<p>You can’t take APs after you enter in Fall 2009, but any AP test take this year will count. Admission will take place in Fall, what you have now is an offer of admission with conditions, to get sort of technical. </p>
<p>L&S has requirements for breadth courses. They are in seven categories, one course required from each: Biological Sciences. Physical Sciences. Arts. Social Sciences. International Studies. Philosophy. Historical Studies.</p>
<p>Oh okay, that’s a relief! Thanks rider. So my credit for AP can fulfill those courses? For social science, do my AP in Psychology fulfill requirement or are courses 5.3 units each instead of 2.7 each? And by International Studies do you mean foreign language?</p>
<p>^ No, they’ve got to be taken at Berkeley.</p>
<p>
[QUOTE=mathboy98]
You’ll get a bunch of credit for your AP’s, though if you’re in the L&S College, the 7-course breadth requirements must be satisfied by classes in Berkeley.
[/QUOTE]
</p>
<p>Wow, that was an exceedingly stupid question I asked…oops 
gosh I feel stupid. Thanks for pointing that out, maharba. </p>
<p>Oh fugger, I don’t want to take anymore chemistry classes… :'(</p>
<p>If you need more help there’s a group here</p>
<p>[Berkeley</a> - Class of 2013 (Official Group) | Facebook](<a href=“Facebook”>Facebook)</p>
<p>thank you fortify I’ll join immediately!</p>
<p>kitkatz, what you said about unable to find people who can carry on good conversations used to scare me about ucb too. but we both now know the naivete of that assumption :)</p>
<p>hahah right on, ducky, right on :)</p>
<p>Congratulations!</p>
<p>
Remember a lot of the bashing comes from people not even affiliated with that particular school. A lot of the nonsense propaganda comes from internet ■■■■■■. Also, the internet tends to bring out the worst in people given its anonymous nature; its a perfect scenario for nasty people.
Im of the opinion that if youre good, youll be fine. Even in academia (very name brand oriented on CC) youll see new graduate students from relatively lower profile schools still compete well for the most prestigious awards, such as the NSF GRFP</p>
<p><a href=“https://www.fastlane-beta.nsf.gov/grfp/AwardeeList.do?method=loadAwardeeList[/url]”>https://www.fastlane-beta.nsf.gov/grfp/AwardeeList.do?method=loadAwardeeList</a></p>
<p>Youll see that people from all types of schools win this award. So I dont think youll be limited by the school in terms of opportunity.</p>
<p>Even places like McKinsey still hire from lower profile schools as I showed in my earlier post, but those were people with advanced degrees. The point is - you still need to be good.</p>
<p>
Judging by the posts here, most people dont connect with that kind of accomplishment. Its a very prestigious accomplishment for most academics. Nature and Science are two of the most well recognized journals in the sciences.</p>
<p>I never understood the fascination with the Ivies. I don’t think its some gateway to heaven. I figure recruiters/hiring committees are generally mature enough to judge a candidate holistically, as evidenced by McKinsey hiring UCSD PhDs and George Washington University MDs. Given their FAQ for recruiting, Im willing to bet they hire from universities with lower profile, as well. However, I think theres something to be said about the name brand, though; it does mean more than nothing.</p>
<p>I’ve been in a similar situation like yours twice now, and I’ll likely not regret either of my decisions. </p>
<p>
As far as I can tell, research careers for non-technical majors are very risky. This is mainly because theres not much of fall back plan. I knew one Stanford History PhD student teaching fulltime at a high school while writing her dissertation. </p>
<p>Its a 4-8 year path of intense work for very little reward besides an ego boost or a little happiness. Also, theres very little room for success. I would suggest that you try it out first before committing early to anything. </p>
<p>And mathboy98 has a point: pre-professionals do tend to drive academics up the wall.
