University of California-Berkeley Top Questions

Though rumors fly that all of UC Berkeley's classes are scary, bell-curved classes, that is not true. Not every class is graded on a curve and the bell curves do not hurt your grades. There has never been a class where everyone got 90{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} or above, so the professor had to curve the class, and half the class would get a B. The curves always help your grade. Please do not let that rumor deter you from enrolling at UC Berkeley.

Before I accepted my admission to UC Berkeley, I wish I had known more about the campus and its lifestyle. I adore the way that students share out their passions for life and leap towards achieving new heights. However, I wish I had visited the campus first and really considered all my options before heading away from home. I am truly happy with my final decision but it would have been highly disappointing if I had not found UC Berkeley to be my new home.

The competition is much more intense than I expected. Your peers are often individuals who know exactly what they want to do with their lives, and that environment can be incredibly intimidating.

How much going into dent would hamper my future.

While I have come to love the Berkeley environment, I wish I had known that the school was so competitive. All my life I had been at the top of my class and now I'm meshed in with myriads of people who are just like me. This often times makes class difficult for I feel like I'm constantly competing with my peers, however, it also drives me to accomplish things I would never have accomplished in my comfort zone.

I wish I had known that it was going to be a vary high contrast that what I had pictured it to be.

How to get better involved in more research, which professors are accessible and which are not; also how to apply for or gain access to more scholarships.

I wish I had known to seek to understand prior to seeking to be understood. In a tremendously competitive environment, the ability to listen to the wisdom and insight of others - both superiors and peers - is often swept under the rug in the effort to "outshine" others. We shine brightest, as academics and human beings, when we are conscious of each other's strengths and celebratory of our respective contributions to the global good. Berkeley is a diverse and challenging learning environment, and it deserves students with thoughtful, self-reflective, and humble attitudes.

The disparity between in-state admits and out-state admits - because the admission standard varies greatly for in-state and out-state students, there are great disparity in academic achievement.

I wish I had known how large the classes were, and how science and research based the school was.

I wish I had known how many protests took place on campus they were definitley distracting during class time.

The amount of pressure and the level of competitveness at Berkeley is unbelievably high, and can become easily overwhelming for most students. I wish I had been better prepared for this type of environment. This school is only for the serious student, who wants to further their education in a determined and practical way. Do not come to this school unless you are ready to work incredibly hard.

I wish I had known to not stress so much about little things, like being waitlisted for a class or forgetting to pack a hairdryer. The focus of your first year here should be building friendships and creating a network of people whom you trust. College life certainly gets too much hype, in my opinion, and I wish I had known not to sweat the small stuff when I first came here. At least now I know to focus on the big picture-- my education, my relationships, and most of all my entire college experience!

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I wish I had been more aware of the immense diversity of research opportunities, community service groups, and other student organizations on campus. I also wish I had realized that the choice of major does not always have a significant impact on post-graduate endeavors (if you plan on pursuing medical school, for instance).

I wish that I had known about the amount of controlled substances at Cal. I came here thinking that the presence of drugs and weed would only be in certain areas in and around campus. But when I finally moved here, I realized that the smell of weed is everywhere. My neighbor's room reeks of the smell everyday and the RA doesn't seem to do anything about it. It is really annoying from time to time but other than that, it's manageable.

There is nothing I wish I had known before coming to Cal. I look at every experience as a learning one, and all the things that would have been helpful to know prior to my enrollment have not negatively affected my experience at Cal. For instance, there is an abundance of terms that I had to become familiar with my first semester on campus. I was behind many other students because I had to memorize the meaning of such terms. This forced me to work hard and stay focused, which was a learning lesson in itself. Perspective is everything.

I am a transfer student, and no matter how much they prepare you for the college you plan on transferring to, especially for UC Berkeley, the workload gets to be overwhelming sometimes. It gets really hard to balance your social life, school and everything in general.

The science majors are much harder to stay competetive in than the liberal arts and social science majors. It takes a lot more studying, focus, dedication and resolve to get a good GPA than it did in High School, and the weighting of the grade is much more heavily focussed on midterms and tests which can be difficult to adjust to. The College of Chemistry is home to one of the most difficult undergraduate curriculums in the world, and as such having a successful social life as well as a successful academic career can be hard to balance and manage.

I wish that I had known that some of my classes in the first two years would have five hundred students in them. Furthermore, I wish I knew that teacher assistants in those classes, who were graduate students, would be grading my final exam and not the professor.