<p>Your ‘myths’ and the skinny about them:</p>
<p>MYTH 1. Cal is super competitive, you’ll be lost in the crowd, it’s hard to get a good gpa, and get into
any class since they’re all full This is really four in one sentence with different nuances. Let me break them out separately. </p>
<p>1a) Supercompetitive - for any class where you will be graded based on a curve to other students, the
stronger the student body, the more high scoring people in your class. There is that element of truth
to this dimension but lets make it real. The difference in smarts and achievement between the student
body at Cal and UCSD isn’t very significant, the same challenge faces you at either. This is not the
same kind of difference as exists with bottom tier versus top UC or community college versus any top
tier school. Now imagine if you were offered a spot at Harvard as well as Cal. Would you turn down
Harvard because the student body was smarter? Think of the upsides - great ideas and interesting
viewpoints. People who can understand you no matter how deep you want to talk about some topic. </p>
<p>Supercompetitive is also used to suggest that students sabotage each other or don’t help or don’t
socialize. While that may exist in small pockets, can’t rule it out with tens of thousands of undergrads
around, it is certainly not a common attitude. Just look at the huge number of clubs and associations
on campus, the size and activity of the Rally Committee or just plain visit to find out this is not true.
You will find most students welcoming, friendly and happy to talk. </p>
<p>1b) being lost in the crowd. This is true to the extent that any university with a large population is not a
small community where everyone knows everyone else. The alternative to this is to restrict your focus
to small liberal arts colleges that specialize in such handholding. However, a large population also
brings large numbers who share your interests and are compatible in various ways. Your are more
likely to find a friend to share some activity or interest, no matter how arcane or rare it might be,
because the sheer numbers make it probably. At a small school, you may not find anyone who likes
that quirky movie, odd hobby, or who has the same attitudes. Finally, you have the ability to dial the
experience anyway you want and to change it as you wish. Want to be anonymous and skip a lecture?
No problem. Want to speak directly with the professor every week and have her know you well for
future recommendation letters? No problem. Want to join social groups and clubs to spend time
together? No problem. Want to spend some quiet time thinking in one of the many libraries? No
problem. Want to be immersed in campus life on Sproul Plaza. No problem. Want to get away and be
in San Francisco far from a college? No problem. If this is really an issue for someone, it would be
irrational to reject Cal for another large school; instead, an intimate small school experience is the
answer. </p>
<p>1c) Hard to get a good GPA. Depends on what you mean by this. If you mean it should be easy for
most to have a 3.8-4.0, then Cal like the majority of top tier universities will not fit. Many of the classes at Cal are curved, with an attempt to keep the number of A grades from becoming a majority. The social sciences tend towards higher distributions of As, engineering classes tend to lower distributions, perhaps 15-20% get an A. However, a large study of undergrad classes across the entire university in Fall 2003 found that half the grades given that semester were As, another 35% were Bs, and only 5% received D or F grades. This is very similar to the Ivy school grade distributions. A few courses are known for hard grading standards - Bio 1A, for example, has an average grade of 2.48 - but there are also plenty of courses to pick that have very high average grades. One in five L&S graduates leave with a GPA over 3.7. </p>
<p>1d) Hard to get into any class because they are full. You can do your own research for this, simply
looking at the current class enrollment for all the spring courses using the schedule.berkeley.edu site.
You will find that most courses have room in them. Yes, there are highly popular classes that will fill to
capacity - those that are required for large percentages of the student body. Basics that most
students have to take like the reading and comprehension (RxA and RxB courses). The common
pre-reqs for many majors like first year physics. The pre-med sequence since so many undergrads
enter with a career plan that includes medical school. </p>
<p>MYTH 2. Cal has really gross dorms in a “ghetto” city like the Units and really bad dorm food.
