How are parties at Berkeley? I love a good crazy party every once in awhile. Do I need to join a sorority to get access to the best parties, and if so, which sorority is the most fun/popular?
Thank you for this thread.
If your major is Undeclared in your application, intending to major in the Biological Sciences division, are you in the school of Letters and Sciences?
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How will my social life be at Berkeley? What’s the area around like?
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I was accepted into the college of chemistry as a chemE. How hard will it be for me to switch into CS (L&S)? When will I be able to transfer?
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What’s the stress like? How competitive is it? How much sleep will I get?
I got accepted into EECS for the Class of 2022, but now I am having second thoughts on engineering. I think I want to switch out of EECS and the College of Engineering entirely. Is that possible?
Hey everyone, graduated from Cal this last fall. Tried to answer some of the questions I saw here to try and help people out, I know it’s a hard decision to choose what university to go to. If anyone has any further questions on what Cal is like I’ll try to check in and answer to the best of my ability.
“How are parties at Berkeley?”
Parties are pretty typical college parties. Just because everyone studies hard doesn’t mean some people don’t go wild. If you want to find parties you definitely will, but also it’s easy to stay away from the party scene for those not interested. Joining a sorority will get you into the more exclusive mixer parties with frats/sororities, and give you party connections. Not a girl, but had some friends in sororities, and you find out more about the popular ones in rush I think.
“If your major is Undeclared in your application, intending to major in the Biological Sciences division, are you in the school of Letters and Sciences?”
I believe so yes. The school of Letters and Sciences is kind of an umbrella of a bunch of different majors. During your first year or two you take prerequisites in the major within the college that seems to interest you, then you declare into your major, sometimes dependent on if you meet the GPA requirements with your prerequisites.
“1) How will my social life be at Berkeley? What’s the area around like?”
Social life really boils down to the person. I will say you have to really try to get to know people and put forth an effort to find people with common hobbies. We have tons of clubs and rec sports and such where you can meet people, along with meeting people in the dorms which is where most freshmen make their first friends. I know people who have a great social life, and people who have found themselves isolated and bogged down with work.
The area is best visited to get a feel. Some people dislike that there are a lot of homeless, the rent is super expensive, the university is literally in the middle of town, and that it’s colder and rainier than other parts of California. Other people love the independent attitude, the unique culture, the green hills in the background, and the fact that the campus itself is generally regarded as pretty.
“2) I was accepted into the college of chemistry as a chemE. How hard will it be for me to switch into CS (L&S)? When will I be able to transfer?”
Didn’t know too many Chemistry majors. As far as I’m aware it’s much easier to switch from a hard science such as chemistry or engineering into L&S than the other way around.
“3) What’s the stress like? How competitive is it? How much sleep will I get?”
It is a stressful school for most people. Things seem pretty easy until midterms and finals get to you, so at the beginning you have a small buffer. It’s competitive in the sense that some classes are very hard and graded on a curve, but generally people try to help each other out. Most people I know ended up sleep deprived, with an average being maybe 6 hours. I definitely knew people who were more chill and got more sleep, so a balance is doable, but kind of tricky to handle.
“I got accepted into EECS for the Class of 2022, but now I am having second thoughts on engineering. I think I want to switch out of EECS and the College of Engineering entirely. Is that possible?”
Again, as far as I know yes you can, and College of Engineering is the easiest to switch out of. It is the hardest to switch back into though because the prerequisites for upper division classes are pretty technical and specific.
@cliffhanger33 Yeah. Everyone in Letters and Sciences comes in undeclared. So, for example, I am intended biology too. There’s Molecular and Cellular Bio (more small scale) and Integrative Bio (more ecology and animals and plants) in L&S.
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How will my social life be at Berkeley? What’s the area around like?
Social life is normal. I spend 2.5 hours in the dining hall every day talking to people. Lounges are great for getting to know people. There’s usually a lounge where people are doing homework and a lounge where people are talking and socializing after 8pm. Area will get you out of suburbia bubble if you’re in one. But it’s quirky with a lot of cafes/boba and places to eat. Berkeley has a lot of independent/non-chain stores and organic/vegetarian food (some places). It’s near the center of things, which is good for jobs, like I know someone who has 2 internships in SF and goes there almost every day. Silicon Valley isn’t that far either. Build connections. -
What’s the stress like? How competitive is it? How much sleep will I get?
