<p>Berekely is more liberal by far.</p>
<p>The best, perhaps the only, reason to attend any university: you like it. Of course, this requires the luxury of a visit, but really, that's the most important thing. It's not the classes, IMO, but rather the atmosphere that is important. You will be living there for four years. You'll be in class a minor fraction of the time you're there (not to say that time isn't important, but it still doesn't dominate your life). You've got to like the place.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I heard Berkely is infested with biased liberals.</p>
<p>If you listen to Michael Savage at least occasionally, then you know why it's such a terriable place.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>What, as opposed to unbiased conservatives?</p>
<p>:rolleyes:</p>
<p>I just saw Paul Thomas Anderson. That guy is such a funny person. Berkeley gets some amazing speakers and performers on a campus. I think what could be improved is the dissemination of the information about events, but oh, my, there are so many events, far too many to attend even a small fraction of them.</p>
<p>There are many places to live in Berkeley with wonderful views of SF, the Bay, GG Bridge, etc.</p>
<p>In early spring, sitting in track & field stadium, sorta watching a meet, pretending to study, nice sunshine, is ideal.</p>
<p>I am lucky enough to have my dorm window face the Golden Gate Bridge. I love the view! I love it here! It's difficult, but still I love it.</p>
<p>Does anyone care about the positive threads?</p>
<p>me me me</p>
<p>continue</p>
<p>I really want to stress the amazing people that come on campus to speak or perform. College senior/blah blah blah complained that the campus doesn't get good people, but that's absolutely ridiculous. The two most prominent groups that bring people to campus are Cal performances and SUPERB. Although tickets might seem expensive, students get half-off. This comes in handy, considering what awesome people they get. They get everyone from the Kirov ballet to Ravi Shankar to John Cleese.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.calperfs.berkeley.edu/%5B/url%5D">http://www.calperfs.berkeley.edu/</a>
<a href="http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/%7Esuperb/%5B/url%5D">http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~superb/</a></p>
<p>Departments and clubs often have speakers come to campus to talk about research or some current political situation. I think the only problem is this information can be hard to find, as sometimes it's only posted on boards around campus, but it's out there. There are also speakers that come to campus based on various endowments such as the Faculty Research lectures and others. Many of these things are very complicated, or at a high level, but some are understandable. Some people will find them boring, and that's fine, but more people should know that they're there! For instance, the following site.</p>
<p>The calender is a great way to see what events are happening on campus. If you click a particular date, many events come up! The highlighted events are easy to find, but there are much, much more daily.</p>
<p>"Does anyone care about the positive threads?"</p>
<p>You're right. It's boring. Anybody want to talk about which schools are better than Cal? ;)</p>
<p>DRab, if i remember right i think you are in the social sciences, but im wondering how much you think your positive experience is compared to the science/math areas, specifically chemistry which is what im planning on. And can you comment on how the situation on getting classes really is like, if its that horrible and hard to get a schedule or how limiting this can be?</p>
<p>I do philosophy and rhetoric (Continental philosophy/ critical theory/ fun stuff like that). </p>
<p>I took an awesome physics class last semester, but it is designed for non-science majors. It was amazingly positive. Chemistry? Cal is supposed to have an amazing chemistry department, I think particularly within the college of chemistry. I have many friends who are science/math/engineering majors. They know that the sciences in general are more . . . I don't know, not serious, as philosophy is, but dry would be unfair. I'm not sure how to describe it. The engineers realize what is expected of engineers, and are willing enough to try to do it. It seems like, generally (at most school), the sciences concern themselves less with teaching than the humanities/social sciences. I think some science teachers here do really love to teach. I dont really know if it's more or less than the teachers in the humanities or social sciences. I would suspect less from what I hear, but I think this is fairly universal in higher education. It shouldn't be this way, but it is for some reason. May someone else come and answer your question better than I just did.</p>
<p>I have been very lucky with my schedules over the past two semesters, getting almost every class I wanted. Scheduling is a big issue for students at all schools. Rarely at any school do students get every class they want. Being flexible and adaptable is important. Im not sure if this is true, but I imagine that many kids here are able to get classes they want here because they're slightly to a much larger, generally at the introductory level, compared to much smaller schools. Also, it seems that if youre persistent, you generally get the classes that you want. The sciences seem to have more standardized schedules (as in, all of the science majors tend to take a similar core of science classes). Within majors, for instance chemistry, you will have sequences which you need to take, and this will be your priority. Again, this seems to be how science majors are designed more than non-science majors.</p>
<p>Yea I understand that scheduling woes are common, but I guess im trying to see to what degree it really is. People seem to make such a big deal out of the situation when criticizing big schools, but im wondering if as a student its just something that everyone goes through and isnt really a concern... and if this is really serious enough to merit choosing a school based on priority scheduling priveliges... Thanks for all the info btw</p>
<p>Well, one nice thing that Cal implements is the two-phase system for class registration. In the first phase, you can only sign up for 10.5 units, and then you can sign up for the rest of your classes in the second phase. This helps a little bit in terms of class spacing, because then people can't hog all the class space just because they got lucky and had an earlier registration appointment than others. Generally, in Phase I, you want to try to sign up for your most important classes, which would be requirements for your major. Everything else can wait. Don't worry about not getting exactly the class you want - Cal offers so many courses that there are always interesting and well-taught alternatives if you don't get into a certain class.</p>
<p>Scheduling woes? I think they're fairly minimal. It seems like everyone I encounter gets into at least a class they want/need to take. I think sometimes it's harder to get into classes at smaller schools if they're capped to have very low number of people. It should be noted that some classes here are capped, and some are popular, but this generally means you might not get the particular seminar that you want. When people criticize larger schools and UCs for essentially forcing people to graduate a semester or year after they supposed to because they couldn't get into a class, it seems like it's a result of poor planning or an inflexible student wanting to take a particular class. </p>
<p>Early registration would be nice. It's just a step closer to always getting the classes that you want, not that it is any guarantee. Choosing a different school over this particular privilege would seem to me too much. It seems like a much smaller factor than how you feel there, or if they have a particular program that interests you that another school does not, or the surrounding area of the school, but sure, I guess it's something to keep in mind.</p>
<p>sublimished, are you deciding between Berk and UCLA Regents?</p>
<p>Most likely Berkeley and UCSD, both for chemistry.
I wasnt even accepted to UCLA haha</p>
<p>For Chem, Berkelely seems to be the stronger contender. That department is just incredible.</p>
<p>Then again, UCSD ain't bad either.</p>
<p>Ya I'm mostly considering the environments, I think theres no question that both schools are great for the academics. And of course still waiting to see where my friends go, and I'm not visiting Berkeley for the stay over night program and CAlday until late April, so I dont want to make a decision yet.</p>