Questions about UC Berkeley - Academics, Career Planning and Social

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Berkeley
1

<p>Hello!</p>

<p>I'm a current hs senior choosing between UC Berkeley and UChicago. It would be really helpful if any current students could please answer some (or all) of the following questions :D</p>

<p>Thank you!</p>

<p>Academic:
How big have your classes been in the past year (the candid answer,
not the advertisement brochure answer! :P)?
How helpful have the discussion-based seminars been in helping you
understand the lectures? To my understanding, these seminars are
usually taught by TAs - is this a hindrance? Have you had any really
bad experiences in this domain so far? (Do professors ever teach
seminars?)
How often last year have you been lectured (i.e. not seminars) by a TA
(in comparison to your course load)?
What kind of academic advising do you get, and is it helpful?
How much written commentary do you usually get from each assignment -
and who marks the assignment: TA or Professor?
Does Berkeley have a writing center and, if so, is it generally
helpful in terms of improving assignments?
How many professors, if any, do you have a good relationship with so
far (i.e. know you by name, know your academic strengths and
weaknesses), and how hard was it for you to foster these
relationships?
How available are professors - do they have a lot of office hours
allocated for undergrads, or do these hours usually get snatched away
by TAs and PhD students?
I heard that Berkeley undergrads are allowed to take grad level
courses in HAAS and the law school. Is this true? If so, how easy is
it to apply for this?
How hard is it to get into required classes to fulfill your major/
non-required classes that you really want to take?
Is there a lot of room to experiment academically?
How hard is it to double major?
How hard is it to maintain a 3.5 GPA? (I noticed that most
scholarships are only available contingent on your receiving a 3.5
GPA)
I heard that IB credits give students a slight boost in terms of
course selection - how significant has this boost been for you?
I heard that Berkeley has a sink-or-swim mentality towards its
undergrads. Is this true? If you are struggling academically/
emotionally, are there any adults that you could consult? How
accessible are these adults?</p>

<p>Career-oriented:
Do you feel that Berkeley has been helping you achieve your career
goals so far? I.e. in the form of resume writing, career fairs, etc
What resources are available for people interested in law school or
any other kind of graduate program?
How easy has it been for you to obtain internships/ research
opportunities? Are there a lot of internship fairs?</p>

<p>Social:
How helpful has dorm-life been for your academic life? Do older
students (juniors and seniors) generally help the freshmen on their
floor in terms of academics/ advice, or is there more age-segregation?
What is your relationship with the older students on your floor? Is it
necessary to join a frat/ sorority in order to make connections with
older students, and how hard are these frats/sororities to get into?
(I heard there are academic frats/ sororities?)
On another note, how much help do you get from the older members of
your Christian fellowship in terms of course planning/ academics, etc?
How close-knit is the group? Is there a lot of drama?
Is there a lot of racial segregation on campus?
One of my concerns with Berkeley was the horror stories of roommates
who blast music at late hours/ arrive back to the dorm drunk. Is this situation an anomaly, or a legitimate
concern? (If it is legitimate, how can it be avoided?)
Given the Berkeley workload, how much time do students have to pursue
and excel in extracurricular activities? Are extra-curricular
activities hard to get into?
If I pay my deposit to Berkeley, what groups should I join to
immediately position myself with more self-motivated people who will
search for opportunities? ><</p>

2

<p>I’m a first year, OOS student. I’ll try to answer your questions since I’m bored/not tired yet.</p>

<p>My lecture classes so far have been pretty big, ranging from like 800 students (Astro C10) to about 150. Discussion sections, on the other hand, seat about 20 students.</p>

<p>By your description of ‘seminar’ I’m not sure if you’re talking about freshman/soph seminars, or discussion sections. Seminars, to my knowledge, are usually led by professors and have small numbers of students. Discussion sections, which are much more common, are meant to supplement lecture. Their usefulness varies based on how good your graduate student instructor is, and what subject the class is. My section leaders have all been really great. Once, my History professor actually came in and talked to us in section, and that was pretty neat. But also pretty unusual for a freshman introductory class.</p>

