<p>To give you an answer only based on my personal experience, I enjoyed my first semester at Cal very much.</p>
<p>student life: I am not really a social person and I spend most of my free time in the lab. However surprisingly, I have made a handful of good friends. I think how your experience will be at Berkeley completely depend on how you want it to be.</p>
<p>academic: I was convinced by some counselor that I should take a light class load for the first semester and I did. However, I found the classes pretty easy and I spent less than one hour per day doing homework/study for the three classes I took (math 1b, chem 1a, and an upper div english class). Comparing to high school, I think my first semester in college was much much easier since I went to a really competitive high school. I spent like 5 hours per day in high school doing homework/study, but during my first semester at cal, I had a lot of time just hanging out or doing research in a lab. </p>
<p>overall: So far I have a very good experience at Cal. I would especially recommend you to come here if you plan to major in the following: MCB, chemistry, engineering, business<= I think Cal is the best place for business majors especially if you want to stay in CA after graduation.</p>
<p>btw, I plan to double major in public health and MCB with a minor in chemistry</p>
<p>good luck!</p>