That’s the thing about college: you can do whatever you want whenever you want. You can stay up in the lounges until 5 in the morning then sleep until 2 pm. You can take random naps at 7pm until 9pm. I get 8.5 hours of sleep every night even though I have all 8ams. However you want to sleep, you can make it work. There’s a lot of collaboration. It’s competitive in that 25% of the class gets an A and 40% gets a B and everyone else gets a C or below. The stress is minimal because you have control of your life. If you want to do homework all day, nothing will interrupt you. On the other hand, if you procrastinate, you’ll probably be stressed 12 days a semester.
@icef1ame, @TK19981 and @EternalJazzy Transferring into L&S isn’t that hard. I don’t know much of the details though.
OskiGrad has more to say on all topics.
My S is accepted in EECS program. Appreciate any info for these questions:-
- Undergrad research opportunities. How difficult is to get such opportunities ?
- How is the course load ?
- Internship opportunities
@california32146
I’m more familiar with CS than EECS but I’ll try to give what info I have.
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Research opportunities really come down to how much you talk with professors in their office hours and get to know them, but since Cal is research driven I’m sure they’re out there. I know more people in Bio/Chem who go research opportunities through labs, while CS and EECS students seemed more content with internships
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Course load is fairly rigorous. A lot of math as would be expected. It’s not easy, but the people doing the subject usually have a passion for the kind of work. Usually they’ll take less units than say humanities majors to make it more reasonable.
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Internship opportunities for EECS are very abundant. With Silicon Valley right nearby, lots of tech companies like to pick up students for summers and generally pay pretty well. Lots of job opportunities in the Bay Area in the subject matter, 6 figure salaries out of college not unheard of. EECS at Berkeley gives a lot of opportunity to succeed, but they have to be able to get through the rigorous course load the University offers. So financially a good investment, if you’re talented and are willing to put yourself through lots of studying.
@OskiGrad I was considering swapping from the college of chemistry into L&S to become a CS major. How hard were/are CS61a,b, and CS70? I’m already very familiar with programming but don’t know if this will help me with the prereq courses I’ll have to ace in order to declare a major in CS. Also, out of curiosity, how hard is it to go back into the college of chemistry in case I had another change of heart? Thanks!
@Walter924 and @OskiGrad, thank you!
I got admitted to Cal as Regents into L&S. In addition to regular classes I’m interested in taking Graphic Design. I was looking online but was unable to find information about any Graphic Design classes that would be available for me to take. I emailed admissions but didn’t get any response. Any help is greatly appreciated!
https://chemistry.berkeley.edu/ugrad/current-students/change-of-college
https://ls.berkeley.edu/advising/academic-progress/changing-status/change-college-ls
There are the official links on how to change between these colleges. CS61 a, b, and 70 are moderately difficult from what I’ve heard, but at the same time a lot of people new to coding or moderately interested try them out which may skew what I’ve heard a bit. Generally those pretty good at coding and interested in it fair well in those classes. The college of chemistry is small so I’m guessing a bit harder to switch into. But the first semester you can probably take a CS prerequisite and Chemistry prerequisite, see which one you like more, and then decide from there. I wouldn’t stress it too much in the first semester. As long as you’re not trying to juggle both for 2+ years you’d probably be fine.
@collegefind1234
Here’s a list of design classes I found, but most of them look like they’re upper division
http://designatberkeley.com/classes/
I would recommend possibly checking out the decals around the topic. They are one unit student lead courses that get together a bunch of people interested in a topic. Here’s the list for Spring semester. Usually the list changes slightly, but there looks to be some graphic design courses. As a University though from what I’ve seen, UC Berkeley doesn’t have a big emphasis in design like other Universities do.
Would someone mind telling me how big class sizes usually are at Berkeley once you get into upper division courses? More specifically Econ if possible because I will be transferring in as a junior if I end up getting accepted.