<p>I’ve rarely had a ‘TA’ (we call them GSI’s here) lead lecture. Maybe like 4 or 5 times ever. Usually when a professor is out giving a speech somewhere or doing field work. But for the most part, your professor lectures.</p>

<p>I’ve yet to use academic advising services so I can’t help you much there.</p>

<p>Your GSI will be the one grading your papers in your big lecture courses.</p>

<p>There’s a writing center. The Student Learning Center is helpful for improving your papers and helping you edit and learn to be a better writer. One of my friends is a tutor there, and she helps students with their papers.</p>

<p>Professors are definitely available and have weekly office hours for their undergrad students to attend. </p>

<p>It’s possible to take grad courses but as a freshman I know nothing about this… Berkeley’s undergrad courses are challenging enough for now, I don’t need any grad courses on my plate with them. I have a friend that registered for a grad course but dropped it because it was pretty difficult.</p>

<p>People do have scheduling problems, registration for classes is sometimes kind of scary. Sometimes you just have to take the class with a less-than-ideal discussion section time, or sometimes you have to wait on the waitlist for a week or two, or sometimes you don’t get into the class and you have to take it next semester. But if you’re smart about things, you can get your classes and even waiting a semester to take something isn’t devastating because you just take something else that you needed anyway. Note that this is a bigger problem for people on a track like pre-med, than it is for people who can take classes in any order.</p>

<p>In L&S there’s definitely a lot of room to experiment. You have to fulfill what’s called the 7 Course Breadth requirement, which makes you take classes in different fields like Physical Science, Philosophy and Values, Arts and Literature, et cetera. Even outside these requirements, depending on your major(s), you still have a lot of room.</p>

<p>I’m double majoring, it’s doable. A lot of people do it. Some people have closely related double majors with lots of overlap, like Poli Sci/Media studies. But I know people that are doing things like MCB (Biology) and Econ together.</p>

<p>Maintaining a 3.5 GPA is going to depend on how studious you are, your major, and if you’re smart about picking your classes.</p>

<p>I didn’t do IB, but I took plenty of AP classes. It’s helpful in getting a better registration time, it gets you out of some requirements, but it doesn’t usually help satisfy major requirements.</p>

<p>I honestly don’t know how accessible these people are since I haven’t encountered big problems, but RAs and posters in the dorms always remind you that if you’re feeling down or stressed or anything you can go to the Tang Center and talk to counselors.</p>

<p>There are definitely business, pre-law, etc associations, and I’ve heard about internship fairs but I haven’t checked them out since I’m from across the country, and I’m not looking for a summer internship in California just yet.</p>

<p>Dorm life has been pretty great in terms of social life. I live in one of the Units and it’s definitely a fun time. A lot of people get close with their floormates but you can definitely make friends outside the floor if you don’t happen to click with the people that live there. My floor is mostly freshman, with a handful of junior transfers (which are only on some floors, not a common occurrence) and two sophomores. Most people move out after their 1st year because the dorms are pricey and small. But they’re great, socially. On my floor the freshman are close with some junior transfers, and others tend to hang out with people outside the floor that I presume are also juniors.</p>

<p>It’s not difficult to get into some frats and sororities, though I guess some are more difficult? If you’re a girl, there’s formal rush, and you’re guaranteed a spot at some place. There are also plenty of professional fraternities. You don’t really need them to make connections with older students, but that isn’t the goal of most people entering frats/sororities anyway.</p>

<p>I don’t know anything about Christian fellowships, sorry, but there are a few prominent ones on campus.</p>

<p>To some extent there’s racial segregation. Different ethnicities have their own distinct clubs. The Greek system is predominantly white, though there are other ethnicities present too. There’s an entirely separate Asian Greek system, though, too. But your everyday life mixes you in with other people. If you go into every day thinking you only want to hang out with one race, then I guess that’ll happen to you, but most people have a more diverse group of friends. It is what you make of it!</p>

