sempitern555

good post...............

PimpinAtCal

I applied as a "robot" who simply churned out good grades and SATs. My essays gave off false sincerity, although I pulled it off well enough to make the admissions people believe me.

PimpinAtCal

Mass comm is one of the "fluff majors." Some of the non-fluff majors would be: any engineering, or any B.S. Degrees. I can't say anything about the L&S majors, but I would think math, business, MCB, and some others are quite challenging. Other fluff majors... well... I don't know, I'm sure it's still hard either way. Even the so-called "easy" majors provide enough stressful situations, so beware.

sakky

Other fluff majors are any major with the word "Studies" in its name. I.e. Peace and Conflict Studies, Film Studies, etc. It's ironic that these majors have the word 'Studies' in their name when they are filled with lots of students who do anything but study. I'm not saying that all students in those majors don't study hard, but that certainly is the case for a disproportionately large percentage of them.

05_01_04

I didn't read any of the part describing "how to get in" but I read the rest. It made me smile at its sometimes painful, sometimes positive honesty. Anyone interested in coming to Berkeley (or Cal for some...there are two distinct camps when it comes to referring to the name of the school) should definitely read this and take his words to heart.

Well, break's over, back to Math 1B p-set...

dhm

Thorougly enjoyed your descriptions of life at Cal. Amazing how it sounds like things haven't changed all that much in the 30 years since I graduated from Cal. There were times I cried because I felt it was too big and impersonal, but I do think that is part of the growing process. As the years have passed since I left Berkeley (Also spent 4 years graduate school at Cal), memories have grown fonder and fonder. My daughter is applying this year, along w/ UCLA and UCSD, but they are definitely not her 1st choice. I must say, doing college visits, I loved both UCLA and UCSD because they had the same feel as Cal and it made me nostalgic. She felt they were all too big- thinks she'll prefer the smaller private school experience, and as we are out of state now, $$ isn't much different, so we shall see where she ends up. Good luck to all those considering Cal.

fun4all

Yeah, I really liked reading about the community at Berkeley. It makes me want to go there all the more. People complain about Berkeley and big public universities in general because they say that they are only a number. Yet, I don't necessarily see that as a problem. Because lets face it - in the real world nothing is going to be handed to you, you need to fight for things just like you need to fight for classes at berkeley. That's exactly what my older sister told me about her experience there. To quote her "unlike other schools that baby you, like Stanford, Berkeley actually prepares you for the real world"

nervous_breakdown

yeah that's why i don't really want to go to a private school...i'd feel too sheltered.

Collegeman123

Nice post. Thanks

andrewtdx

Hehe, I really appreciate the positive feedback about this. I knew I was probably going to step on a few toes when I posted this; but the fact of the matter is: Truth is never popular, nor is pointing out the faults of things. Everyone loves the rose-colored glasses version you get with the brochure and so many people will give everything to protect that vision in their minds.

Sadly, I feel that the truth is often neglected and I want to encourage those who would be nurtured (Yes, I feel nurtured to a degree here. It's hard to explain, but I've changed morally, spiritually, psychologically, and personally to cope with the environment, some of it for the better, others for worse.) and thrive in this environment to come and those seeking a name-brand degree and hand-holding, as wonderful as Cal is, to go elsewhere.

sakky

I agree with the vast majority of what andrewtdx has said.

However, there are a couple of things I would say. First, I am not sure that I can endorse the idea that everybody should apply as 'undeclared'. Let me be clear - I am not saying that you shouldn't have an open mind about what you are going to major in when you come to Berkeley. You should absolutely do that. What I am saying has only to do with how you choose to apply to Berkeley.

Let me explain. If you are a very strong applicant, you may be better off applying specifically as an EECS major, even if you don't intend to major in EECS. The reason for that is that in the College of Engineering, unlike every single other college that comprises Berkeley, you apply to a certain major, not just to the college itself. EECS applicants are judged against other EECS applicants. MechE applicants are judged against other MechE applicants. And EECS is the most difficult major to get admitted into. Furthermore, it is generally far more difficult to switch into EECS than it is to get admitted into EECS as a freshman. The competition for EECS 'switches' is extremely fierce, and it basically requires that you ace all the lower-division EECS requirements, which is no mean feat. Conversely, it is far easier to switch out of EECS to do something else, even if it's another engineering major. True, it's not that easy to switch from EECS to MechE, but it's even harder to switch from MechE to EECS.