@BlueDog457
http://classes.berkeley.edu/
http://classes.berkeley.edu/search/class/ECon?f%5B0%5D=ts_course_level%3Aup&retain-filters=1
http://classes.berkeley.edu/search/class/ECon?f%5B0%5D=ts_course_level%3Aup&f%5B1%5D=im_field_term_name%3A770&f%5B2%5D=ss_cc_units%3A4&retain-filters=1
(More specific with each link. There’s also Environmental Econ classes and Political Economy classes and some switch out each semester. There’s the whole list on the Econ website, but these show the class sizes)
20-200 people.
They’re big class sizes, yes, especially with econ, but that makes it easier to get into interesting classes. If all of the best classes were 20 people, everyone would be stuck with bad classes. Supply and demand. But there are still options for small class sizes if you want to get to know professors better. And then there’s office hours. Professors are top in their field. They advise presidents and write the foremost books. They’re really cool.
Econ transfer students
Ana says bigger class sizes make more room for better curves.
Isaac says its challenging in a good way. Class sizes are a bit big. Professors are dope.
Kevin says classes are large but it works. Something about bond evaluations and hedging, Top notch. (I heard the financial econ class was really good and practical, teaching a lot of useful stock and bond stuff).
Manu says curves are nice in econ classes. It’s not hard getting into classes. Kimala sucks but has a good curve. Only 5 econ elective classes, 3 econ core classes and one stat class. A lot of opportunities and different routes with being econ at berkeley.
They all say it sucks and it’s hard and some of them are switching to environmental econ and political science because they can’t get their GPA above a 3.0. But you should go to Berkeley because Berkeley is awesome and will get you anywhere that you want in life. It’s respected.
Hawkins is good.
The Romers are the coolest because they determine whether the economy is booming or in a bust and are behind the
scenes in charge of the US economy.
Saul: The classes required to get into the major are always packed. Econ 100 A/B Stat are packed. The electives are available. Have a back up plan. If you don’t get into the major, Environmental econ is just as hard to get in, Political Economy is a bit more lax. (He’s looking at his options)
So, yeah, Econ is hard core, (which just means more respect if you succeed) but I’d also like to mention that all of these people live in Building 12 in Clark Kerr, mostly on the same floor, and they all form a study group which hangs out in the lounge most days. They’re friends. They eat together, they low key party together, united in their mutual Econ transfer struggle.
@OskiGrad thank you - super helpful!
Is it worth to use AP results to pass Math1A and/or Math1B or it is advised to attend them anyway?
@Kentriko There are pros and cons and it depends on your major. Usually, they just want you to know integration and differentiation in later classes.
Some majors require a semester or two of math, so retaking them can be a grade booster, but if you need Differential Equations or Calc 3 as prerequisites for later classes, maybe save your time and take those instead.
For me, Biology at least wants 2 semesters of math, so even though I tested out of Math 1a, 1B, and 53, I retook Math 1B (instead of 54), got an A+, and I’ll take stat 20 later for the stats component. (I’m double majoring so I went a weird way).
If you’re a math major, that’s shaky. Hmmm. First semester, either take Math 1B or Math 53. Math 1B might be a good review and grade booster, refresh your memory and it sort of helps you remember things from Math 1A too, a bit. Math 53 would be jumping right in. After that, if you felt like you were struggling, you could go back to Math 1B later. I’m not sure if AP Calc counts for math majors testing out.
I would like to double major Math/Physics. With my AP I can go directly to Math 1B (it is allowed at least from Math Dpt), but I am not sure if it is a wise choice.
@Kentriko If you do not have any experience with the Math 1B material, be worried. I have a friend who took Math 1B and struggled a lot because the class is curved and a lot of people in the class are at least semi-familiar with the material. It’s doable with only AP Calc AB knowledge, but it’ll take a good amount of focus, so don’t take it with a lot of other difficult classes. Although I do assume that you’re good at math if you’re majoring in it, so you’re probably okay to skip to it.
If you’re taking Calc BC currently, skip to Math 1B definitely.