<p>I heard a lot of about UCB's college of chemistry, for those of you who are actually in it, can you give me your opinion of the college, experiences and why it has such a good reputation?</p>
<p>Its good because its a number one ranked program so it attracts THE best aspiring chemists in the nation. If you are really intellectual, there is a big difference between a number 1 program and a program that is "only" top 10 (which is what lesser departments like Berkeley's Poli Sci departments are).</p>
<p>In addition, chemistry has a lot of hard weeders so they tend to get rid off a lot of the chaff that get into Berkeley.</p>
<p>Most of the GSI's I had in chemistry classes were mostly smart and knowledgable even if the professors could sometimes be a little loony. Being a smaller college, it is likely you will see a lot of the same people in upper div classes which is nice (but not necessarily more so than a really small major like women's studies).</p>
<p>Hope that helps.</p>
<p>have to agree with you on the chem GSIs. They are pretty smart group of people, and they really want to help you succeed.</p>
<p>I agree with Shiboing Boing. It's small and focused, so you receive more attention than say, if you were in the College of Letters and Sciences, and it's consistently ranked #1. The College of Chemistry actually has its own Chemistry sequence that goes more in depth which I think is pretty nice.</p>
<p>Wait..did Shiboing Boing post something positive about Berkeley?</p>
<p><em>rubs eyes</em></p>
<p>Is Shiboing boing from the College of Chemistry?</p>
<p>Shiboing boing actually said something nice. Fishy...</p>
<p>I'm an intended psych major, but I'm taking chem4, the core freshman class for college of chem students. A lot of people are getting owned on the tests and many are switching out. I had a 5 on the ap and 800 on the sat2, and with my thorough underestimation of this class and poor work ethic, I'm probably going to end up with a B. </p>
<p>Many students switch out over the years, or so I've heard. Besides the coursework, its obviously more cohesive than L&S. Courses are layed out for you in the hard sciences based on major. This is a general trend not limited to chem. In many L&S concentrations, you're pretty much free to pick and choose your classes with more variation and leeway involved.</p>
<p>Interesting. My suitemate hardly does any work for that class and he is getting an A in chem 4. But I guess that's just him. Goes to show there are super-smart people here lurking around.</p>
<p>ahh how lucky those people are! i'm getting owned on chem4 tests =(..and i got a 5 in ap chem and a 780. ahah.</p>