<p>I am in the middle of the college search process and have become interested in Berkeley because of it's awesomely diverse community of activists/intellectuals, and it's location near San Fransisco. I am however, concerned about the infamous class sizes and lack of professor interaction. How many of your classes are small, discussion based? How many are enormous lectures? How many classes are actually taught by professors? Would a non-science major have smaller class sizes? Also, is it harder to get in if you are out of state?</p>
<p>Once you get to upper division classes (usually around your 2nd-3rd year of college) the class size thing stops being a problem. It’s generally those basic classes that people take for breadth or many people take when shopping around for a major / pre-med classes that are huge and have little interaction.</p>
<p>In any case, for most of those classes, you’ll have discussion sections as well (10-20 students) so you can get GSI interaction there.</p>
<p>Few classes are taught entirely by GSIs… most are lectured by professors but GSIs might lead sections, as mentioned above.</p>
<p>It’s usually taken to be harder to get in if you’re OOS but given Berkeley’s budget scenario, it’s easier for OOS students to get in these days because they want more full-fee students.</p>
<p>Thanks! Are GSIs usually good teachers?</p>
<p>That really depends on the individual. They all tend to be really intelligent though (I mean Berkeley’s graduate division is one of the best, in every department). It’s kinda like the professors: all of them are extremely brilliant at what they do, but some are good teachers and some aren’t.</p>
<p>My EECS classes this semester are around 300, 400, and 500 people. The discussion sections and labs are generally 5-30 people, which is nice. It’s kinda hit or miss on whether the TAs (some are undergrads, some are GSIs) will be good at teaching, but worst case scenario you can always go visit a different TA’s office hours or something. :P</p>
<p>Also, I had two classes over the summer, both of those were taught entirely by GSIs. They all knew the material really well and were great lecturers, would gladly take more courses taught by them.</p>