elephant1

Can anybody tell me anything about Berkeley College (pros and cons)?

integrity09

S graduated from Yale and was in Berkeley College, so we spent some time there.

Pros:

• Best dining hall on campus--organic food, home grown sustainable produce: A Dining Hall Where Students Sneak In - New York Times and the best dining hall in the country according to the WSJ: Yale Daily News - Four stars for Berkeley food
• Wonderful Dean and Masters
• Great location --right across from Sterling Memorial Library; a tunnel connects Berkeley's 2 grand courts
• Already renovated

Cons: none that I can think of!

It seems that most Yale undergrads like their Colleges.

svalbardlutefisk

It should be noted that Berkeley no longer has a different menu than the rest of the colleges. That said, the food still has a pretty good reputation.

yalie343

In order to provide a balanced view, a couple of cons:

-Berkeley doesn't have the notable alums of some of the other colleges e.g. Davenport.
-Berkeley was renovated in 1998 so it is less "new" than some of the other colleges e.g. JE, Trumbull, Davenport. However, an unrenovated Berkeley would probably be quite a bit better than a new Stiles/Morse and Morse/Stiles are both not even renovated yet.
-The fact that Berkeley is "split" could also be considered a bad thing, although I don't hold it against it. Also it is true that the food has spread to other residential colleges too...

Berkeley is considered one of the top colleges along with Davenport, Saybrook, Branford. As someone from Davenport, I would argue that it is the best college, but there is little doubt that Berkeley is very good too...

kwijiborjt

I'll preface with the fact that i am in Berkeley, but nevertheless:

None of those are really cons.
-Do you care if there were famous people randomly placed in your resco once upon a time? I haven't exactly heard d-porters bragging about housing the bush dynasty.
-Berkeley's suites are very good. 10 years isn't a particularly old for a building. I'd suspect all the post renovation colleges are in fairly similar shape.
-I've never heard that anyone particularly cares about the two court, at least not in a negative way. South court is as big as all of Calhoun. Plus we have a tunnel where we paint scenes/characters connecting the two. Without the courts, we couldn't have the annual North Court v. South Court snowball fight! Really not a big deal, although it does give you some options based on where your classes are located and what kind of a setting you like (North Court tends to be quieter).

Some advantages:
-Location wasn't stressed enough. BK's location is ideal... next to commons, old campus, Durfees, the post office, surrounding the two libraries, and in the middle of the residential colleges and class spaces.
-Vanderbilt is hands down the most opulent freshman housing, although almost everyone has a double within their quad.
-Mascot! Nobody at yale would disagree that the thundercock is an unparalleled mascot.
-The dining hall does have somewhat better food than the other colleges, even though they have roughly the same menus. I usually regret eating in other dining halls.
-BK events: The dining hall staff throws excellent banquets for the classes, and after Bishop Bash (Berkeley's class day).

Legit cons:
-Everyone wants to eat in our dining hall... consequently it's often crowded. But there are systems in place so that BK students don't have to wait to get into their dining hall.
-We annex a lot. There are 230 beds for ~300 upperclassmen. Usually some people move off campus or take semesters abroad, but BK still has to annex a fair number of juniors.
-BK used to have a not-so-illustrious reputation in IM sports, although that's rapidly changing. This year we made a spring season jump from our customary 12th place to a final standing at 6th.

BK is the best college :-)
No joke. It was my first choice before i got placed.