Decisions, Decisions ~ UCB vs HMC

mihcal1
Thu, 18 Apr 2013 01:18:24 +0000

A year ago, my D was making the same choice, right down to also playing cello. She chose Cal. I fretted about huge classes and her being just a number. And then she shared this story with me:

The third week of class, in her 350-person freshman chemistry lecture, she raised her hand to ask a question. And the prof called on her. By name!

He knew her name because she had visited him at office hours. She likes to go to office hours, even if she doesn’t have specific coursework-related questions. She just likes to go talk with the profs and GSIs and learn about what they do. She has found that they are pretty much always happy to talk with her, except sometimes just before an exam there might be some other students there and she’ll have to wait until the prof is done answering their questions. Sometimes she even goes and talks to other profs in her department whom she hasn’t had for classes yet.

Two of the profs have offered her jobs and/or research opportunities. She is working on one this semester, and might do a second one over the summer.

She has found it difficult to keep up cello at Cal. Not for lack of musical opportunities, but because there are so many other worthwhile endeavors competing for her time.

You can make a large school small, but it is very hard to make a small school large.