How cutthroat are students at Cal?

<p>Does the competition drive students to sabotage (ex: throw other people's notes away) others in attempts to get ahead (more so than other universities)?</p>

<p>I was just wondering.</p>

<p>people screwing people over in chem labs. ;)</p>

<p>^ Do they actually do that?</p>

<p>He was joking. </p>

<p>I know a bunch of people at Berkeley and they’re all very cool (esp. the bio-chem major).</p>

<p>Yep. I do that.</p>

<p>lol </p>

<p>jk.</p>

<p>pfaaahaha. I sure hope not. Can a person be punished for intentionaly sabatoging other peoples’ data?</p>

<p>hmm… good question… lol. hopefully not =P</p>

<p>Lol, it’s actually pretty hard to sabotage your partners’ data since there is so much teamwork involved in chem labs… i suppose it is possible; never seen it happen. They will punish you severely if you get caught doing anything that goes against academic honor; (hearsay) a friend told me of someone who was apparently dropped from class with a fail on transcript after she ripped notes out of another notebook.</p>

<p>yea. ive heard stories… but i never experienced them.</p>

<p>i need these kind of people!</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>I hope that that is sarcasm. The “bio-chem” major would best translate as MCB BMB Track 2-Biological Chemistry or College of Chemistry Chemical Biology.</p>

<p>MCB is one the hardest most competitive majors at Cal (the major gets filled with vast numbers of pre-health students who think it will help them get into medical/pharmacy/optometry/nursing/etc. school) and Chemical Biology is also very hardcore and provides very little flexibility</p>

<p>I’ve never heard a good thing about Cal on these forums</p>

<p>Don’t know about those intended business majors or premeds but I can tell you that most, if not all, engineering students are pretty helpful and laid-back.</p>

<p>Yeah, engineering students aren’t too bad. I didn’t like chem 1a cuz I felt that vibe of competition amongst mostly the premeds, but it isn’t as cutthroat as people make it out to be (i.e sabotaging other people’s notes). Maybe the worst I’ve heard is people studying on their own and rejecting studying collaboratively, which could totally just be a personal preference.</p>

<p>
[QUOTE=anon5524485]
I hope that that is sarcasm. The “bio-chem” major would best translate as MCB BMB Track 2-Biological Chemistry or College of Chemistry Chemical Biology.</p>

<p>MCB is one the hardest most competitive majors at Cal (the major gets filled with vast numbers of pre-health students who think it will help them get into medical/pharmacy/optometry/nursing/etc. school) and Chemical Biology is also very hardcore and provides very little flexibility

[/QUOTE]
</p>

<p>Actually, that wasn’t sarcasm. I forget exactly what she said her major was, but it was definitely some kind of bio-chemistry. She’s a Senior now, and has applied to a bunch of UCs for Grad School. She’s really cool, though. I know her through the Sister City Program I’m in.</p>

<p>^Ahh, a pre-graduate school MCB major; yea those are the rare and cool MCB majors.</p>

<p>I’m not at all cutthroat, because I’m so specialized into my own field of study that one could count the people doing the same stuff on one hand, likely, even at a big school like Cal.</p>

<p>If you’re not pre-business, prelaw, premed, etc, then you could end up like me, and avoid the competitive sharkiness.</p>

<p>^ Yay for Philosophy.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Take an upper-div MCB class, then talk.</p>

<p>There are plenty of laid-back MCB majors. Just because MCB is more difficult than the traditional rote-memorization IB classes doesn’t mean MCB majors are all uptight.</p>

<p>MCB isn’t just more difficult than IB, it is more difficult than any other biology major on campus (excluding Chemical Biology). I never said there are no laid-back MCB majors, but that does not change the fact that MCB is very competitive and very much overrun with pre-health’ers</p>

<p>Also, IB classes aren’t all rote-memorization; try some IB Area 1 courses and you will see that is far from true.</p>