<p>I'm interested in Berkeley, but am worried about the huge class sizes. I want to be able to get to know my professors and not just be a face in the crowd. What are your experiences in this regard?</p>
<p>I don't have any experiences myself, but I can tell you this:</p>
<p>62% of Berkeley's classes have fewer than 20 students. Only 14% are over 50, and only about 5% over 100. Compare that with MIT (61% / 14%), Cornell (60% / 16%), Harvard (69% / 11%), and so on.</p>
<p>For the first year or two I figure you'll probably be taking courses that have 150+ people in lecture (excluding courses not taught by professors). You can go to office hours if you want to get to know your professors and not just be a face in the crowd. It depends on the classes you have to take? What's your intended major?</p>
<p>Yeah, forgot to mention that as well. It depends on your major--some are smaller than others--and also which courses you take. Further, it depends on how defined your interests are; if you want to sample lots of courses, you're probably going to have lots of large classes, since you'd be taking the introductory ones. The lower-division courses also tend to be larger than the upper-division ones.</p>
<p>All or nearly all large lectures are supplemented with small discussions led by graduate student instructors (GSIs). You can talk to your GSIs for help, or you can go talk to the professor during his/her office hours. Don't assume that there will be lots of students lined up outside his/her office during this time. In many cases, there are only a few students, if any. (I think many students are afraid to go to office hours because they think there will be tons of people--which actually means that there are few showing up at office hours... some professors have said that no one shows up at all.)</p>