University of California-Berkeley Top Questions

The worst thing is probably the large class sizes for many of the required lower division classes for popular majors such as biology and business. Most of these have over 500 students in one class. There is no way around it.

There worst thing about my school is the rising tuition costs. Many people at this school are middle class and if the tuition fee keeps rising it will be hard to pay off loans and send kids to college.

The sheer amount of opportunities at UC Berkeley can be overwhelming and hard to navigate. There is always the possibility to take on too much, particularly at a campus where there is so much available to you to do. However, if you prioritize and stay organized, you can accomplish what you want and still experience a lot. Personally, I was worried that with such large lectures I wouldn't get enough personal attention to learn well. However, large lectures are broken down into smaller discussions that provide the perfect opportunity to review anything that was unclear in lecture.

As it was built in the late 1800s, the campus is old and the city around it has homeless people asking for money. Sometimes, they like to wander into the campus, specifically Sproul Plaza. Cal also has a reputation for being a 'liberal' school, as most of the students hold a liberal view.

The classroom sizes were often too big which meant that students did not recieve a lot of individual attention.

The school is a public university, and as such it is susceptible to unpredictable funding fluctuations as a result of State decisions. Governor Brown is currently proposing to cut $500 million from the entire UC system. To make up for these costs, student fees have gone up over 30{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} in the past two years. I expect the cost of education at UC Berkeley, while relatively low compared to the rest of the country's private school costs, to skyrocket over the next 2 years. Be prepared for a rising sticker price.

I consider the clustering of students based on race the worst part of my school, because it is known to be diverse, but because students tend to hangout with people of the same race, I feel that the student body segregates itself, especially with all the organizations based on ethnicity.

UC Berkeley has a reputation of world class professors, nobel prize winners as staff members, and top ranked students around the country. Unfortunately, many of its courses are over-populated and students dont have the opportunity ti take the class they desire ot need. If Berkeley had more courses, it would benefit both the school and the students.

The fact that Cal is such a large school and with the budget cuts means that there is less room in classes that you need. So sometimes it is frustrating when registering for classes when the wait-list is long or already full. Especially when you need classes for requirements, the outdated and frustrating registration process can leave you feeling ignored in a sea of students. Having said that, with perseverance and flexibility, you can get in the classes you need for the most time.

The administration can seem like bureaucratic mess sometimes. Because it is a public university, UC Berkeley often has its classes run out of space. Waitlists can get really unnerving, and it's difficult to find administrators to give your problems one to one attention.