<p>The UCs don't de either of those, to my knowledge.</p>
<p>
[quote]
You mean Berkeley professors are more readily accessible than those of ivies?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Here are my experiences of meeting with professors:</p>
<p>At a private school: Meeting with a top economist: I had to reserve an appointment time two weeks in advance</p>
<p>at Berkeley: meeting with the head of the #1 ranked german department - Walking in any time during office hours, at most a 10 minute wait. </p>
<p>I have never ever had a problem with accessing professors or TA's at Berkeley.</p>
<p>All professors within the UC system are required to have office hours in which students can reach them, which is pretty cool.</p>
<p>Tupac Shakur, welcome back! Or should we just call you by one of your old names, West Side/West Sidee/california1600? </p>
<p>As far as prof office hours are concerned, I don't think that the fact that they are required to have OH's that is the issue. The issue is really whether they want you to come. I once knew a prof who deliberately ran office hours only when he knew the students in his class were in another class. Because of the lockstep nature of the engineering curriculum, certain classes basically have to be taken together in the same semester in order to graduate on time, so this prof would deliberately hold OH's during the lecture time of the other class when he knew that nobody could attend. </p>
<p>Now obviously that's an extreme case. But what I can tell you is that I know of plenty of people who have had significant problem in accessing profs at Berkeley. That doesn't mean that private schools are perfect, I never said that. But I don't see Berkeley as being any better when it comes to professor access.</p>
<p>sakky, is it the same for humanities classes?</p>
<p>sakky, that is what I am trying to say. Professors are required to hold office hours, and some of them find loopholes around it.</p>
<p>It's a bit more flexible in humanities, but a lot of professors will schedule office hours during popular classes. Of course, if it is a lecture class -- you can... take the hit, so to speak if it is really an emergency. I've had professors and TA/GSIs run the gamut of really warm and friendly and eager to help to down-right cold and mean.</p>
<p>sakky, i never said that Berkeley had better professor access than private schools. I am merely combatting the stereotype that professor access at Berkeley is significantly worse at Berkeley. It clearly is not. </p>
<p>I mean, you have TA's teaching regular school year courses at top ivies like Columbia. A TA has never taught a regular school year course at Berkeley. There are extremes on both sides, but the common misperception isn't Berkeley has better access than privates, its privates have better access than Berkeley, which is an overblown stereotype. That was the point of my post.</p>
<p>TupacShakur/WestSidee/california1600, I never subscribed to the extremes of the stereotypes either.</p>
<p>However, I think we can both agree that stereotypes start out with a bit of truth. The stereotype of Berkeley having inaccessible profs didn't just occur randomly, you know. It's not like people just one day randomly decided to tag Berkeley with that stereotype for no good reason. There is actually substance to the stereotype, and we both know it. The fact is, Berkeley really does have problems with professor accessibility. Does that mean that other schools don't? No, I never said that. But that doesn't take away the fact that professor access is often times a problem at Berkeley.</p>
<p>^ Yeah sakky. Its also a problem at other universities... including many privates. Sure I can agree with the stereotypes have a little bit of truth to them argument, but thats not what I have a problem with.</p>
<p>What I have is a problem with people who actually PUSH the stereotypes. While I know that your intentions are to actually have Berkeley improve itself, others are not so well intentioned. </p>
<p>There are many in the middle tier ivy league schools that feel that Berkeley is a genuine threat to their prestige and hereby perpetuate a myth on purpose that has very little distinguishable truth to their own private school experience. That is what I have a problem with, not with people who are genuinely concerned with improving Berkeley. Often times the two become indistinguishable, and I feel taht it is necessary to distinguish the two with a more discernable consciousness.</p>