University of California-Berkeley Top Questions

budget cuts

The most frustrating thing about my school is that the school tries to make the school seem diverse, even though in reality its not. There are flags and a wall with pictures of UC Berkeley students, and those flags and wall are filled with minority students. By looking at these things outsiders would think my school is really diverse, when in actuality African-Americans make up about 3{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} of the student population and I stand out.

As an over-zealous and energetic freshman in Berkeley, my first real dilemma was having way too much to do and not enough time. At Berkeley, you will find millions of options flying your way. And if you're anything like me, you'd want hold on to all of them. This is not possible and will negatively impact your priorities. Instead, what your should do is decide what's most important to you and schedule the exploration and fun after these priorities. Work hard, play hard. And trust me when I say this, Berkeley is never short on play.

Far away from city.

The class sizes are really big and it is easy to get lost in the shuffle and not be able to figure out all activities that are happening.

I wish I had more time so I could take more classes. The quarter system would probably be nicer.

The most frustrting thing about UCB is that some classes are only offered in fall semester and not spring semester.

It's hard to find a lot of social events that aren't frat parties.

The most frustrating thing about the school is being able to take all the classes you want to while you're here.

There are too many people and not enough money. That means it's difficult to sign up for classes, difficult to get advising, and facilities for extracurricular activities aren't as good/difficult to reserve.

It is difficult sometimes to deal with the admissions office and departmental requirements with all the requirements, and these bureaucracies are not friendly to study abroad students as many things are necessary to complete "in person", regardless of the circumstances.

The red tape.

the new school for social research has horrible funding, and is in new york, which is too expensive

The professors are difficult to reach outside of class.

Too many liberals, terrible style of dress, lack of social etiquette.

That in order to be really actually social and have friends, it has to be through the living situation or clubs, people in classes aren't interested in being your friend

balancing school courseload, extracirrculars, a job, and a boyfriend.

it is sometimes difficult to get into classes you want

The workload can be frustrating.

i feel like people are here for academics first and foremost. i feel like people are less loyal to their friends and more loyal to their schoolwork. school spirit is cool, but the hour after a football game, its back to schoolwork for a lot of people. i haven't found a lot of people like myself that would much rather chill than do homework - people care too much about school, if thats possible