University of California-Berkeley

Pros: Excellent educational opportunities; diverse student body
Cons: Somewhat chaotic environment; terrible housing situation; little individual attention

A brief blurb about my background (to let you know what I faced at Berkeley): Despite the humble immigrant beginnings of my family, I was fortunate enough to spend most of my formative years in an affluent neighborhood in Southern California ...

Pros: research; sports; professional schools; size; reputation (academic)
Cons: size; impersonality; difficult to navigate; reputation (wacko)

Things That Make You Go Hmmmmm...

Stark naked, he would enter classrooms and walk down streets with nothing on but his sandals and backpack. One day, my sister was walking down the streets of Berzerkely--I mean Berkeley--and there he...

Pros: Big rooms, great R.A.'s, good dining
Cons: Long walk to campus

The Clark Kerr Dorm, also known as CKC, has to be the best dorm at UC Berkeley! It is very spacious, nicely landscaped, and has great opportunities for the residents.

The Clark Kerr Campus was originally the California School for the Deaf and...

Pros: Top 10 Most Difficult Undergrad Educations
Cons: See Pros above; If you plan on finding women in you're classes you're condemning yourself to a life of celibacy.

Here are some words that I never thought I'd hear let alone say: I love being a Berkeley Engineer. I can't explain the pride which I have for thge Engineering department at UC-Berkeley. I'm relegated to spending way too many hours a day in class for...

Pros: Air-conditioned office
Cons: The people that occupy this air-conditioned office

Let me make it clear from the start that this is not a review of the school overall. This is a review about the admissions office staff, and in particular, how they handle transfer credit. This is, however, applicable to applicants seeking...

Pros: larger rooms, better food
Cons: long walk, more expensive, less social

Campus housing at UCB, commonly known as "dorms" are the best place to keep the unwary engineering student from becoming a hermit. These meccas of social activity, are unfortunately, open only to freshmen, regents scholars, and lucky bastards...

Pros: very competitive, if you like that sort of thing; practically MADE for self-starters, you'll become one or perish
Cons: perhaps OVERLY competitive in some people's minds, forced to learn mostly from books and study groups rather than profs

Throughout high school I took pride in knowing that I knew the material in nearly all of my classes to the point of mastery. I relished being able to flaunt my skills on testing days. In fact I didn't even keep track of when my tests were scheduled so...

Pros: Everyone Does What They Want to Do
Cons: Partying Isn't the Universal Thing

Berkeley typically has a reputation as a school with a whole bunch of wierdos. While this extreme may not be necessarily true, it does have merit. The reason being that I don't think that there could be 20,000 more diverse students in one place.
...

Pros: rigorous classes
Cons: little personal attention

I transferred to Berkeley from a Community College as a Junior. Because I took almost entirely upper division math and science classes at Berkeley, my experience at Berkeley is certainly not representative, but my views may be valuable to someone...

Pros: Something for Everyone; The City is as diverse as Cal's population
Cons: panhandling

The city of Berkeley really isn't as simple as people make it out to be. In fact there are two different sides to Berkeley which are total opposites: the Southside and the Northside.

The Southside is by far the more famous of the two sides....

Pros: Has some great facilities and professors
Cons: Very large, impersonal and grad-centric

I came down from the northeast in April 1999 when I was touring a bunch of California colleges (Caltech, Harvey Mudd, Stanford, and Berkeley) and considered Berkeley to be right up near the top of my list for schools I was looking into attending.
...

Pros: Great People, Lots of Events, FUN!
Cons: None

The Asian Business Association is a club on campus that I feel every student should be apart of no matter your creed or race or major. When walking through Sproul Plaza, you are bombarded with fliers and poster about the various clubs on campus. Most...

Pros: Quality education, diversity of opinion, healthy skepticism
Cons: Competition can be daunting, too much red tape

You can't really summarize 4 years of college into a short review, but here's a stab: the UC Berkeley experience is sort of like taking medicine -- it may taste bad, but it's good for you.

Having graduated a few years ago, I'd like to share...

Pros: Great academics and professors
Cons: Housing is scarce, high crime rates, poverty stricken city

I attended Cal my freshman year and decided to leave because my out-of-state fees were high and because life in Berkeley was simply not for me. I now attend the University of Texas in Austin, near home. A lot of people couldn't understand why I would...

Pros: One of the Best
Cons: Traffic

The following is in response to a recently written epinion (http://www.epinions.com/educ-review-1B34-87F09AB-3876E0BA-bd1) which puts down beloved Stanford (that's spelled with an O). I am not a...