the waiting list. Seats are reserved for upperclassmen, and I think about 50 people go through the program every year. Try taking it in the summer.</p>

<p>I don’t think amateur film making is huge on campus. There’s a large club (GIANT) that gives you equipment and they watch movies together, but I wasn’t very impressed by their work. It’s not an artsy fartsy kind of club either; they watch recent movies like Pineapple Express.</p>

<p>There might be other clubs and I’ve only taken one film class so far since I’m a freshman, but my overall impression is that Berkeley’s not strong in film production.</p>

<p>There’s a lot in Berkeley, and I don’t think it’s a boring town at all. Clubs here mostly demand a lot of time and you have to decide which ones are worth pursuing. I think I heard that the largest club on campus is the Republic one, and Berkeley definitely isn’t as liberal as it sounds. For example, the Asian American Christian fellowships likely make up a huge chunk of organizations and they’re very visible and persistent in recruiting.</p>

<p>As for pretty much all of your questions, if you want it, find it. Good luck on deciding. :)</p>

5

<p>If you really want to do something, my opinion is you should always try to go somewhere that’s both very good at that something and has other good options that will get you a job (sometimes, the really fun something may not offer jobs to more than a very few lucky folks). </p>

<p>Like people have said, Berkeley has something for everyone, and you won’t have too much of a problem at all. There are plenty of us (including me) who are fairly apathetic to the crazy liberalism, even if we have a few intelligent views on politics. Well, apathetic except for being very amused by some of the folks one runs into.</p>

<p>Classes can range from not that hard to ones that tear you to pieces, but you only have to take the ones you want and major in what you want. Well, except that you won’t have as much freedom to change majors as at other schools, because certain majors like engineering are very tough to transfer into.</p>