Another multiple myth in one question. </p>
<p>2a) Dorms are gross. Not true. They can be a bit crowded, particularly if you pick a triple in some of the buildings, but just come visit to see that these are pretty representative of colleges everywhere. The UC will guarantee that there will be housing in dorms for two years, but the overwhelming majority of students move out to local apartments and coops after their first year. Dorm living is a good way to meet friends for your first semester or two, but the entire Berkeley area is a thriving wide community of students. </p>
<p>2b) Ghetto city. Well, lets just say that this one is a mixed reality. There are some bad areas with high
crime rates in the vicinity. There are also very nice and much safer areas just as close. The city of
Berkeley is a highly activist and liberal one that hosts an army of homeless, some of whom will
choose to panhandle along the border of the campus. Yale too is near bad areas of New Haven but
also has its safe zones, as any Eli will tell you; few would choose not to attend because of that.
Columbia, another of the Ivies, is also near high crime areas and attracts certain undesirables to its
vicinity, but again few would walk away because of that. Many schools in or near urban areas have this
issue - USC can feel like an armed camp where every street surrounding the campus feels danger
laden. If safety and lack of visible signs of poverty is very important to someone, they should target
those schools that are in pastoral remote areas, not just select a different school that is also in an
urban setting. </p>
<p>2c) Dorm food is bad. Well, most dorm food is bad at college, but it is also a college tradition
everywhere to dis the food. The reality is probably mixed here. There are plenty of other places to eat
both in the campus system and nearby. The neaby area of Berkeley that is named Gourmet Ghetto, a
tongue in cheek name as it is not a high crime or poverty zone, is a row of very well respected
restaurants. Chez Panisse there was the site that created the California Cuisine back in 1971 - fresh
local ingredients mixed with high cuisine techniques. Gourmets will travel to Berkeley for the food. </p>
<p>You have an incredible richness of quality ethnic restaurants here as well. Want to have food from
Salvador, Ethiopia, Brazil, every state and zone of India? Its here. There are also more casual
restaurants spread throughout the area - all just a few blocks walk from campus, and a number of
options inside campus like the Free Speech Cafe or the Bear’s Lair. You can make of your dining
experience what you want. </p>
<ol>
<li>Cal’s semester system + filled classes make it impossible to graduate in 4 years.
Ah, finally, only two questions masquerading as one. </li>
</ol>
<p>3a) semester system impact. Most of the very top colleges are on the semester system. Yale, Harvard, Stanford, Cornell, MIT, Princeton, UPenn, Columbia, UVA (the number two public university in the US after Cal), Duke, Johns Hopkins, even USC and NYU. Some high end schools are also on the quarter system. There are some high end schools on the quarter system, although these are in the minority up in the stratosphere of schools - Stanfurd for example, but also Dartmouth, CalTech, UCLA, UChicago, Northwestern. Overall about 20% of colleges do the quarter system, the rest do the semester system. There are some modifications, like two semesters plus a mini semester in the winter (just like there is a mini semester over summer at most pure semester institutions like Cal). If being on a semester system were a serious impediment to graduating on time, 80% of the schools in the US would have moved from it a long time ago. This is pure mythology. </p>
<p>3b) graduating in four years is almost impossible. Nonsense, a pure myth. Undergrad population 25,000 and bachelor degrees granted per year 7,250 (3.5 year average). The average time to complete a single bachelor degree is 7.99 semesters (essentially 4 years). Yes, there are some who finish in 7 semesters, even a smaller number who finish in 6, just as there are some who finish in 9 semesters (4.5 years), but most get out at the end of four years. The basic policies at Cal are aimed at stopping anyone from lingering here. [College</a> Policies-Unit Guidelines](<a href=“http://ls-advise.berkeley.edu/collegepolicies/unit.html]College”>http://ls-advise.berkeley.edu/collegepolicies/unit.html) where the intent is that you finish a four year degree in no more than eight semesters. The colleges at Cal impose minimum unit loads per semester to keep students moving on the four year cadence. Finally, ask the others here on CC who are graduating or have already graduated from Cal.</p>