<p>What are some of the reasons you dislike being at Berkeley?</p>
<p>it's quite impersonal due to a large student population, resources for undergrads are limited, annoying bueracracy, it was incredibly difficult for me to get a research position (due to the overwhelming number of premeds who take up research spots), some of the classes were a waste of my time, and many of the people were clueless in my major (they really bogged down the rest of the class). i understand that all these reasons do not at all apply to grad programs here, so don't take my word with as much as weight as those of grad students here at berkeley during your interview. </p>
<p>as for personal reasons, i really didn't like the area. in contrast to the majority, i prefer the suburban neighborhoods where drunkards don't scream out at 3 am every other night during school days (but this is actually due to the location of my apt- i live in a area known as "frat row," go figure). i'm also from socal, so i'm used to the warmer weather instead of the relatively cold and rainy climate here. but if you're from new england, you'll probably be think highly of the weather ;) stanford is one of my top choices due to these personal preferences in addition to its academics.</p>
<p>i applied to 7 schools.
Rockefeller Univ.,
Harvard Chem bio,
Scripps institute chem bio track,
MIT biology,
Johns Hopkins Biophysics,
Cornell Chem bio,
and Michigan Chem Bio.</p>
<p>so far i received offers from Cornell and JH</p>
<p>ccmadforever, i know what you mean. just moved out of berserkeley, can't wait to move on to grad school</p>
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<p>I was accepted a few weeks ago, </p>
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<p>really?! can i ask what was the deadline of the program u applied to? </p>
<p>the program i applied to at UCB is jan.5. did ur program's deadline expire before u heard from them or after? is it possible to get a reply from a school prior to the deadline?</p>
<p>when should we generally start hearing back from the schools?</p>
<p>We both heard back from Berkeley quickly but I think that is the exception, not the rule. I wouldn't count on hearing from schools until February (probably late Feb). Any earlier is just a welcomed surprise.</p>
<p>The application deadline was Dec. 10th, and I heard within two weeks after that. Berkeley made it clear they handle admissions differently than most schools, so don't expect to hear from anyone else so early. I'd expect most first-round decisions from other schools to come out in about a month. </p>
<p>Dirt, you ended up applying to Berkeley?</p>
<p>Yep. (10 char)</p>
<p>I initially was going to apply to about 7 to 10 schools, but have narrowed it down to the ones I could really see myself attending.</p>
<p>Area: Applied Linguistics/TESOL (Masters)</p>
<p>Matches: Pitt
Penn State
Indiana-Bloomington</p>
<p>Reaches: Columbia
Penn </p>
<p>Safety: Illinois-Chicago</p>
<p>All of them are great schools and I would be more than happy to attend either of them.</p>
<p>I applied to like 12...
Area: Ph.D in linguistics/brain and cognitive sciences/cognitive psychology depending on the school</p>
<p>MIT
Rochester
McGill (in Canada)
CUNY Graduate Center
Univ. of Illinois Urbana Champaign
USC
Northwestern
NYU
UC Davis
Univ. of Oregon
Penn State
Univ. of Arizona</p>
<p>Pydbl, where were you accepted?</p>
<p>Addwit, so far, I've only heard from one school, which is Univ. of Illinois Urbana Champaign, and I got in. Still waiting for the other ones. I was surprised to get such a fast response. But again, one of my recommenders who used to teach at USC joined UIUC. So I think that might be a reason why I got accepted early. What about you? where were you accepted?</p>
<p>I got into Berkeley. I was shocked I got in so early considering I have no contacts there, and I felt that was my worst application. I probably won't begin hearing back from anywhere else for a few weeks.</p>
<p>Great! I hope Berkeley will be your final choice. I graduated from Berkeley. I liked it very much there. What's your area of research focus? Speaking of bad application, you probably can't beat me. All my writing samples had a word missing in the title. I didn't spot it until I sent all applications out. LOL, it's the stupidest mistake I've ever made.</p>
<p>Thanks. Congratulations on your UIUC acceptance.</p>
<p>Right now, in terms of research interests, I am probably most interested thin films and photovoltaics. </p>
<p>I visited Berkeley late last month and absolutely loved it. Great weather, great campus, and great campus town. Stanford was actually pretty disappointing. The town was a good walk away from campus and appeared too high end for a poor graduate student. </p>
<p>Good luck with the rest of your applications.</p>