<p>In early April, after getting my admission decision, I was really excited to have the opportunity to go to Cal. But recently, after some careful evaluation of the school, I’m a bit unsure if I want to attend Cal. My top concerns are:
<p>I am most concerned about number 1. As good as Cal is, do I want to jeopardize my grades for prestige?
Does anyone else feel the same way about Cal?
How do I get over it?</p>
<p>I was in the same boat as you as far as thinking. I wanna go to med school so a high GPA is crucial for me. But then, all my friends told me not to worry. If you can get this far, then you can do it at Cal. They wouldn;t admit you if they thought you did not have potential. I wouldn't worry about grades too much, as they only depict one aspect of you at college. Sure, you're not gonna get a 4.0....but are you gonna let that stop you? Plus, according to most people, an A at Cal feels so much better than an A at some other UC...</p>
<p>Don't be scared, cause you're not gonna do well at a school if grades is all you worry about. Be multi-faceted, and challenge yourself.</p>
<p>Plus, for grad schools don't they refigure Cal grades and the like since at Cal the grading system is different than at other schools..? And also don't they look at the fact that it is harder to get good grades at Cal?</p>
<p>Well first off, that's not THAT hard to get As. Believe it or not, there are 4.0 people at Cal, just not too many.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>depends on what you're majoring in, but in general, grades are hard to come by. ankur's right, though... an A here feels great, haha.</p></li>
<li><p>i think the whole competition thing is over-hyped. they make us seem like monsters... i'm an engineering student who's also been through chem and econ classes. it's only going to seem competitive if you make it that way yourself. (that is, if you're an *<strong><em>, damn right nobody's going to be sharing answers with you. but i've yet to meet more than a handful of *</em></strong>s...) also, a lot of assignments are too difficult to do by yourself. you have no choice but to work with the people around you.</p></li>
<li><p>intro classes are definitely going to be several hundred kids per lecture, with smaller, grad student led discussions. either way, though, it's just a guy standing in front of you talking. most take questions no matter the class size, and their doors are open if you need to get an idea clarified or to just talk about random things.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I'm feeling a little bit masochistic in that I hope I get my butt kicked. Anything to end the boredom of hs...</p>
<p>Thank God I graduate the 2nd of June. Wouldn't last much longer in such an inane environment.</p>
<p>"2. i think the whole competition thing is over-hyped. they make us seem like monsters... i'm an engineering student who's also been through chem and econ classes. it's only going to seem competitive if you make it that way yourself. (that is, if you're an *<strong><em>, damn right nobody's going to be sharing answers with you. but i've yet to meet more than a handful of *</em></strong>s...) also, a lot of assignments are too difficult to do by yourself. you have no choice but to work with the people around you."</p>
<p>so do people usually like to form study groups if you ask them? i keep getting the impression that at berkeley every man is for himself and if you fall behind, no one is going to be there to help you get back up.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Plus, for grad schools don't they refigure Cal grades and the like since at Cal the grading system is different than at other schools..? And also don't they look at the fact that it is harder to get good grades at Cal?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>You'd think that they would. Sadly the data indicates that they probably do not. </p>
<p>Don't believe it? Look at the data for Berkeley students applying to top law and medical schools.</p>
<p><a href="http://career.berkeley.edu/Law/lawStats.stm%5B/url%5D">http://career.berkeley.edu/Law/lawStats.stm</a></p>
<p>Then look at the GPA's and test scores of the average students at the top law/med schools, which you can find in USNews. Notice how there seems to be no discernable difference between the average Berkeley student admitted to such schools and the average overall student admitted to such schools. Hence, you can draw the conclusion that these schools DO NOT adjust for Berkeley's grading system.</p>
<p>Let me pull out some numbers from the data. Let's look at some of the more popular med-schools that Berkeley premeds applied to in 2003. For example, at UCSF Medical, about 9% of Berkeley premeds who applied got in (hence 91% got rejected), and those who got in had an average gpa of 3.85.</p>
<p>Let me tabulate the data:
UCSF Med- 9%, 3.85
UCLA Med- 8%, 3.85
UCSD Med- 15%, 3.85
UCIrvine Med - 11%, 3.87
Stanford Med - 3%, 3.91
Harvard Med - 0% (nobody got in)</p>
<p>I think those numbers vividly illustrate the fact that you need very high grades at Berkeley to get into med-school. Med-schools don't care that Berkeley is hard. They demand high grades from Berkeley premeds anyway. Their attitude is basically that if you can't get high grades, they don't care why you didn't get them, all they care about is that you didn't get them.</p>
<p>Let's also keep in mind that a large fraction of Berkeley premeds will get rejected from every med-school they apply to. In 2003, 37% of Berkeley premeds who applied to med-school couldn't get into a single one. That's right - they got rejected from every single med-school they applied to.</p>
<p>Even those with top grades still run the risk of not getting in anywhere. For example, from 1999-2003, even of those Berkeley premeds with an eye-popping 3.9+ GPA, 16% of them still got rejected from every single med-school they applied to.</p>
