<p>Finally, an interesting question. Well, the department is freaking amazing. It is of a medium size as far as Berkeley goes, not nearly as large as physics or English, both stellar department. But so is philosophy. You have some huge names in the field, and many strong ones, as well as top graduate students. Professor to student relationships, like most department at Berkeley, have to be fostered. Not every teacher wants to spend countless hours with people he or she does not happen to have chemistry with. They are helpful if you need help. All teachers are required to have office hours. I was going to go visit some non-profs of mine, but I didn't, for lack of time, or courage, a bit of laziness. But I could have been talking to one of the biggest names in philosophy in a few minutes. Heck, my profs office was next to Searles, i was feet from the guy. The grading, like most phil departments compared to other departments, is tough. UCB phil is known to have tough grading relative to the other humanities majors, amongst the harder ones like English, and rhetoric. If you do your work, if you really do the readings, you will be fine. The readings aren't anything that out there, as far as a bachelors in phil is concerned. They are still amazing. Sometimes you will be reading your professor's books, which is cool. </p>
<p>Are you more interested in analytic or continental philosophy? Are you more interested in physics, English, linguistics, all three? Poli sci? What other interests do you have?</p>