UC Berkeley vs NYU

<p>I’m an international student, admitted to UC Berkeley and New York University. Looking for a major in econ. I’m leaning towards UCB, but bit confused hearing that the class sizes at Berkeley are huge, more than 800. And scheduling classes is difficult… Anyone can give some input?</p>

<p>More than 800? Haha, my friend, unless your source is current student at Cal, you can definitely dismiss that allegation.</p>

<p>They are definitely not 800. Some classes, like Filippenko’s Astronomy or Reich’s Wealth and Poverty class can get large, filling up Wheeler (750), but those are the exceptions. Usually for Intro courses they’ll be 200ish. The less popular classes will have even fewer people. It’s really not that bad.</p>

<p>Cal actually has a campus. For a more traditional American college experience, choose Berkeley.</p>

<p>Yes, intro econ classes are large…but they’ll be large at NYU too.</p>

<p>Economics 1 is one of the largest courses on campus, with 720 students in Wheeler, but later courses are not as large (although they can still be large, especially if you take the less-math versions like 100A and 100B with 350 students each; economics is one of the largest majors).</p>

<p>The Berkeley schedule shows class sizes:
[UCB</a> Online Schedule of Classes: Search Results](<a href=“http://osoc.berkeley.edu/OSOC/osoc?y=0&p_term=FL&p_deptname=--+Choose+a+Department+Name+--&p_classif=--+Choose+a+Course+Classification+--&p_presuf=--+Choose+a+Course+Prefix%2FSuffix+--&p_dept=econ&x=0]UCB”>http://osoc.berkeley.edu/OSOC/osoc?y=0&p_term=FL&p_deptname=--+Choose+a+Department+Name+--&p_classif=--+Choose+a+Course+Classification+--&p_presuf=--+Choose+a+Course+Prefix%2FSuffix+--&p_dept=econ&x=0)</p>

<p>NYU’s schedule does not show class sizes, but one can probably infer some of them by noting that the courses typically have a lecture with a variable number of recitations attached to the lecture.</p>

<p><a href=“Albert Login”>Albert Login;

<p>In both cases, you are likely to get large economics lectures by a faculty member, broken up into smaller discussion or recitation sections by TAs. NYU lectures are likely to be smaller, but probably not small enough to get the more intimate feel associated with small liberal arts colleges.</p>

<p>Thanks so much everyone. Are any of you current students? If so I would like to know if the budget cutbacks have affected the quality if education and life. Like are there many courses that are cancelled, prof leaving etc.</p>

<p>The only class I’ve been in that’s even anywhere close to 800 students is Professor Robert Reich’s Wealth and Poverty class, but that’s only because the class is extremely popular (even non-Berkeley students come just to listen to him talk). </p>

<p>It’s also not as hard to get into the classes that you need as everyone says it is. The only problem you might have with enrolling for classes is that you won’t get into a discussion time slot that you like. </p>

<p>I’m a current student and the budget cutbacks haven’t affected me at all. Only the smaller classes get cancelled (usually due to not enough students enrolling); the classes that you need will not be cancelled.</p>

<p>Robert Reich is awesome…</p>

<p>I think Alex Filippenko’s intro astronomy classes are huge and popular as well.</p>

<p>Introductory CS classes are also fairly large. Last semester, CS 61A with DeNero (a popular lecturer, and with good reason) had ~700 people enrolled, albeit split between two lectures (though it didn’t matter which lecture you went to). The demand for CS 61B this semester was similar (if not larger), but they couldn’t let that many people in due to space limitations. Next semester, 61A will be in Wheeler with an enrollment limit of 805, so I think we can expect similar numbers.</p>

<p>In any case, I don’t think the budget cuts have made life significantly worse.</p>

<p>@ energize - what do u mean significantly worse. Would u consider UCB worthwhile attending? Or is Nyu better option.</p>

<p>The main impact of budget cuts has been to make in-state tuition go up a lot, for those who are not receiving offsetting financial aid.</p>

<p>But then NYU is a relatively poorly endowed private school, with high tuition and poor financial aid.</p>

<p>@ucbalumnus - as an international student, im paying full tuition at both places. What I was concerned about was if funding cutbacks has affected the quality of teaching, etc, by increase in prof student ratio, larger classes, etc.</p>

<p>Anyone there who can help?</p>