<p>Okay, here's my situation. I'm currently a Junior in HS and I'm split between major choices right now. I was thinking about Pre Med, but after much consideration, I dont think it suits me very well. Now I'm split between Biomedical Engineering and Mathematics (going into Finance). </p>
<p>What makes Berkeley a "good school"? Arent all the classes large and impersonal? Isnt there a lack of interaction between students and professors? Arent research positions hard to get? </p>
<p>How is Berkeley's Math undergrad? My parents (both PhDs in math) say its wonderful. Are the courses cutthroat and difficult to do well in? Are there professors that will spend time with you if you ask?</p>
<p>Basically I want to see what current Berkeley students say about it (the good and the bad)</p>
<p>All the classes are not big and impersonal. That applies to classes that are mostly lower division because they usually fulfill breadth requirements. For example, my English class has 18 students in it, and that is a typical class size for a English class that fulfills the Reading and Composition requirement. On the other hand, my Astronomy C10 class has 750 students in it, which can make is quite impersonal. When you get to upper division, most classes have less than 50 students.</p>
<p>I have to admit, there is a lack of interaction between students and professors, but this is usually because the students do not put in the effort to get closer to them. Professors have office hours students can utilize, but most students do not use them. You'll be surprised how much people actually use office hours, which is not a lot. Thus, the professors encourage us to go to office hours. They are quite easy to access.</p>
<p>Research positions are actually moderately hard/easy to get. I say this because they have application and interview processes for research position that usually depends on the students ability to interact well with others if they get the position or not. The research position I got is a windfall. I applied for a work-study job at the Berkeley Institute of Design in Berkeley's graduate department. I got interviewed, and my interviewer was impressed by me (I'm assuming) so he offered my a research position instead. So now, I am researching about "Framing in Design Innovation" and "Metaphor in Design" for 3 units. </p>
<p>I don't really know anything about Berkeley's math department. I only know that it is one the top in the nation from what I heard. Yes, some of the courses are cutthroat and difficult to do well. However, these classes are usually curved significantly, so don't worry about that too much. And yes, the professors will spend time with you if you ask, except for some.</p>
<p>Applying to get into structured research positions as an undergrad is similar to applying for college. Essays, grades, and interview are often taken into account. It helps if you've taken or are taking a class with the professor sponsoring the research. Of course, that usually only helps if you've made you're precense known. </p>
<p>Sometimes research positions call for special skills or qualifications which can give you a leg up over the competition. For example, if you want to do research with a sociology professor working with California's immigrant population, it helps to know Spanish, Mandarin, Tagalog, etc. Premed research, from what I hear from premed friends, is mostly about doing well in intro premed classes. My premed friend said the only reason he got a research position his first semester is because he took General Chem and pretty advanced Cacl at a community college during his senior year.</p>
<p>For unstructured research, known as independent study, you've got to go up to a professor and ask them to sponsor you. It helps if you've at least spoken to them in previous semesters.</p>
<p>I am not a current Berkeley student but I know a lot of people who have gone to this world famous school.</p>
<p>berkeley is so famous that almost all countries in the world, have a very active alumni association. In the Philippines, where I am from, no less than the first born son of the president of the republic is the president of the Berkeley association of the Philippines. Each an every country, there is one like it. (My uncle, a Berkeley alum, once brought me to one in Singapore in 2003.) Just look at Berkeley's graduates -- they're quite successful. I think that alone will tell you that it is a very hard school to beat. Overall, I think only Harvard is better than it, in the US.</p>
<p>Overall, I would rank Berkeley number 4 in the world:</p>
<p>Those are interesting stats! Many will probably be surprised at how close the stats of a "big public university" are with those of the top private schools, although I'm not.</p>
<p>Many fail to realize that ALL schools (even top private schools) have some really big classes, especially in lower division courses that are considered breadth courses. Many also don't realize that big schools like Berkeley offer lots of small classes, especially in upper division courses, where you can interact with your professor quite a bit. </p>
<p>If someone brings up the argument that the average class size is still bigger at the big public universities, I would argue this only matters up to a certain point. After a "critical mass" is reached, it doesn't matter if you have more students in the class or not. The interaction with the professor is not going to change much. For example, do you honestly believe a professor is going to significantly interact more with a 100 person class vs. a 500 person class? In this very simplified example, a school could tout that they have 1/5th the class size of a bigger school (i.e. with the 500 person class), although there's really not any more interaction because of that difference in size.</p>
<p>My point is, just simply looking at average class size can be a very deceiving metric. Beware!</p>
<p>ehh.. my chem class is pretty big with 200~300 in lecture and there's like 3 different chem lectures... but my comp lit class is only like.. twenty something ppl in a small classroom setting (its almost like a high school class except we have harder materials and smarter ppl:D). most of the professors have open hours and are willing to spend time with you if you take initiatives to go to their office hours. I think I've been too lazy to go to their office hours like regularly or something(I only went few times). But I have definitely seen some people around me who go often, so I agree with many ppl above me that it's what you make out of it.</p>