<p>Honestly, it’s college, and unless you’re going to a really strict religious school, you have at least some chance of that happening to you anywhere. That being said, housing tries to match people up with similar sleep schedules/ levels of cleanliness and it usually works out. Also, there’s housing for people who don’t want to be around alcohol at all. But most of the time problems can be avoided by just talking to your roommate at the beginning of the year and agreeing on expectations. If things get out of hand you can also talk to your RA.</p>

<p>The workload keeps people busy around midterms and stuff, but people definitely have time to join the many campus groups like dance groups, community service, theater, sororities, fraternities, political groups, etc. Some things require a tryout but a lot don’t.</p>

<p>Don’t worry so much about getting ‘in’ with the right crowd of ‘motivated’ people. It’s Berkeley. Most people are pretty motivated, school-oriented, career-minded, talented, and intelligent.</p>

3

<p>Thank you, Ringopuppers, for answering the questions!
Just wondering if there was anything in particular that drew you to Berkeley when you enrolled last year. And, assuming that you pay full oos tuition, do you think Berkeley is worth its cost?</p>

4

<p>

</p>

<p><a href=“http://schedule.berkeley.edu%5B/url%5D”>http://schedule.berkeley.edu</a> will tell you enrollment limits and actual enrollment for the current semester. As the upcoming semester has now been scheduled, it will also tell you enrollment limits for classes in the upcoming semester.</p>

<p>For example, for fall 2011, [Math</a> 1B<a href=“second%20semester%20freshman%20calculus”>/url</a> has two lectures, one with a 400 student limit and one with a 292 student limit, while [url=<a href=“http://osoc.berkeley.edu/OSOC/osoc?y=0&p_term=FL&p_deptname=Mathematics&p_classif=--+Choose+a+Course+Classification+--&p_presuf=--+Choose+a+Course+Prefix%2FSuffix+--&p_course=h1b&x=0]Math”>http://osoc.berkeley.edu/OSOC/osoc?y=0&p_term=FL&p_deptname=Mathematics&p_classif=--+Choose+a+Course+Classification+--&p_presuf=--+Choose+a+Course+Prefix%2FSuffix+--&p_course=h1b&x=0]Math</a> H1B<a href=“honors%20version”>/url</a> has one lecture with a 25 student limit.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Doing a double major depends on the majors. Many majors take about 12 to 15 courses, while a typical number of courses is about 32 over eight semesters (number of courses can vary depending on credit units per course, but most courses are 4 credit units). Some combinations are fairly easy to combine due to overlap (e.g. math and statistics), while combinations that do not overlap much often fulfill many breadth requirements.</p>

<p>But some majors have enough requirements that double majoring can be difficult from the perspective of fitting all of your courses into eight semesters of reasonable course loads. Examples include engineering, business, and music.</p>

<p>GPA wise, the average GPA was [url=<a href=“http://www.gradeinflation.com/Ucberkeley.html]3.27[/url”>UC-Berkeley]3.27[/url</a>] in 2006, though it may vary across different departments (in general at universities across the US, [url=<a href=“http://www.gradeinflation.com/tcr2010grading.pdf]humanities”>http://www.gradeinflation.com/tcr2010grading.pdf]humanities</a> has more grade inflation than sciences, with social studies and engineering in between](<a href=“http://osoc.berkeley.edu/OSOC/osoc?y=0&p_term=FL&p_deptname=Mathematics&p_classif=--+Choose+a+Course+Classification+--&p_presuf=--+Choose+a+Course+Prefix%2FSuffix+--&p_course=1b&x=0]Math”>http://osoc.berkeley.edu/OSOC/osoc?y=0&p_term=FL&p_deptname=Mathematics&p_classif=--+Choose+a+Course+Classification+--&p_presuf=--+Choose+a+Course+Prefix%2FSuffix+--&p_course=1b&x=0), though Berkeley may or may not be the same with respect to this trend).</p>