<p>so i know Berkeley is an amazing school AND it's in the Bay Area, which is also awesome....But one of my concerns about Berkeley is its huge size. I don't want to be one of thousands and thousands. Do you think you get enough individual attention at Berkeley? I am afriad that advisors and stuff wouldn't have enough time for everyone. Also, how cometitive is getting lab research? I'm kind of nervous that because it's so huge that it's crazy competitive as well (I'm thinking about doing premed...). I am down to Cornell and Berkeley right now (out of state for both). I recently visited Cornell and I know that the advising there is really awesome BUT it's in the middle of nowhere with really harsh temps! How do the two compare in terms of prestige? And how cut throat is the Berkeley environment? Do students work together and help eachother with assignments and understanding concepts? Thats also a concern of mine...i want to have good relationships with the kids i'm studying with and attending classes with...thanks for the help!</p>
<p>Just go to Cornell ...</p>
<p>haha that's for the blunt response...but any reasons why?</p>
<p>not that's...i meant thanks**</p>
<p>"I am afriad that advisors and stuff wouldn't have enough time for everyone."</p>
<p>Not everyone here takes advantage of the resources available...</p>
<p>Don't choose a college for weather and location alone. Be comfortable with where you are going to spend the next 4 years of your life. From what you write in your original post, sounds like Cornell is the place for you.</p>
<p>At the same time, my guess is a lot of the competition/"death from studying" reputation is hype, as with everything else amplified as it goes down the grapevine.</p>
<p>However, if you're going premed, make sure you either love it as a subject in general or you are prepared to work very hard.</p>
<p>Premed is cutthroat at any school. </p>
<p>In any case though, remember that Cornell is nearly the size of Berkeley. For myself, I researched the two of them and couldn't find enough benefit for going to Cornell over Berkeley (even with Tanner Dean Scholar from Cornell). Then again, I personally love the look of the campus (especially the biology and life sciences part of it... pity I'm not going into that field...) and I'm also in-state.</p>
<p>cornell has 13,000 students, while berkeley has something like 22,000. you can basically think of cornell as being half the size. the programs are probably pretty evenly matched, but berkeley is probably in a more "real world" environment, in terms of academic competition and city life.</p>
<p>how is the environment at berkeley? i undestand the campus is old and aging but is the competition intense and are people working hard all the time or is the campus lively?</p>
<p>i'm sure at such a large campus you'll get some of both.</p>
<p>Berkeley people are annoying. Go to cornell, especially if you are out of state.</p>
<p>If your parents don't have money and you want to go to a professional school then go to Cal and suck it up, because you will need that money later.</p>
<p>That's pretty much the equation.</p>
<p>Berkeley lab research is not hard to get if you really want it and seek it out. </p>
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Berkeley people are annoying.
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<p>These kinds of statements are annoying. Honestly, stop generalizing PA. You make yourself look really stupid. Realize that what you perceive as annoyance might be another student's blessing.</p>
<p>if you're out of state, and need individual attention, cornell is a good choice for pre-med imo.</p>
<p>plus, face it. privates will have less competition for research positions. i know that berkeley has many off campus opportunities as well, but with the sheer number of pre-meds here, it's still competetive.</p>
<p>Berkeley people are annoying, just come here and see. You meet all kinds here.</p>
<p>If you're from the South I doubt you will like Berkeley unless you feel like your parents have repressed you. Then you will enjoy the individualism and "tolerance" of the area. However, emory will likely provide you a great experience and better support.</p>
<p>I don't know how you can say there's a "forest" on campus. There are some trees and whatnot concentrated in the center. The campus is fairly nice, the surrounding area is the mix I described.</p>
<p>About being just an annonymous face, that is definitely true unless you put in some effort to get to know your professors. Getting positions would definitely be more competitive than Emory and dependent on your GPA, which will be tough to keep up and maintain a healthy set of EC's. I say just go to Emory and relax; you'll likely know more people on campus that you can say Hi to every day. You hardly ever see the same face twice at Berkeley unless you repeatedly join certain clubs.</p>
<p>PA, I really think your hatred of UC Berkeley stems from culture shock more than anything else.</p>
<p>I didn't have much of a culture shock, Berkeley just felt like High School all over again. I think other people can attest to that. If you liked high school you will like probably like Berkeley. If you expected something else, perhaps a more mature experience, I wouldn't hold my breath coming here to Berkeley.</p>
<p>Well that doesn't make any sense to me. I mean...ok. You claim to have gone to a really competitive high school. Those kinds of high schools exist in California as well and I would argue that most UCB students come from very very very competitive high schools (I know of 4 high schools in the Bay Area that send as many as 70 graduates to Berkeley each year...there's many many many more schools across the state that send 30-50 a year.) So...did you like expect competition to stop after high school? Because that is like, bad thinking on your part. High school competition is...the first step in the rat race.</p>
<p>Socially it is exactly the same thing. People here are in general just as immature as they were in high school.</p>
<p>If that's true, that's really sad. </p>
<p>Really, really sad.</p>
<p>Polite Antagonis, the fact that you are on Berkeley forum 24/7, complaining about every aspect of Berkeley just explains why you're not happy with Berkeley experience.</p>