<p>I'm not gonna be able to visit far away colleges and I feel like research has only gotten me so far. Can any UC Berkeley students tell me about
- the general atmosphere (academic + social life, and whether the pendulum sways more toward one or the other)
- surrounding life + whether the school feels really isolated or integrated
- research opportunities--are they hard to get or can anyone start researching right away if they seek out opportunities?
- what are the students like? Is the college diverse or is there a "typical" student?
- history, anthropology, other social science majors--generally, are they amazing, good, okay, or subpar?
- the quality of the premed program or advising/whether it has much success or not</p>
<p>Pre-med information is here: <a href=“https://career.berkeley.edu/Medical/Medical.stm”>https://career.berkeley.edu/Medical/Medical.stm</a></p>
<p>Medical school acceptance rates, by GPA and MCAT score: <a href=“https://career.berkeley.edu/MedStats/MedStats.stm”>https://career.berkeley.edu/MedStats/MedStats.stm</a></p>
<p>Atmosphere: Berkeley is huge… you can pretty much do whatever you’d like. I tend to keep more towards the academic side of things, and it was a great environment for that… there were always quiet places to work, either in the dorms or on campus. There’s also tons of frats and parties, so if you’d rather go out every weekend there’s plenty of opportunities for it. You’re really free to choose your own balance, but the amount of free time you get will depend on the classes you’re taking and how much you need to study.</p>
<p>Surrounding life: It’s a nice little city. There’s quite a few homeless folk living in the city, but they keep to themselves so I wouldn’t consider it a huge issue in terms of students/safety. Public transit is great, there’s buses for getting around locally (you get a bus pass from school), and BART is right next to campus and can take you to SF whenever you’d like. There’s lots of little shops around, locally owned restaurants, etc. You’ll pretty much be right in the middle of everything.</p>
<p>Research: I’m EECS, and kinda had a research position fall into my lap. Didn’t seek it out, had a professor recommend me to another professor… but I think that’s pretty rare. Lots of students (at least in CS) do research, I think you just need to be persistent with looking for it. Stop by office hours, be interested in their research, keep trying until you find a position.</p>
<p>Students: Depends on where you look. The dorms are pretty diverse. Everyone is pretty much the same age, but that’s the case at any non-commuter school. Some classes/majors will be less diverse than others… EECS classes were probably 70% Asian and 80% male. Other areas (like American Studies or ISF) I didn’t really notice any patterns, and it was a lot more diverse than my major’s classes.</p>
<p>Social science/premed: No idea.</p>