<p>Hey, I'm trying to prepare myself for Berkeley, but I really have no idea what the academics are like over there. All I hear is that the gap between college and high school is too extreme. I'm wondering how much of a difference current students saw in their GPA or other things when coming to cal. I spent this year at a CC to try to prepare myself, but I know berkeley will be much more difficult. As I am applying for Haas in two years, I know keeping my GPA up is important. But a 3.65 average? That's almost straight A's! I'm a straight A student now, but after all the horror stories, I don't know if I have what it takes. I read somewhere on the forum someone got a B on an exam he scored a 95 on because the curve was 97! This "sink or swim" mentality is not comforting for incoming freshman. Was it hard adjusting to such a competitive atmosphere? Someone say something to clear the air.</p>
<p>Nah, it's not too hard to get good grades at Berkeley...esp if you're non-science. 3.65 is very do-able. No need to stress-out yourself "preparing" for Berkeley academics. The only thing you should be "preparing" for is for having an absolute blast as a college student. Let senioritis kick in....</p>
<p>How will the transition be from five AP classes to a MCB-English Double Major?</p>
<p>it's pretty common for L&S students to double major with MCB. I think you'll do just fine.</p>
<p>First of all, 3.5+ is the target GPA for people applying to Haas. You should be good with that, and 3.5 is very much achievable. And, yea, some of the classes are really competitive.. For example, a recent UGBA 10 exam (a prereq for business) was 33/34 for an A and 32 was a B. But, honestly, don't be scared.. you're gonna see some intense competition around you but you're also gonna see plenty of slackers. Just concentrate on what you have to do and you should be just fine.</p>
<p>That's not intense competition, thats idiotic test design. A good test will always separate the wheat from the chaff. A good professor will always create a test that creates a normal distribution if he/she is going to grade by a quota system. Another reason why berkeley sucks.</p>
<p>i didn't find it too hard to adapt. good time management is key in my opinion</p>
<p>
[quote]
Nah, it's not too hard to get good grades at Berkeley...esp if you're non-science. 3.65 is very do-able. No need to stress-out yourself "preparing" for Berkeley academics. The only thing you should be "preparing" for is for having an absolute blast as a college student. Let senioritis kick in....
[/quote]
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<p>It depends on a lot of things. I don't think that a 3.65 is easy to do, unless you're fairly smart and fairly studious. I don't think you should stress, either, but I don't think people should have the impression that it's easy to basically get A-'s. B's, fairly easy, but the difference between a B+ and an A- is quite large at the college level.</p>
<p>If you don't sleep you might be one of the few, the proud, the berkeley overachievers who get into the top places.</p>
<p>For example search harvard in the facebook and you'll find 3 hms medical students and 1 harvard law student from the last 3 years.</p>
<p>For awesome!</p>
<p>sleep is overrated</p>
<p>Um, facebook. Started last year. Many people don't go directly into medicine or law after undergraduate (although it's very commong for Medicine.) Your example is representative of very little. Get better evidence. And go cluck like a chicken.</p>
<p>Yeah, I never said it was representative, just that you can look up to these people that made it past the rigors of Berkeley.</p>
<p>You presented it as if it were representative. C'mon, that much was obvious.</p>
<p>Where did I say that? I just said the number you'll find from the last 3 years. </p>
<p>The number of HLS admits is obviously less than the total admits, but the number of HMS people is spot on at least according to the career center website.</p>
<p>according to HLS statistics about 40ish people went to undergrad at Berkeley. The one person I know of who did this was just f****ing amazing...he and his partner just plain dominated the college policy debate circuit - way dominated against teams from Harvard and other 'better' schools - and won the NDT at least once, along with numerous other impressive tournaments throughout his career. </p>
<p>Yeah. Just amazingly innately brilliant (and arrogant, but whatever).</p>
<p>the only "hard" transistion i had to make my first year, was living on a floor with 23 girls and 8 other guys (who were never there) and coed bathrooms. The thing with living with so many girls is (at least for me)....the more girls you know, the more girls you meet and know....and i actually didn't really know many guys till this year...</p>
<p>People who go to the top three law schools tend to be amazing.</p>