<p>And finally, I would point out that the above data obviously only deals with those students who actually apply to med-school. Plenty of Berkeley students who want to go to med-school don't even bother to apply, either because they never get through the premed sequence, or they do get through it, but know that their qualifications just aren't good enough to get them in, so they decide not to waste the time and money in applying. Let's face it. If you have straight C's, you know you're not getting into med-school, so you're not going to apply. Heck, if you get really bad grades in the beginning premed courses (which many Berkeley students do), then you're probably not going to try to complete the premed sequence in the first place, because, again, you know you're probably not going to get in. Hence these students were all eliminated even before the med-school application phase. Hence, the "true" premed admission rate is far lower than what is reported because of all those 'hidden' students who never submit an application even though they want to go to med-school.</p>
<p>that's true for all (almost all?) admission rates. i'm sure many people didn't bother applying to any ivy league schools as a senior high school student for the same reason.</p>
<p>grad schools weight the grade accordingly......like an A in stanford is actually only counted as a B while an A in berkeley is counted as an A =) </p>
<p>now stop being scared</p>
<p>is that a joke?</p>
<p>I think,</p>
<pre><code> This post was originally meant for people "scared of Berkeley" or concerned about being able to maintain a competitive gpa. Flippityflop was definitely right: Study Groups are crucial. Particularly if you're in very competitive classes, you often NEED a group of people to divide the work into manageable sections. The advice that I always gave to students during orientation and continue to give is to IMMEDIATELY make, force, a group of friends in your major/concentration and take the core classes together it will make the experience MUCH easier and you will be able to achieve a much higher success rate.
I say this because I transferred to Berkeley and my first semester entirely on my own I was completely overwhelmed (especially in Computer Science and MCB courses). After a semester I formed a group of other transfer students in my major and when we started doing all of our projects, exam reviews, homework, etc. together I found the coursework very manageable and it's obvious on my transcript that something occured and it was teamwork. Don't EVER be shy about talking to GSI's or Professors and trying to form a group of friends. People can be cold and clique-ish, but the quicker you cut through that the quicker you create a network that will really give you very good odds at achieving plenty of A's and often connections for top notch internships and lab positions.
</code></pre>
<p>Just my two cents having gone through too much of it ;^)</p>
<p>Did anyone else notice the rather large disparity in Law School admits from Cal compared with other, arguably easier schools. For example, USD had 44 people apply and 21 got in. The average gpa was 3.47 and LSAT was 163. Loyola in LA had 52 apply and 20 get in. The average gpa was 3.57 and the LSAT was 162. Now Cal on the other hand had 132 people apply with only 19 getting in. Average gpa was 3.89 and LSAT was 168. What's the deal?</p>
<p>
[quote]
Plus, according to most people, an A at Cal feels so much better than an A at some other UC...
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I don't know about them, but any A I got at UCLA was pretty nice.</p>
<p>Well, I have a 3.83 as a junior so far, and I only had a 3.69 in high school. I am majoring in statistics and econ, though, and it might be harder in EECS and the like.</p>
<p>I don't know your relation to Berkeley, sakky, but I've been told by actual Berkeley counselors and medical school interviewers that med schools know how tough Berkeley is, and it weighs in their decision.</p>
<p>"People can be cold and clique-ish, but the quicker you cut through that the quicker you create a network that will really give you very good odds at achieving plenty of A's and often connections for top notch internships and lab positions."</p>
<p>it's so embarassing when if i try to ask some people to form a group, and then they flat our reject. even worse, i say whether i can join their group, and they give some lame excuse. i feel sad if that happens...</p>
<p>The best way around situations like that is to join the club for your major. I know exactly what you mean and most people can be like that. If you join a club for your major than people will be a lot more friendly. There are many MCB, Psych, and CogSci groups/clubs I joined and then met many friends. I definitely know what you mean outside of that environment though; It often seems that people already have their clique set in stone, it's dissappointing as college is supposed to be about the fluid exchange of ideas and experiences. Once it starts happening though it doesn't stop. Just getting the ball rolling is the hardest part, then momentum takes care of the rest. Cal is definitely not for the faint of heart, but when you finish you'll be hard as nails and probably feel as if you can take on anything.</p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>UCLAri, </p>
<p>I noticed you turned down some really impressive institutions for UCLA I was just curious about what factors influenced your decision. Family closer to LA? Great Area etc? Some of those Ivies have very small classes and I've heard the educational focus on undergraduates is keen.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>My S chose ucla over Stanford,Berkeley and others.</p>