<p>I can't stop asking myself if coming here for undergrad was actually the best decision for my future, when compared to Davis, SB, Irvine, even UCLA and UCSD.</p>
<p>====Reasons why it might be====
1) Well-respected
2) Good research opportunities.
3) Exceptional faculty
4) Proximity to Silicon Valley
5) Wow-factor (not sure if this is actually worth anything domestically)</p>
<p>====Reasons why it might NOT be====
1) Much more difficult to get recognized and stand out.
2) Much more competitive for top grades.
3) Lower GPA = fewer grad school opportunities
4) Less active social scene (at least from what I've seen so far)
5) Lack of work-life balance (especially for us engineering people!)</p>
<p>What do my fellow Bears think? I know that the EECS program here is iconic in the industry, but does that even matter for me? If you could do it over again, would you go somewhere else? I'm interested in hearing from people of all majors, but I am especially in other engineering/cs people.</p>
<p>Yeah, I’d say it’s worth a whack [pun intended]. This is a fantastic place to study if you work hard and succeed. It’s miserable if you’re struggling and barely scrapping by with a 2.0 GPA in any major.</p>
<p>Note that grade inflation is higher at Berkeley than at other UCs. Grade inflation is generally higher at more selective schools. See the list of schools at the bottom of [National</a> Trends in Grade Inflation, American Colleges and Universities](<a href=“http://www.gradeinflation.com%5DNational”>http://www.gradeinflation.com) . So it is not necessarily true that your grades will be lower at Berkeley.</p>
<p>Suppose you go somewhere else besides UCB for the first couple of years then transfer to UCB, then graduate with your UCB degree; no one will know or care that you were elsewhere in the first two years.</p>
<p>It might hurt your pride that you’re not in UCB straight from high school, but it is extremely practical. This is based on the assumption that the material you learn in the first two years regarding EE/CS is essentially the same for any U.S. colleges.</p>
<p>I’m really bitter at my choice to attend Berkeley. Mostly because I feel that I could’ve gotten far better grades if I would have attended a state school. In addition, since my major is so useless, I would’ve been better off studying it elsewhere. </p>
<p>Unless you are looking to study EECS, business, economics, or any other useful major, go somewhere else.</p>
<p>For me, if I could choose again, I would have chosen differently. The academic aspects haven’t really been an issue. Socially, though, things are not what I expected from college. There are so many people here who only care about their grades. Forget even caring about the pursuit of knowledge, I don’t think these people even care about other PEOPLE. They join clubs mostly to get an officer position so they can put it on a page of their resume. They study like no other but when you ask them about something in the news, they’re completely oblivious. Their idea of ‘fun time’ is messing around on Stumble Upon, not even just talking to friends over dinner.</p>
<p>I guess I just have a different idea of what’s important. And I’m sure there’s plenty of people that don’t spend every waking moment isolated by their studies, plenty of people here are probably knowledgeable of current events. But it seems like I meet many people every day who fit the above stereotype.</p>
<p>There are good things about going to Berkeley, too, though. The proximity to San Francisco is nice. When it’s not raining, the weather is pretty good. If you go down College Ave there are some great restaurants. The name is certainly very well-respected and there are a lot of highly ranked programs.</p>
<p>@ringopuppers, do you live at Foothill? LOL that sounds exactly like my social life here. I don’t think myself to be one of those crazy study people, but everyone else always seems to be constantly thinking about studying…plus, no one keeps their door open or anything…</p>
<p>Anyway, I’ve only been here for about 2 months and already I feel I’ve been having to use my brain in ways I haven’t necessarily been expected to. It’s cool Let’s see how the rest of the semester goes…</p>
<p>I gotta agree with Ring, the social scene around here isn’t great. While I do my fair bit of studying, I was thinking there would be more socially here. The clubs I’ve joined don’t even feel that sociable, and again like Ring said it feels more like people are just there to get an officer position for their resume. They do what they have to do then bolt out of there. </p>
<p>Even people in the dorms/student apartments seem unsociable. I’ll say hi to people and they’ll be like “waaaah” and have that “**** just lost my deep thought” kind of look, then wander off.</p>
<p>I dunno, classes aren’t bad, the prof’s/GSI’s I’ve had are pretty good, and the proximity to SF is nice, but honest to god, if I had to do it over again I probably would have gone to someplace like UCLA which is far more sociable.</p>
<p>Also I think the hobo’s here are pretty ridiculous. Many will probably disagree with this, but this is suppose to be a very prestigious school with a great reputation, when you have crazy homeless people constantly bothering you for money/making ■■■■■■■■ comments at you, at least for me, that takes away from the glory of Berkeley. They aren’t all bad, and in fact some of them are pretty nice. But when you get that one abusive SOB it ruins it all. </p>
<p>Ah well, if nothing else we have CC for sociability eh comrades?</p>
<p>@Schwarzwald, the hobos TERRIFY me…I thank god I don’t have to come down Sproul that often because I’m up at Foothill, but whenever I do have to down there…good god.</p>
<p>LOL Lemoncat… Mercifully, I never had to live in Foothill, though I’ve heard that’s definitely the atmosphere there! I’m actually a sophomore so I live in an apartment now but last year I was in Unit 1. I would have probably freaked out if I was placed in Foothill, though it does physically look a lot nicer than Unit 1.</p>
