<p>I have heard differing accounts of life at the University of California at Berkeley. Some students I know absolutely love the campus and their peers. On the other hand, I know other students who have complained that their peers are overly competitive and that the surrounding area around Berkeley’s campus is not very pleasant. If anyone has visited Berkeley, is a current student, or is a graduate of Berkeley, feel free to discuss your thoughts and feelings about your time at Berkeley. Your help is greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>well you can never get an overall positive consensus because humans do agree with one another. You have to form the opinion about CAL for yourself, and since you're from Cupertino, why don't you just drive up? It's only an hour away.</p>
<p>staticsoliloquy: I suppose you are right on never being able to get an 'overall positive consensus.' This past summer, I attended a summer program at UC Berkeley, so I was able to get a feel of the campus and its surrounding environment. However, I was not taking classes with other UC Berkeley students, so I did not get a feel for the level of competition. I have heard conflicting opinions about the campus for the obvious reasons, but every Berkeley student I have met agrees that Berkeley is a highly competitive school. However, I do not want to assume that Berkeley is 'this' or 'that' solely on the experiences of a few UC Berkeley students - which is why I started this thread.</p>
<p>I think you're only gonna find a few UC Berkeley students on this thread...so I guess the real question is how important the level of competition is to you, huh?</p>
<p>Or one other thing you could do--take your opinion of the surrounding area, and then only ask Berkeley students who agree with your opinion on that about the level of competition. If there's a correlation, that might help answer your question.</p>
<p>Berkeley is a fiercely competetive place for some fields (especially pre-med), but laid back and easy in others (i.e. "_____ Studies"). It is also an exciting, dynamic place to be (lots of stuff to do, particularly with SF so close by).</p>
<p>I enjoyed my time at Berkeley, although I did have my fair share of all-nighters and a few bad teachers. While there are some cheese-puff majors where you could party for four years, if you go to Cal and study something mainstream/competetive like MCB, engineering, physics, chem, etc., you will definately graduate knowing that you earned your diploma. </p>
<p>The city of Berkeley is a mixed bag. I still get riled up at the anti-development, anti-university and often anti-student people that run the place (check out the local newspaper, the Berkeley Daily Planet, to get an idea); on the other hand, the food is good (particularly if you venture out to Solano Avenue), the weather is usually nice and there is a good mix of people to hang out with.</p>
<p>entropicgirl & calkidd: Thank you for your comments about my question/Berkeley. I've had my fair share of healthy competition at my own high school, but my main concern was that I don't want to attend a school where there is too much 'unhealthy' competition.</p>
<p>As of now, I'm not sure which major I would like to pursue in college. However, I do have two choices so far: 1) Computer Science and 2) Biomedical Engineering. How are the job prospects for Berkeley graduates in these two areas?</p>
<p><a href="http://career.berkeley.edu/Major/CompSci.stm%5B/url%5D">http://career.berkeley.edu/Major/CompSci.stm</a> and <a href="http://career.berkeley.edu/Major/Bioengr.stm%5B/url%5D">http://career.berkeley.edu/Major/Bioengr.stm</a></p>
<p>Most of those bioengineering grads are in grad school, thus the low average pay. But the Comp Sci majors have the highest out of college average pay of all the Berkeley majors. </p>
<p>Anyway, as far as lifestyle goes, Calkidd speaks truth. Engineering and Comp Sci aren't going to be easy at Berkeley (but they aren't going to be easy anywhere).</p>
<p>BigBrother: Thanks for the links to the statistics. I understand that both of these majors won't be easy at any university, but would you say that Berkeley is more competitive/less competitive than other top 25 universities? If so, which universities would you say have a more "laid-back" enviornment? This also leads me to a third question: In your opinion, which universities would have a more competitive environment than Berkeley's?</p>
<p>Even as a current engineering student, i seem to have a lot of free time on my hands and have a lot of fun with my friends around here. I'd say that as long as you don't worry about what others are doing, and just focus on what you like to do, you should have a fun time. Studying isn't everything btw, I went to San Fran the morning of my Chem final last semester and completely Aced it. So don't get too bogged down in what you have to do, make sure you find some time for yourself.</p>
<p>steveruleworld: It's nice to hear input from a current engineering student. Your post caused most of my worries to simmer down. UC Berkeley is still one of my top choices, regardless.</p>
<p>Please keep in mind that I am not an Engineering/Compsci/Premed major. The breadth req classes (for College of Letters and Science) are really easy. I'm not saying you'll get all A's, but you should be ready for that. I guess my experience is a little different from your typical Berkeley student. My GPA in high school was about a 3.6uw. I was in the top 20% of my class. I got into Cal god knows how. Yet now as my friends are frantically studying for their classes, I can't quite understand all the panic. It's damn easy. My college classes are easier than high school. And my GPA is higher. I don't know. I guess that's just me. I'm used to the competition, however, I don't think I have to even try to win here. Should have applied to Ivies.</p>