<p>Is it ever possible to take a graduate level course for credit? I am an undergraduate and there is this one statistical mechanics course I want to take. Have you guys ever enrolled in a graduate level course? How do the professors respond? Is there any penaly, like an additional tuition fee? Or does the Berkeley bureacracy frown upon this? </p>
<p>By the way, is taking a graduate course helpful for grad school? Does it help introduce the atmosphere associated with grad school?</p>
<p>"Is it ever possible to take a graduate level course for credit?"</p>
<p>Yes.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Is it ever possible to take a graduate level course for credit?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Generally, yes.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Is there any penaly, like an additional tuition fee?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Nope.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Or does the Berkeley bureacracy frown upon this?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Who cares?</p>
<p>
[quote]
By the way, is taking a graduate course helpful for grad school?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Yes.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Does it help introduce the atmosphere associated with grad school?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Very much so.</p>
<p>Graduate courses help your GPA.</p>
<p>In the case of EECS (average GPA):
Lower div: 2.8
Upper div: 3.0
Graduate: 3.5
(Information all from a Ph.D EECS student)</p>
<p>That means if you do average work, you'll get an A compared to a B- in a lower div class and a B in upper div.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Is there any penaly, like an additional tuition fee?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I think there are PLENTY of penalities. </p>
<p>1 - If you decide to take a grad class and you don't do as well as you thought you would do, you're stuck with the first grade if you choose to go to graduate school at Berkeley. Conversely, if you do decide to go to grad school at Berkeley and you did well in an intro grad class, you won't get the opportunity to get to "really get to know" some of the incoming grad students in your year. That's a horrible scenario since those kinds of relationships are crucial in grad school.</p>
<p>2 - Grad students might conspire against you because they know that if you finish grad school in less time than they did, you'll be more attractive to both industry and academia. </p>
<p>3 - You'll get to OVERknow your professor and her/his research. I know that that seems like a good thing but it can seriously hurt. (Not always, but very often) For example, say you were fascinated by...16th century Russian literature. If you get to overknown and over-work-with your 16th century Russian literature professor (especially through taking all of his grad seminars...) you'll essentially be telling your prospective grad school (say you were at Berkeley and you wanted to go from Berkeley to Brown) that you only care about 16th century Russian literature. No, that's pretty impressive. But it's also incredibly dull. Being well-rounded, though not as important as it was for college admissions, is still pretty important for graduate admissions. What I'm getting at here is that most grad classes are extremely specialized - because they are meant for students who have already chosen a specialization. As an undergrad, you REALLY don't want to make the impression that you're only interested in ONE obscure subject...and that's the impression undergrads who take grad classes can oftentimes give. </p>
<p>4 - etc. </p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>Thanks guys, all the input was very helpful. I feel I will have to scrutnize the potential benefits and costs of my decisions. Nuts...</p>