<p>I've never really understood the whole 'classes' thing. For one, only about 6% of the classes at Cal are over 100. But more importantly, all large classes are supplemented with small discussions each week. So no matter what, you're going to have small environments.</p>
<p>I suppose the "smallness" of other schools might come in other areas of college. At Princeton, it's residential living and "eating clubs." At Yale, it's residential colleges. But at schools like Berkeley (over 30,000 students) or Stanford (over 20,000 students), you can find many small environments: in the smaller classes and the discussions, in the dorms, in the Greek system, in the co-ops, in the themed housing, in departments, in clubs and activities... so I'd say it's the best of both worlds.</p>
<p>The education at Berkeley is no better or worse than that at Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, Yale, etc. The environments are simply different (and I mean even Yale's is different from Princeton's, and the like).</p>
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The caliber of Cal's students may not be as high as Princeton's
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<p>Statistically. I don't see any differences in reality between students at Cal and Princeton. In other words, the students' intelligence, as far as perception, is pretty much the same. They're all very bright and well-accomplished, and you're not going to notice much of a difference when you're around them. I don't split hairs over SAT points or the # in the top 10%.</p>
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though a lot of people who get into Cal would not have gotten into Princeton.
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<p>Agreed. But I think that's one of the beauties of Cal's admissions: they admit the tippy-top students who get into Stanford, etc. (usually), but also admit a lot of the students who don't get into Stanford and the like but are extremely qualified. (There are also the students who aren't so qualified, but they're few in number.)</p>