The point is that the admitted EECS majors basically hold the pole position. It is far far easier to switch from EECS to a major in Letters & Science than vice versa. It is easier to switch from EECS to another engineering major than vice versa. Hence, an admitted EECS freshman, in effect, has more choice over what to study than other Berkeley students do. What will you do if you get into Berkeley as Undeclared, then come to Berkeley and discover that you want to major in EECS, only to have the EECS department deny your request to switch over? The fact is, every year, people at Berkeley try to switch over to EECS and are denied.

The caveat that I must give is, of course, by applying directly to EECS, you increase your chances of not getting into Berkeley at all. Some people who applied to Berkeley EECS and got rejected could have gotten admitted if they had applied to some other college in Berkeley. That's why I say that people who apply to Berkeley EECS ought to be very strong applicants.

SchoolDuh0610

How hard is admission into the other majors at the College of Engineering, namely Engineering Physics and Engineering Undeclared? Would you recommend applying to Engineering Undeclared and then transfering by the 2 year limit?

sakky

I believe you can look up somewhere in Berkeley's website what the statistics are for those admitted to EP or EU.

The problem with coming in as EU intending to transfer to an engineering discipline is that there is no guarantee that you will be allowed to transfer into the discipline you want. For example, if you are EU and decide that you want to get into EECS (the hardest to get into), it's not automatic (at least, not unless the rules got changed recently). Your lower-division grades and other qualifications are going to be reviewed by the EECS department, and the department might just say "nope, he isn't good enough, we're not taking him". Granted, your chances of getting into EECS is far better if you come in as EU than if you were a Letters and Science student, but there's still no guarantee.

Hence, my take is that if you think you want to do EECS, then you should apply directly to EECS. Moreoever, even if you're not sure, but your qualifications are high, you should probably apply to EECS anyway. Admitted EECS students are basically in the catbird seat, because they can transfer far more readily into any other major than other people can transfer into EECS. The catch of course, is that applying to EECS is the most difficult road you can take to get into Berkeley. Do this only if you know you are a strong applicant, for otherwise, you might not get into Berkeley at all.

fun4all

Just adding to what was said, I think that you should apply EU if you are unsure of what you want to major in. I heard its killer trying to change from out of a major, so undeclared is your best bet if you truly have no idea.

msagaski

I'm going to be honest here like everyone else. I am only speaking of my experiences thusfar, so yours is likely to be different from mine. Anyways I came to Berkeley like many of you, an extremely hard worker in high school who was an overachiever and so forth. I expected that people at Berkeley would be just as hard working, bright, diligent students. Well thats not exactly the case. When i arrived, many of the students had no drive or motivation and they basically ended up smoking pot or drinking all night. Approximately half of my floor does pot, which stinks up the hallways and now creeps into my room. Its very disgusting. Classes are another thing. They are often large, impersonal and everyone sleeps in them. Unless you are an engineer you wont find many motivated people. I tried to be an engineer but found the competition way too tough so now am in letters and science. Some classes are pretty easy, but others arent even doable. Honestly, i am quite ashamed at some of the people at Berkeley. Don't get me wrong, im not some arrogant person or anything, but i was extremely surprised about how some people got into this school. Finding lasting friendships is often difficult to accomplish. You wont find many friends in your classes because they are so big and many people sleep through them anyways. I am somewhat of a shy person and many of the people on my floor were very loud, rude, and quite frankly, obnoxious people so i didnt find any people there. Honestly, Berkeley has changed my view on the world in a negative way. Before coming to Berkeley, i was so motivated and excited but now i have a very cynical view of people in general. Everyone here seems to be very pessimistic any always complaining about something.
Hopefully your freshmen experience will be different, but as of now Berkeley has had a very negative aspect on my life. Good luck choosing colleges!