<p>hi, everyone talks a lot about engineering, premed, chem, and all the sciences, but how are the humanities at Cal? i wanna major in English, i think. how's the department, the teaching, the grading...? easier than engineering by much? are humanities secretly as strong at berkeley as the sciences? hope so!</p>
<p>I believe English is one of the top programs in the nation here, if not the top. The classes I've taken so far have been very helpful, at least.</p>
<p>Virtually all of Berkeley's humanities programs are top 1-5 in the nation. As far as I can tell, the English depatment's teaching is pretty good - the profs do not go out of their way to not know their students. The grading is kinda tough from what I hear. It's pretty hard to get an A, but not that hard to get a B. Lots of A-s.</p>
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Virtually all of Berkeley's humanities programs are top 1-5 in the nation.
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<p>A little bit much, but not too far from the truth.</p>
<p>All are at least very, very solid, and many are really in the top five in the field. But don't worry too much about rankings like these as long as the department is reputable enough (basically they will be for you unless you have some very unique interest not covered here- but for English you will be fine). Focus more on how undergraduates are treated. In general, the Berkeley humanities departments seem to treat undergraduates alright, although many treat them well. I think that the English department is fairly good for undergraduates.</p>
<p>"Tough grading?" That depends on the department. For English, I would not call it tough relative to many other deparments on campus, such as, in generaly, the sciences, math, or engineering, but it does take a lot of work in English to get an A. Lots of Bs, and many A-s. Quality of teaching is usually good, but do ask around to find out who students like and for what area of English.</p>
<p>I probably wouldn't call the grading in the english department tough compared to some of the science majors, but it is true that its very difficult to get A's. They love to give B's, but its like pulling teeth to get an A. And since the vast majority of the grades come from essay writing there isn't much you can do but cross your fingers and hope they like your work. Its not like a science class where if you really, really study you can learn the problems and solve them. As far as teaching is concerned I'd say that the department is for the most part excellent. Out of ever 10 professors, 7 will be very good, 2 will be mediocre and 1 will be bad. The GSIs are generally very smart, but some of them aren't yet ready to lead a class. You also have the chance to learn material from the people that actually wrote the book on it. I've had a ton of classes where my professor is considered one of the leading experts on the subject matter, so there's literally nothing you can't ask them that they wont have an answer for.</p>
<p>One more bit of information. I just learned that it is generally known among leading universities that a berkeley english degree does not prepare you as well for getting a Phd in english as other top schools. THis is due to the fact that the major is pretty flexable about what classes you take (outside of the core 45 series and a few other requirments). A professor told me that at Yale (where he attended for UG) students had very little flexability about the classes they took. THis is something to think about if you have plans on a Phd in english in the future.</p>
<p>It is no secret: the English department at Cal is one of the best in the country -- ranked with Harvard and Yale -- and has been for decades. As a product of that department who went on to a PhD in literature, I can tell you that it provides excellent preparation for graduate school - if you take the courses required, you will be ready to go. There are fabulous professors. GSI's do not teach the courses -- they only teach the freshman writing courses. There are "readers" in the larger courses, who are GSI's; there may also be "sections" taught by the GSI's. The same is true at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and most universities with graduate students. Some of the courses are large -- Shakespeare and Chaucer courses, for example. But other courses are smaller. All of the professors have office hours. Some are more approachable than others, but they will be in their offices during their posted hours and are often waiting the whole time for someone to show up. You might also consider Comparative Literature, which would allow you to specialize in English literature but also study literature in another language at the same time. Look through the catalog and you will be amazed at the offerings. One of the nice things about Comp. Lit., is that the courses in other literatures can be quite small -- my German literature courses, for example, often had fewer than 20 students. The German, French, Russian, and Classics departments are also tops.</p>
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I just learned that it is generally known among leading universities that a berkeley english degree does not prepare you as well for getting a Phd in english as other top schools.
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<p>According to whom?</p>
<p>A professor.</p>
<p>A professor where? At Cal?</p>
<p>yes...............</p>
<p>poppycock -- who is that professor? how would that professor know, since Cal rarely takes its own undergraduates and when it does, I can assure you they are qualified.</p>
<p>My professor shall remain nameless, but as a former professor at Harvard, an undergrad at Yale, and now a full professor at Berkeley, I trust his knowledge about various english departments. And by the way, how does saying that Cal rarely accepts its own UG make your point that Cal produces qualified english majors? And of course I'm not saying its impossible to go from Cal UG english to another top Phd English department. I'm saying that my professor told me that because Cal has so few requirments for its english majors that we will probably not have the same knowlege that students at other schools have. Don't believe it if you don't want to.</p>
<p>well, hows the philosophy department? (I'm planning on being a philosophy major)</p>
<p>It's definitely possible that the professor is right. I'm not entirely sure what English PhD programs look for, but I can say that UCLA tends to have similar problems as well.</p>
<p>I honestly don't see it as a problem (if its even true). I don't know too many people that want to pursue a Phd in English anyway, so all that it means is that berkeley doesn't force you to take 2 classes on Milton, 2 on shakespeare, 2 on keats and so on. I thinks it makes the experience better if you have the freedom to take an english class on race and disability literature or pop culture instead of just reading from the canon.</p>
<p>Anyone majoring in English with the intention of applying to graduate school would, of course, not be prepared if they did not take courses in Chaucer,
Shakespeare, Milton, etc. (though the usual thing to do is to take one in each, not two...) -- perhaps these days the English department will confer a degree on students without requiring them to study what used to be regarded as "the canon" -- a sop to political correctness, perhaps, but pedagogically unsound for any student who plans to proceed. It is not the English department that isn't preparing a student in that case: it is the student's responsibility to make sure he or she is prepared. The professor you are referring to, whether or not from Harvard (and there has long been much interchange between Cal and Harvard and Yale) is perhaps lamenting the new flexibility of the department in not making the full range of the "canon" mandatory.</p>
<p>You're right in that I'm sure every class that a person could take any other top school would also be available at Cal, but the fact that they don't require it is what (I think) this professor was commenting on. Like I said, I don't have a problem with the way they run the department, but I do see the professor's point. Many people don't know (or learn too late) what they should be studying in order to be prepared at the next level, so in that sense more comprehensive requirments would be helpful. Personally, there are times when I'm reading literary theory essays where I don't know half the work that the author is alluding to or using for source material. Because I have no plans on getting a Phd in English I'm not all that worried that I don't know these works, but I can see how it would be harmfull to my chances of success if I was looking to move to that next level.</p>
<p>From people I know directly familiar with the English faculty, I think they would put a wider variety of ratings on the professor. I don't think they would consider 7/10 to be very good, but perhaps 7/10 to be very good to okay.</p>
<p>Philosophy is pretty good. The classes could be smaller and the department isn't doing enough for undergraduates in general in my opinion. However, one can carve out an amazing education and get loads of time with amazing people if one tries (and is lucky). There is a general analytic bent, with two notable continental people/people with continental sympathies. Course offerings are fairly broad, which is nice, particularly if you're into logic. Graduate courses are available if you're capable and the professor is willing, and many seniors interested in taking a graduate seminar do so.</p>
<p>In the humanities in generaly, but perhaps especially so in philosophy, don't restrict yourself just to the department- relevant things to the subject are happening outside of the department, perhaps is rhetoric, German, French.</p>