<p>Jasmin: Change threads abound. And 4.3 and 2380? (I think 2400 is perfect?) You are pretty much a shoo-in. But the quality of education at Cal anymore is not worth the difficulty in getting in there, imho. If you have grades like that and can get scholarships or a decent financial aid package, I’d try for a higher ranked private.</p>
<p>Berkeley was awesome. It was the best decision of my life. I had to work harder than I ever had in my life and it was worth it. I couldn’t have had a better experience going anyplace else. Yes, there are a lot of ‘different’ people but there are a lot of people just like YOU. Smart, hard-working the best and the brightest. The experience at Cal will make you smarter and stronger and it will help give you a foundation to lead a happy and successful life. Who could ask for more?</p>
<p>As a parent i would like my S at an ivy rather, cuz i pay for what i get. Three-bedded dorm rooms, reduced LAB classes, intense fight to get breadth & premed classes, poor and deflated grading by GSI/profs are but some of the problems at Cal. At SAT 23xx and 4.3 you will get much better advising, environment and personal attentions than at Cal. And your gpa will be inflated in e.g. Cornell ( A+ is 4.3) cuz in Cal A+ is 4.0 ( only about 10-15 % of class get A/A-), so cannot make up for stupid B/B- by a nonsense professor/GSI !</p>
<p>RawMcat-</p>
<p>Cal isn’t perfect, but there’s a reason it’s still the top public university in the nation. I agree there are blatant problems with budget cuts and ridiculous GSIs and Professors, but at the end of the day Cal is still one of the top universities in the world and the quality of education your son will receive will be top notch. Rest assured, I’m not a spokesperson for Cal and have spent countless nights ranting about OChem midterms with my friends, but to be honest, nearly everyone at Cal feels they deserve “better” because they all excelled in high school.</p>
<p>does this hold them back from getting into an ivy grad school or a grad school of their first choice? For instance, do students at cal still get into places that Northwestern students would get into even though their grades are inflated? (if you post on here, can u privately message me too? I won’t see this cuz they don’t send it to my email.) thanks.</p>
<p>does Cal grade for +/-? If so, what are the point values for each? Like, if I get a few A+ and a few A- but all A’s does that = 4.0? Or only all A+?</p>
<p>A and A+ are both 4.0
Minus grades subtract .3, plus grades add .3</p>
<p>Thus B- is 2.7, C+ is 2.3, A- is 3.7, D+ is 1.3 . . .</p>
<p>The exception is A+ which is just another A as far as numerical equivalence is concerned - 4.0</p>
<p>Thanks rider!</p>
<p>im a beast and cal is the best i cant wait! lol</p>
<p>If your major isn’t one of the impacted ones (mine is Sociology), are the chances high that you will be admitted when declaring that major after your first semester as a transfer student?</p>
<p>I have admission to UCLA and to Berkeley but I am in for Sociology at UCLA definitely and just into the College of L & S which kind of worries me…</p>
<p>I love UCLA, but I’ve never visited Berkeley. I will be going for the first time this weekend for the Fly to Berkeley Transfer program. Excited, but kind of put down from the downfalls of social life mentioned in this thread.</p>
<p>If it’s not impacted, it should be fine.</p>
<p>Your social life should be fine if you take the initiative to make friends. People here are friendly and social enough, and things like social life varies from person to person. Some people have a better luck than others. You can increase you’re odds of having a good social life if you don’t come to Berkeley thinking there’s a downfall in social life immediately.</p>
<p>Hi I am a fall transfer as an economics major. Should I take mathematics or political economy of industrial society as minor? Which has more job opportunities?</p>
<p>Also is there any good advice for new transfer students, i am current taking some summer classes here and find them much harder than my old community college, no multiple choice on the exams, all essay questions, need to improve my writing skills.</p>
<p>Also how to make good friends during the 2 school years? And how to manage time between academic load and these social lifes? And how to allocated time for the weekends?</p>
<p>Also I am living in the unit 2 for the summer and i find it pretty nice to live. But i will be assigned to live on Channing aparment for a year. Does anyone think in the channing aparment will have not that social contact like dorms, whcih is better?</p>
<p>thx a lot!~</p>
<p>I know that UC Berkeley doesn’t require SAT subject but will they still look at the scores if you did take it? If you got a pretty good score on subject, will they consider that during the admission process?</p>
<p>@Cookie: Any little bit that’s positive and shows you can do exemplary work helps. If you got over a 650 or 700 (or whatever the equivalent is now), I’d definitely put it down.</p>
<p>@Noods: Simple fact at Cal, there is social/kickback, academic and sleeping time and you only have time for two. As far as making good friends – that’s a subjective criteria. Units are better for socializing from what I understand. I heard Channing is quiet, but you might appreciate that, especially if you are older. Kids are… well, they are what they are anymore. You need to decide what your wants and needs are and make it work from there.</p>
<p>Noodles – welcome to Cal!</p>
<p>You might want to take a writing course to help or get help during the school year at SLC (student learning center). They have some really good transition assistance, whether it’s as a frosh or transfer. Actually, I used it last semester (I was a junior) for extra help in a class.</p>
<p>Cha-Bo is about as social as you make it. The RA will have get togethers and what-not, so you can participate if you want to socialize. Don’t cut yourself off in a room studying all the time. Take time to join a group, go to some athletic events – this will be the last year for a while that the Bears will be in Memorial Stadium, so take advantage of that.</p>
<p>So does anyone has some advices on what good or fun things I should do at Cal once the Fall semster starts?</p>
<p>Football, Calapalooza, frat and co-op parties, freshman hordes.</p>
<p>At Berkeley, you have to be extremely proactive socially and very diligent academically. My experience is that you need to join several large clubs and be active in these clubs. If you have a political inclination, the Republicans and Democrats participate in a lot of activities. Athletically, the snowboarding club is fairly large and active. Even if you don’t like Football, it’s an important enough part of Cal that you have to be interested. Parties are quite common, but dont get your brain fried. You’ll need it more urgently for more scholarly purposes. :P</p>
<p><i>Hi I am a fall transfer as an economics major. Should I take mathematics or political economy of industrial society as minor? Which has more job opportunities?</i></p><i>
<p>Also is there any good advice for new transfer students, i am current taking some summer classes here and find them much harder than my old community college, no multiple choice on the exams, all essay questions, need to improve my writing skills.</p>
<p>Also how to make good friends during the 2 school years? And how to manage time between academic load and these social lifes? And how to allocated time for the weekends?</p>
</i><p><i>Also I am living in the unit 2 for the summer and i find it pretty nice to live. But i will be assigned to live on Channing aparment for a year. Does anyone think in the channing aparment will have not that social contact like dorms, whcih is better?</i></p>
<p>Unit 2 is definitely the place to be, where you can be much more socially active. Making friends at Cal requires you to be very active in activities you enjoy. Do not join clubs that you are not interested in. Be excited about at least one extracurricular, and this will bring you close to people with the same interests.</p>
<p>Cookiedoogy, sat iis asred required, in fact you must take two and if you’re applying to engineeering I believe. Its three in math and science subjects. So its not optional, and you should plan on doing well on them.</p>