<p>Title says it all.
I think it'd be nice to have a realistic view of the schools that I'm applying to, so, I'd love to hear about the "bad" things about Berkeley.</p>
<p>(thread taken from goldysocks)</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-berkeley/937077-top-ten-reasons-why-you-hate-cal.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-berkeley/937077-top-ten-reasons-why-you-hate-cal.html</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-berkeley/821743-people-happy-berkeley.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-berkeley/821743-people-happy-berkeley.html</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-berkeley/937792-what-wrong-berkeley.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-berkeley/937792-what-wrong-berkeley.html</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-berkeley/876595-there-traitor-amongst-you.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-berkeley/876595-there-traitor-amongst-you.html</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-berkeley/853153-likes-dislikes-ucberkeley.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-berkeley/853153-likes-dislikes-ucberkeley.html</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-berkeley/145438-top-8-reasons-not-go-berkeley.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-berkeley/145438-top-8-reasons-not-go-berkeley.html</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-berkeley/296741-berkeleys-shortcomings.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-berkeley/296741-berkeleys-shortcomings.html</a></p>
<p>I don’t think hes coming back</p>
<p>too many schlongs in my mouth</p>
<p>it’s pretty annoying</p>
<p>Don’t read that, read this instead … </p>
<p>Problems: Overcrowded in some majors (can make it hard to obtain recommendations); grading is very hard in some majors, perhaps unnecessarily deflating, but not in all majors; less prestigious for undergrad than most Ivies, although its academics are on par with the top ones; people may not like the hobos who live in the area; depending on major, classmates may be less intellectual than one would like; since the engineering dept is harder to get into than the others, engineers can be elitist; admissions is very numbers-based, therefore subpar admits may be made, because high numbers don’t have to correspond to high intellectual achievement well; transfers have a different admissions process, and those who get in from CA community colleges may be subpar admits, but in any case they have somewhat different criteria for getting a degree since they transfer lots of credits, and this can cause tension between frosh and transfers - and GPA is probably valued more highly than true academic mastery when considering community college admits; some people complain about ladies being lacking in the looks dept and men being shady, and while there is truth to this in some regards, there are a ton of exceptions; may be tough to transfer between colleges if your GPA is bad, and may be especially hard to transfer from an easier to get into college to a harder to get into one (e.g. of the first, COE => L&S, of the second, L&S => COE).</p>
<p>Nice things: The weather is great; the food is great; the university’s academics and faculty are second to none really - even if you can’t understand everything, to spend 4 years having the opportunity to try to can be a pleasure if one goes in with the right attitude; there is a ton of freedom - you can explore what you want to do, there are tons and tons of classes, different kinds of people (yes, there are lots of non-Asians, just explore the right majors); people don’t seem very pretentious, and if you seek them out, there are people who’d be willing to converse with you on almost anything intellectual…and I think a lot of people are nice and welcoming; some people enjoy the crazy liberal political activism for the fun of it; the departments are BIG, many times, so the faculty are well versed in very many different things, if you care about exploring a lot of cool stuff; international academic recognition is insane, and arguably second to none for US schools; you may actually like and befriend some hobos; it’s a research university - if you really want to, and are good, you can do good research and getting into grad school with the recs of great faculty can be easier.</p>
<p>Thanks so much for your post, mathboy98. It has a lot of information, expressed clearly and concisely, that I had to waste a lot of time on these forums in the past to find out.</p>
<p>Totally seconding mathboy98 and to substantiate what he listed, the good aspects simply outweigh the bad things. Cal is just a great to be…</p>
<p>Minor additions - a consequence of overcrowding is also potential difficulty in getting into the housing of choice (though things like having a Regents’ scholarship <em>may</em> help), scheduling your classes <em>may</em> be a problem (I’ve never had problems getting mine, but not everyone is so happy); the food is probably not terrific in the dorms, but you can find good stuff all over the place elsewhere.</p>
<p>Conclusion of my rambles - Cal is a good school to go to if you’re easygoing and want some good academics and nice weather, it’s good if you want world class academic research to be a part of and are willing to try to realize why this university is so full of superstar genius faculty, it’s bad if you’re an under-prepared math/science/engineering student who wants to go into these areas (you’ll get crushed), it’s bad if you’re dead set on being premed and would find yourself miserable if faced with grade deflation and overcrowded, competitive majors, bad if you want tons and tons of attention and can’t make your own community of friends, bad if you want people exclusively committed to teaching for the most part (you should be more flexible and adapt to learn from the way scholars present here, else attend a Liberal Arts College (LAC)).</p>
<p>If you really have to ask this question – you shouldn’t come here.</p>
<p>^ Huh? You should probably ask this question about any school before you consider going there.</p>
<p>Nothing! Berkeley is perfecT!! Honestly.</p>
<p>First 3 things that I think of instantly: horrible res food, homeless people, and smokers around the place. The third one might just be particular to me since I live in an area where I see a smoker maybe once every other month so I’m not used to it.</p>
<p><quote>(yes, there are lots of non-Asians, just explore the right majors)</quote></p>
<p>Lol why is that bad thing, True diversity should lie in the experiences and ideas of the individual not in their identity (race,ethnicity,religion, gender, sexual orientation). Lol if only we were all blind and thus could really see by judging people as individuals instead of demographics. Berkeley has lots of great people that I met at CalSO and it was their experiences/ideas that made them awesome, not their identity.</p>
<p>Lol sorry if that rant annoyed anyone, but yeah thanks Mathboy for that awesome concise description so people won’t have to surf threads to find the answer to this age-old (hyperbole) question.</p>