<p>I’m going into nuclear engineering and I have a list of about 12 colleges right now. I want to reduce the list to 8 or 9. So I want to find out some negatives on each college to help narrow it down. I can find positives for berkeley all day long. Its the negatives I can’t find easily. So what are some negatives?</p>
<p>I’d also appreciate any advice if you care to give any.</p>
<p>O and I am OOS… just for the record.</p>
<p>Hahahaha, don’t get me started. First of all admission will be very hard for you since you’re OOS and want to go into engineering. Then there are the tuition increases, decreasing number of student services, and difficulties of getting into classes you need. (You can read up about this on Daily Cal.) Those are some basic negatives. I can go further, but I don’t know what you want out of college. I still love Berkeley, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t be aware of what is bad about Cal.</p>
<p>wouldn’t it be better to read up on the positives of cal before solely deciding based on the negatives? you’d lose out on colleges that offer EXTREME positives but at the same time extreme negatives.</p>
<p>I HAVE read the positives. Thats where my list of 12 come from. But I like all of the schools right now. So I want to know some things to destinguish them even further.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Regarding the College of Engineering, arguably the greatest negative is the inflexibility of switching majors. With the exception of the tiny fraction of undeclared engineering students who have to pass a high admissions bar, the CoE forces students to declare their engineering major before they even start at Berkeley, with only limited opportunities to switch later. What if you later find out that you’d rather switch to another engineering discipline, or out of engineering entirely, either because you find your original major not as interesting as you had thought and/or because you’re performing poorly? The switching process is far from automatic, and you may be denied and hence stuck with a major that you no longer really want. </p>
<p>This is particularly a problem with those engineering students who are performing poorly, as while they are the ones who need to switch out the most, they are also ironically the ones who are the least likely to be allowed to switch, because other majors won’t want to take them due to their poor grades. Hence, it is precisely those students who need to leave engineering the most who are being forced to stay. These students will then often times flunk out of Berkeley entirely, when they could have graduated had they just majored in some other discipline. I call this the ‘engineering major trap’ in which students are stuck in an engineering major in which they perform poorly, and they can’t leave. </p>
<p>In contrast, schools such as MIT allow students to switch majors anytime they want without restriction. You start at MIT as a nuclear engineer and later decide that you’d rather major in EECS or Civil Engineering or even Sloan Management? Go right ahead - nobody is going to stop you.</p>
<p>Mob mentality here is definitely a big minus. I am still angry that my math class got canceled for Thursday thanks to protesters. Sure I don’t like the new budget but I don’t want any unwarranted delays in my learning. Sigh.</p>
<p>Its pretty easy to switch within engineering… But Berkeley is great for nuclear eng. Berkelium!! Plus you got research opps here at Lawrence labs. NE is small with like 10 people per class and like 50 ungrads overall. Housing here kinda sucks. yeah. Don’t like the Etcheverry, the engineering builging at all. Its like a dungeon.</p>
<p>Getting into classes can be very hard (unless you are an athlete/DSP/declared double major, or you have masses of AP/IB/CC units) especially with the budget cuts</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Yeah it is important to be careful. I have spoken with the dean and all, and you should have no trouble switching if you are doing well in engineering. To be honest, I think anywhere a bit over a B+ average should be considered good for engineering, and they’ll likely let you switch within. If you actually know what you’re signing up for, and know what engineering is about, then you should be able to gauge your chances of success. </p>
<p>My talk with the dean does suggest that Sakky’s right – if you’re doing very badly and don’t do something about it fast before your GPA really gets out of control, you’re going to get lots of grief.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>This is true – and I will add, though, that this depends heavily on major, and what classes you’re trying to get into. I think intro classes can be so huge that it’s not too big a problem (even though a billion people will be trying to take them). But the classes between intro and heavily specialized that lots of people need to take may be an issue. I have friends in the English department, for instance, who have a hard time getting their classes. Friends in engineering seem not to complain much actually. I myself have had zero trouble whatsoever.</p>
<p>Yeah I’ve heard of the engineering trap. Ig uess that just means if I struggle then I have NO choice but to pull through it. Nothing motivates more than failure.</p>
<p>Now budget cuts I didn’t know about. Thats interesting.</p>
<p>Engineering is better-insulated than L&S. Any class with a lab can become a ***** to get into.</p>
<p>Though yes, major does matter. All my IB stuff is phase 1-material, and all my Latin stuff is phase 2-material (hell, I could even wait until the adjustment period and still get into my Latin courses)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>If you’re doing well, that is. What if you’re not doing well? Lots of engineering students don’t do well.</p>