Since research is very risky: my other advice is: always have a fallback plan.</p>
<p>I wish you the best.</p>
<p>SDTB: Yes, I realized that. But I also realized that they could be my potential school mates, and that, I do not want. </p>
<p>The kids at my school are driving me up the wall right now. Most are incredulous that I would turn down two ivies for a public school, albeit the best public school in the world, when money was not an issue. My vice is pride. I hate having them saying things like the valedictorian is going to a lower ranked school than the salutatarian. Nevertheless, I don’t feel like an ivy name is worth more than my intuition, which is berkeley, and a woman’s intuition is never wrong ;). </p>
<p>Besides, I feel like even if I picked UCSD, I would be fine. I have a classic example with my dad. He got his bs at a nameless college, got his PhD in a well known but not too well know the Chinese University of Hongkong. Yet, he was able to accomplish so much more and get a much higher position than his coworker who got his PhD at Harvard. I’m his daughter and I really believe that if I work as hard as he did, I’ll have the same, maybe even better results (since I didn’t start at a nameless college but rather Berkeley :))</p>
<p>Yes, research is risky, but what I was told by my dad was to go with what I love to do right now. I think that international affairs as a major and PhD is much safer than let’s say history or something, because it is much practical and applicable. I realized that at the end, I might be pushed to do perhaps international business or getting a law degree. But right now, being the optimist that I am, I’m believing that I’ve made a good decision about my major, just as I’m believing that my gamble with Berkeley (I do believe deep down that Penn would be a safer place to be if anything goes wrong in my plan) will pay off and I will land in my dream grad school. </p>
<p>Thank you SDTB You have given me some very good advices and I appreciate that very much!</p>
<p>As a comment, my high school counselor actually was incredulous as to why I wanted to go to Berkeley, given the other schools I was considering. </p>
<p>I don’t know how close to these people you are, but I’d maybe try explaining that the academics at Berkeley are boundless, and many of the faculty are literally tops in their fields – basically, for an in-state student even if it isn’t really that hard to get in to Berkeley, the school itself will make anyone who opens his/her eyes feel dumb. </p>
<p>Most of the undergraduates don’t feel very dumb because they have no clue who their professors and GSI’s are. That’s called ignorance! Heck, most people know Prof. Givental as just “the Math 53 professor you should never take a course with” – those who know what he really is know that he fits the true definition of genius, something beyond the wildest imagination of most college students.</p>
<p>As a top student, you may be able to appreciate things about Berkeley that most Berkeley students can’t, and I would even argue students like you are more likely to benefit from going specifically to Berkeley than lesser students could.</p>
<p>mathboy, some of what you said can be construed as somewhat elitist. not commenting on the validity of your claims though.</p>
<p>I understand why it may be elitist – but hey, I don’t think more academic students are better people or anything, I just appeal to them because I think I have more to say to them. Some will come to Berkeley for the crazy hippy environment, some will come because they love the weather; I’m just making the case to students who’re interested in academics, and would actually care for the kinds of things I have to say. </p>
<p>I would make this distinction for students accepted to HYPS schools as well – some of them have what I’d call a humble academic background, but shine in some other way, and wouldn’t be interested in the kinds of things I am. Important to specify one’s audience.</p>
<p>Mathboy: I really do appreciate your posts. It makes me feel better…like I have made a good choice. All I hear from my ppl at my school who’s going to berkeley is the wild parties there. When I tell them that I’m actually going to study and the reaction I get kind of scared me and made me question if this will be the best place for me. My best friend is going there too and we are definitely going different routes. She wants to party a lot and I only want to party occasionally. It does make me feel better to know that there are at least a few people who genuinely care about the academic experience and not just party party party. I’m sure I will appreciate berkeley’s faculty, that is one of, if not the deciding factor for me to come to berkeley instead of penn (btw I really really really hope I get a good faculty advisor!!! :))</p>
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<p>I thought Berkeley had a reputation for people studying too much</p>
<p>^^ It depends. If you’re talking about the premeds, yes. If you’re talking about the engineers, same probably. If you’re talking about some random major, probably not much studying going on.</p>
<p>KitKatz – you’ll like Berkeley, keep up your bubbly enthusiasm! Those who scare you are completely misled and know nothing of what I know, coming from your friendly hardcore snobbish elitist Mathboy If you were into math/science/engineering, I could even go into specifics, but my knowledge in the areas you’re interested in seems more limited.</p>
<p>Fortify: well…maybe not as wild as Santa Barbara or Pepperdine, but among my choices for college, it’s more or less on the less study more partying side. :)</p>
<p>Mathboy: haha thanks I will It makes me sad that my major falls into that “random major” you were speaking of :(. I might have to hang around the premeds and the engineers to keep me sane hahaha…well, I’ve met plenty of elitist people at my school who have no reason whatsoever to have that kind of arrogance. It’s normal, most guys do have that superiority complex 
and I’ve seen, heard and read way worse. (I just hope I don’t come off as elitist too 
I apologize if I do; I don’t mean any of it.) It’s okay. I’m hoping my faculty advisor will be able to help me w my major. By the way, do you know when we actually get them? Also, since I’m going to have to take a math and science class, what do you recommend (btw, I prefer chemistry over physics. and for math, somethign like stats is waaaayyy too boring and has waaaayyy too much words)? and how many classes should I go for?</p>
<p>I’m actually not that elitist, geez! I was going for sarcasm there. </p>
<p>Anyway, how much math have you taken? How much are you interested in learning? As for faculty advisers, usually that happens when you declare a major. Until then, you are free to sign up for courses at your whim, but once you declare a major, you see your adviser to get things approved and discuss with them your plan for graduation. </p>
<p>I’m not sure if you HAVE to take a math/science class to be honest, unless you’re in certain majors, if you already took AP math.</p>
<p>Your major is fine I respect people of all disciplines. I have plenty to talk about to people who enjoy their studies, just less to talk about to people who don’t really care for them too much and use them as an end to getting a job.</p>
<p>it’s okay, i have elitist tendencies too. we’ll be good friends.</p>
<p>no, it hasn’t been 48 hours yet–i’m most likely picking foothill or unit 3 though. i got attacked today by this girl who kept telling me that i shouldn’t have turned down Cornell. whatever. lol</p>
<p>personally, i’m most looking forward to berkeley’s nice grade deflation… yay.</p>
<p>Haha yes, it’d be pretty fun to meet some of the people in this thread some time. </p>
<p>I would pick Foothill over Unit 3. Only thing better about Unit 3 is dining, but many floors are party-houses, and a Foothill roommate very likely will be more of a studier.</p>