<p>So I have just been admitted off of the wait list to Berkeley for Chemistry. If I don't commit I will be going to Cal Poly instead. I'm honestly having a tough time deciding. My sister went to Cal Poly so I've been down there a few times, however I live very near to Berkeley too so I have visited Berkeley just as often. I love both places, its just a matter of their vibes being completely different, relaxed smaller city vs big city.</p>
<p>The thing that I am torn about is the style of curriculum. Its been made an even tougher choice due to the incredible new Chem facility that Cal Poly has just made with their new science building. That and the smaller class sizes appeal to me.</p>
<p>However Berkeley is world renowned, especially for its Chemistry department. Yet of course it is a much larger university. I'm very torn between the two decisions. I feel like I've been working towards Berkeley because of grandeur, but now I'm having trouble finally committing to my decision.</p>
<p>@Lecter Apparently people in high school are incapable of doing research about schools? I visited Berkeley over spring break and my friend goes to Cal Poly… so I know a bit about them. Also, for a decision as serious as choosing which college to attend, one should not consult people on a college forum anyway.</p>
<p>Berkeley chemistry is far superior to Cal Poly chemistry, enough so that it should make a large impact on your choice. If you are serious about chemistry and want to pursue a graduate education or career in it, Berkeley all the way.</p>
<p>Berkeley Chemistry is NUMBER ONE. Berkeley literally made chemistry into what it is today. 14 elements discovered, chemical bonding discovered, cyclotron discovered, and much more. Berkeley chemistry pounds cal poly in to the ground, sorry to say.</p>
<p>If you decide to switch to chemical engineering, note that this major exists at Berkeley but not at Cal Poly. If you decide to switch to materials engineering, the major exists at both schools; you may have to check on the difficulty of switching at each school if that is a possibility.</p>
<p>Berkeley is considered world class in chemistry. Cal Poly is a very good school in engineering, architecture among other majors; but in the realm of chemistry, there are only few schools that can be mentioned within the same breath, i.e. Stanford, MIT, Caltech and Harvard.</p>
<p>I made a similar decision recently (small school with smaller classes vs Cal which is far better for my major) and it was a tough choice but I ended up choosing Cal. I’m not entirely sure about Chemistry classes, but I am fairly confident that when you sign up for such big classes, you also sign up for a corresponding discussion section of ~25 students that is managed by a graduate student. This at least partly removes the large class size problem and that played a big part in my decision as well, so you should consider that.</p>
<p>I think all the other posters have made it quite clear that Berkeley is the place to go if you want the name, prestige, and ranking. But you have to remember that along with these things, come expectations. Chemistry classes that are designed specifically for chemistry majors (Chem 4A and 4B for example) are brutally difficult and have massive class sizes that further enhance difficulty. </p>
<p>Ultimately though, I think the ultimate decision should be made on how well you think you fit socially within each campus and where do you think you’ll be happier of the next four years. </p>
<p>The massive class size is not true at all. Chem 1A in the fall has 1500 students, while Chem 4A has only about 200-300. The college of Chemistry classes are far, far less massive than any biology - lower division classes.</p>
<p>In a relative sense, 4A is much smaller than 1A/1AL. But 300 students is still a big class, for better or worse.</p>
<p>Bigger classes may have a rarely-used advantage, such as more instructors (GSIs) to choose from when looking for help during their office hours.</p>
<p>While I admit that I may have overstated it by using the word “massive”, 200-300 students is still an enormous amount and frankly the difference between 300 and 600 students in a class is not that big. Still very, very limited teacher-student interaction. </p>