The Polar Opposite Conundrum: LAC vs Berkeley

BerkeleySenior
Sat, 05 Apr 2008 04:24:30 +0000

If your daughter wants to pursue a graduate degree, I would definitely recommend choosing the LAC. Then maybe she can choose a larger school like Berkeley for graduate school.

If I could start over again, I would go to a LAC, where I get a much better teacher: student ratio (potential for better LORs), more attention for learning, better material, etc.

Honestly, going to Berkeley undergrad is like being a sardine in a can.

I feel like I haven’t learned too much useful information.

I am currently in the process of applying to graduate school, and am targeting smaller, private universities primarily because I have felt let down by the education I received at a large public.

LACs specialize in undergraduate education, Berkeley is famous for its graduate programs.

Like previous posters have mentioned, the class sizes are oftentimes ridiculous. Yes, it depends on major, but it seems that many majors have hundreds of people in each lecture. Plus we are instructed by GSIs in smaller discussion, and this makes getting LORs from professors difficult especially since the GSIs grade everything, etc.

Anyway, people can say “put more effort to know professors, etc.” It’s easier said than done. And this still doesn’t exclude the fact that the quality of undergrad education at LAC is probably superior to Berkeley because we are a research institution focused on graduate studies/programs.

Also, I agree with the previous poster. I’m not an engineering major nor a hard science major, but I frequently find that the lectures are worthless. I basically read the textbook for midterms. Oftentimes half of my class don’t even bother going to lecture because they are that poorly planned.