<p>Well, I'm considering attending Berkeley but one of the things that make me doubt my decision is the fact that it has such a huge student body. Can you really get any individual attention at the school? How can you interact one on one with any professors if the classes are over 300 people?</p>
<p>I think I'd kind of feel like I'm lost in a crowd.</p>
<p>Can any Cal students either relieve my fears or confirm them?</p>
<p>well i've only been here a few weeks...but basically, from what i've seen, the best ways to get indiv attention is through your discussion groups that are much smaller and also through office hours where you can talk to them more individually</p>
<p>ive also only been here a couple of weeks but ive found that the profs are incredibly friendly and accessible if you know how to seek them out. for example, if you go to office hours be prepared to discuss something worthwhile....and i dont mean the previous lecture, that just makes them annoyed.</p>
<p>Obviously, you're not going to be looked at as someone special when you walk into lecture. You're just another seat filler. But you'll find your niche. You'll make friends where you live, and in labs, discussions, and study groups. You'll bump into several people you know on campus every day and the evenings will be spent with friends. Just because you aren't a standout, you aren't Mr. Popular at Berkeley, doesn't mean you have any less of a life. Who you are and what you do is up to you, not the number of people at your school.</p>
<p>But when you need something that a thousand other people need, like changing your lab section, you will find that the people you have to go talk to are less than thrilled to see you and will treat you like a nuisance, another number. Say "thanks a lot" and get back to your life. The people at Ned's Bookstore are like this. Buy books from the campus store or better yet online.</p>
<p>not quite sure what you mean about ned's - i thought it was pretty friendly place as stores go. anyway, it's definitely a major point that you run into people you have just met all the time. you wouldn't expect that to happen when there's so many people but it happens often. i came here not knowing anybody and i run into people i've met all the time.</p>
<p>Ned's is crap. I'll never shop there again. Just because of how cramped it is, how no one helps you, how you're basically treated like a nuisance. I go to the information desk and say, "Hi, I ordered online," and the guy says, "Well, that was your first mistake." I don't know what the hell that means, but apparently he and his coworker found it pretty funny because they were laughing it up. He said something like "so many people say that," which didn't make much sense either. I guess since they already charged my credit card, they're not obligated to be courteous.</p>
<p>I think they've forgotten that they are a business and we are customers. I can get all my books online (cheaper) or on campus (a nice looking store). It's not like every student must shop at Ned's. So screw 'em.</p>
<p>Well, BreakOrDeath88, a fried of mine at Vassar was really angry the other day when she felt unhelped by her counseling department, and a student inone of the smaller colleges on campus (Chemistry) said that he didn't feel as if he got any extra help, and that having an extra person sign his forms didn't feel to him like any special attention. Being in a smaller place doesn't always mean more real personal attention.</p>
<p>You will probably get less attention here than you would elsewhere in general. However, there are small classese on campus. All of the freshman/sophomore seminar classes have a strict 15 people limit. All of the language classes have a very small person limit (20 or so)? Harvard has its large classes, Stanford has its large classes, Berkeley has its large classes. Granted, Berkeley has more of them, but if you're in Dr. Zimbardo's intro psych class at Stanford, do you think you'll get any real personal attention from him? About as much as you would from your sociology 1 professor at Berkeley. At the upper division level, many profs have guided group study seminars that are quite small. Sure, some of your classes might be fairly large, but if you seek out attention, you will get it. Few people will hold your hand, but if you seek out help, you will eventually receive it. If you're still very geniunely concerned about attention, check out the liberal arts colleges. If you want more resources than they can ever offer, check out "Ivy Caliber" schools, from Berkeley to Chicago to Duke to Northwestern to the Ivy League to MIT to CalTech to Stanford.</p>
<p>Wow, this thread has jumped from talking about liberal arts colleges to Ned's Bookstore, but there have only been a few responses that have actually answered the OP's question.</p>
<p>Yes, Berkeley is a very big place with a LOT of people. Rather than trying to find reasons to dislike it, you should think about the positives. I am currently a freshman, and my classes have the following number of students in the class: 40, 20, 20, 20. So, as you can see, you can find smaller classes out there without too much effort. Discussions usually accompany large lecture classes, so the "class" size diminishes to 20 people, all the meanwhile you will have access to help from other students in larger classes (ie: 400 kids in a lecture class also means 399 other potential persons to help you out).</p>
<p>At any rate, the idea of "individual attention" really doesn't exist. A professor is not going to check up on you every night and email to ask how things are going. Aside from the occasional personal email from a professor at a liberal arts college, nothing is much different from Berkeley than, say, a Middlebury or Williams. I also believe talking to the professor is overrated anyways and sometimes a GSI (Grad Student Instructor) is the better option. If you are just going to ask silly questions like "What's on the next exam?" or "How do I get an A?" it's best that you ask someone other than a world-reknown professor who could really care less about such little matters. Professors, however, are required to hold office hours and it's always great fun to meet them. You should not come asking them trivial details, but more general, overarching questions and just sit back and listen to some of the world's finest researchers and minds at Berkeley discuss their topics of interest. You're not going to impress a professor by knowing the answer to question #16 on the homework, but you might impress them by showing how strong a thinker you are or how interested in a class you really are. In the end, it's a matter of asking what you hope to get out of your so-called "individual attention"- do you merely want to communicate someone who will ultimately write your recommendation for grad school, do you want to help you answer questions, or do you want something more out of such interaction (the "more" is intended to be vague- different people value different things). </p>
<p>I think I lost the point of this post at some point in the third paragraph, but I hope I answered some of your questions and quelled some of your trepidations. Best of luck,</p>
<p>TTG</p>
<p>Ned's sux.</p>
<p>Thanks TTgiang!</p>
<p>great info!</p>
<p>all you people who make it seem like Ned's is the only store in the world that doesn't pay attention to its costumers need a reality check. they're there to sell you books at good prices, not to care about you or your life story, and much less to be nice to you when they have 60 people waiting in line. as i see it, the fact that they "don't care" is really just a way for them to show how much they DO care....by speeding up the process so the line moves faster and everyone can get their books as fast as humanly possible. if you ordered online you should already know that other than amazon and bn.com, you really shouldn't trust any other sellers. so stop whining.</p>
<p>Take a couple deep breaths and relax. Why are people on this board so disagreeable with everything?</p>