<p>And Schwarzwald, I totally agree about the hobos! A lot of my friends say it’s ‘just a part of that Berkeley vibe’ and would be disappointed if the grunginess was taken away. Personally, I’m from a small town in Florida and I don’t think I ever really got used to the hobo factor, people shouting at me, looking at me strangely. I avoid certain streets/areas just because of sketchy people.</p>
<p>The short answer: Probably not. If I could go back, I would go to UCLA instead. </p>
<p>BUT it’s too late to worry about that now, and complaining isn’t going to do any good. The real question is this: how do you plan to make the best of this experience?</p>
<p>I’m still trying to figure out my answer, but I’d like to hear others’ ideas. I don’t know about you guys, but I’m pretty determined to enjoy my time here. What do you all think? What do you plan to do to make the best of this place?</p>
<p>Academically, it hasn’t been very hard, though I’m not engineering but MCB, which, although I’ve enjoyed its classes, I think is really hyped up here in terms of difficulty. (People seem oblivious to the fact that MCB is only 6 upper div technical classes, which is far less than any engineering major.) I think Cal is great value for the money if you are in-state, so I do think it is worth it. However if money was not an issue for me I would have probably chosen a top liberal arts school like Pomona or the like.</p>
<p>I don’t regret my decision at all. I think if you want to do EECS/Engineering, Business, or Law, Berkeley is great! (pre-med, humanities etc should probably consider another school)</p>
<p>And after taking <em>2</em> lower div CS classes, I was able to immediately land offers for PAID CS internships. I know CS people that can’t find jobs at other universities that are probably more qualified than me. When I go to career fairs, I see all the top companies looking for people. Without a doubt, any CS major should come out of Berkeley with a job.</p>
<p>In terms of a social life, I’ve found great engineering friends at Berkeley. First year at AAA(social club), I think around 1/5 of the people were engineers. And they were all incredibly social. We partied, hung out, went to events etc. Also, I have friends in HKN that are super close. They hang out in the office and chill all the time. </p>
<p>I think my experience at Berkeley has been a net positive. So I would recommend it to anyone.</p>
<p>However, it is somewhat of a hassle spending a semester or few taking “catch up” lower division courses after transferring to Berkeley EECS or L&S CS because most community colleges do not have courses that articulate to CS 61A/B/C, CS 70, EE 40/42, and EE 20N. Those who were able to attend a select few like Diablo Valley or Laney can cover some of them before transferring, but a lot of community colleges have “no course articulated” for everything other than math and physics.</p>
<p>That said, lots of students successfully complete their bachelor’s degrees in EECS or L&S CS after transferring from community colleges.</p>
<p>I love the professors. I love the fact that I’m not restricted to undergraduate classes as a freshman. I love how I can participate in meaningful research and interact with professors, graduate students, and undergrads too. </p>
<p>Classes here really aren’t that hard. They’re overhyped. The way my friends and I see it, if you do poorly, other people probably did worse. One of my friends thought he failed his Math H110 exam only to find out his grade was curved to an A. It has gotten to the point where he doesn’t even study for any of his classes and he [undeservingly] gets an A in every single one of them due to the ridiculous curve. I think Cal’s courses are easier than those of my high school in terms of getting an A.</p>
<p>I hate the dorms. They’re the most expensive, smallest dorms I’ve lived in. I think every single other UC has better housing than Cal. Well, I know for a fact SD and SC do… </p>
<p>Given a second chance, I’d try out Yale/Caltech, but I’m already here so whatever :]. I hear that the courses at Caltech are decently challenging (they use Apostol’s books for calculus!!). Yale sounds like it’s a lot more diverse in that they get the best students in many different areas. I can barely find any MOPers/IMOers/IOIers/professional (insert name of activity) here. I think I’ve already met most of them, so yeah… </p>
<p>For me, I really need a stimulating atmosphere to make the full use of my resources. Here at Berkeley, people look at my schedule and say “zomg yutaking grad courses freshman year. zomg is that upper division stuff too? what does that H mean in front of your classes? zomg genius!!!” It’s really hard to get that intellectual feeling when people just praise you. I really do want to learn from my peers, but I’m finding that really hard when I’m tutoring them most of the time.</p>
<p>“That said, lots of students successfully complete their bachelor’s degrees in EECS or L&S CS after transferring from community colleges.”</p>
<p>My point exactly. Even though there are no equivalent courses to CS 61 series, etc., the transfer students still figure their way out and most of them actually do better than average. Perhaps because they are truly excited to come to Berkeley after 2 years of community college?</p>
<p>I transferred here this semester, and I am just now FULLY realizing that what I really did was this: I chose prestige over happiness. To some extent, I knew that I was doing this at the time of my college decision; I just didn’t realize how socially dead Cal engineering actually is.
I was reading SparksFly’s post, asking myself, “How is this person possibly talking about the same school that I go to?” Then I read the name and realized that it is a girl… in engineering. Of course her experience is different. Lol.</p>
<p>Haha I sure do hope so. I’m a math/physics major if that means anything. I sure hope undergrad math courses get harder than math H185, H110, H104, and H113 (excluding 191)…
Physics H7A is turning out to be a joke too…</p>
<p>Any suggestions on courses I should try to take to academically stimulate myself?</p>
Let’s see how the rest of the semester goes…</p>