<p>So I've been hearing a lot that Cal is super cutthroat: very intense and competitive classes, no time to socialize and participate in EC activities, etc.
Can someone please verify, disprove, or elaborate? I am very worried that I will have such a difficult time at Cal that I will not be able to get into the Haas School of Business or a good med school if I'm struggling to get a good GPA. Any tips to having a good chance in getting into Haas or med school while attending Cal? Your feedback is much appreciated! :)</p>
<p>Is Cal really that competitive and cutthroat? Of course this rumor goes around a lot but I always wonder where it comes from. I use to ask this a lot as a freshman too but I don’t think anyone could give me any real answers other than repeat the rumors because nobody really has gone through a significant, comparable amount of time at another UC and at Cal. So, I do find Cal hard sometimes and easy other times, but I still wonder if its actually Cal that’s hard or is that just college?</p>
<p>@demoz- I guess part of the academic rigor/intensity/competitiveness is relative, but I have always heard that Cal is much more cutthroat than other schools who inflate grades. Just a bit concerned: would you say you are doing relatively well in Cal? what are you studying?</p>
<p>It’s not “cutthroat” or even competitive. Stop believing silly myths and perpetuating them! These threads are the reason the rumors go around.</p>
<p>A lot of classes at Berkeley are difficult. You’re going to have to seriously study if you come here, especially if you want to major in engineering or the sciences. If you slack off here, you won’t get a B+ or A- like you would in high school - you’ll get a C. The classes in general are interesting and well taught, and I’ve honestly enjoyed my hard classes more than the easy ones. I’ve never felt like I was directly competing with anyone else and no one has ever refused to help me out or answer a question. I’ve made a lot of friends in classes, a lot of friends in lab, and never felt like the environment was hostile in any way whatsoever. </p>
<p>And I’m graduating this year, doubling in Econ & MCB. MCB’s considered one of the hardest majors and most of the rumors are about it anyway. So yeah… trust me on this. Go bears :)</p>
<p>Your GPA here really depends on your style of studying along with the amount of time you put into studying, but your style of studying plays the biggest role, especially for Math, physics, chem, and engineering majors. If you mainly studied mostly through rote memorization and you’re entering one of these majors, you may struggle to adapt to the new type of thinking, but if you were a person who made sure you understand the base primal concepts involved in anything your learning and can always solve a complex problem by identifying and applying the base principles involved, you’ll go very far here in Cal in any of those majors. I’m not sure how this pans out for other majors, but I’m sure a combination of what I’ve just mentioned plus a little memorization here and there are the two key ingredients to success here.</p>
<p>The reason it’s “cutthroat” is that at many other universities, rote memorization of formulas and concepts instead of application is what the tests center around, whereas at Berkeley and (in my opinion) high-caliber institutions the focus placed more on actual “thinking” as opposed to “recall” and most people find it easier to study “recall” type questiosn as opposed to “thinking” type questions, hence the cuttroat comment made by people.</p>
<p>How easy is it to pass out of classes? I’ll be an engineering major. I’m taking multivariable calculus/differential equations right now-- is it possible to pass out of that?</p>
<p>Meh…to be honest, it depends really on how intelligent you are if you want to get a good GPA. I know people here who doesn’t study that much, yet they are getting A’s. On the contrary, there are also people here who studies really hard and can’t pull off any grades higher than a B+. In general though, it’s quite hard to get a C and below here unless you really slack off in your studies.</p>
<p>a lot of my friends have absolutely LOVED it! I’ve heard lots of good things about Cal, and that life is insanely fun if you join a fraternity or sorority. good luck in your decision!</p>
<p>I think it’s because of the vast differences in the quality of students here. I was surprised at many of the results on the 2016 RD results thread. Then again, there are brilliant kids at Cal – no doubt many of whom were accepted into top privates and many who weren’t. It seems that Cal gets them all: cream of the crops, Ivy-rejects, and others who somehow make it past admissions and receive acceptances. Yes, Berkeley does use a holistic approach, but it seems overly liberal by being so much more willing (IMO) to overlook bad grades/scores for good EC’s.</p>
<p>I haven’t read as much about the cutthroat nature of college as I have about Berkeley. But the range of opinions is so wide that I don’t think one could overlook it. Some people claim Berkeley is the hardest four years of their lives while some of my Berkeley friends say it’s easy (they have 4.0’s, whereas their HS GPA was much lower).</p>
<p>With all due respect, although intelligence obviously plays a role in making it “easier” to get a higher GPA with less effort put in, the majority of kids getting A’s just know how to study smart as opposed to study hard, and I feel only a minority of the A kids are actually of any insane intellect. Don’t feel discouraged and think you can’t do well just because your IQ isn’t high. Plenty of normal college-level IQ (They say the average IQ for a college student is 115-120) people get A’s not just here in Berkeley but in colleges everywhere not because they have genius IQs (over 140), but because they know how to study properly. And in fact, I have a reasonable number of friends with genius IQs getting B’s here because literally overload themselves to an insane point and then decide to sometimes not put any effort into their overloaded schedule.</p>
<p>Also the famous Francis Crick, who was a English molecular biologist, biophysicist, and neuroscientist, and most noted for being a co-discoverer of the structure of the DNA molecule in 1953 together with James D. Watson [Obtained from Wikipedia], only had an IQ of 115.</p>
<p>If it is a course at a California community college, see [Welcome</a> to ASSIST](<a href=“http://www.assist.org%5DWelcome”>http://www.assist.org) for course equivalency. Please note that differential equations is part of Math 54, so if you want complete equivalency, you also need to take linear algebra.</p>
<p>If it is a course at a college other than a California community college, you may want to request evaluation from the Math Department. Generally, a multivariable calculus course is equivalent to Math 53, and a course with linear algebra and differential equations, or separate courses on each subject if you take both, is equivalent to Math 54.</p>
<p>I am hovering between an econs major and a biomed/biochem major- possible to do both? Haha or am I just digging my own grave if I decide to attend Cal? (also accepted to UCLA)</p>
<p>(Berkeley junior, Haas major) It’s doable, but your Bio-E classes will already be challenging enough. In your limited free time, I doubt you would want to take the extra classes to major in a completely unrelated subject, competing against students who can devote all their attention to Econ. If you absolutely love Econ, more power to you. But I’d recommend doing something else, like IM sports, a club, having sex, whatever. Take Econ classes to fulfill breadth requirements.</p>
<p>college is literally what you make out of it and how responsible you are and your ability to manage time wisely. Cal is cutthroat but you can either complain about life and just study all the time or you can realize how much this place has to offer and take full advantage of it. Figure it out dude, you can do it, just be proactive.</p>