The reality of going to a public university
Berkeley’s great, but not perfect
In the US, when kids apply for college, they often make a set of huge decisions; public or private, in state or out, big class size or small. UC Berkeley is one of the country’s biggest public schools, and for me in state as well.
Some days this can be a little frustrating, and on others it’s the best.
Lecture halls sometimes get so packed professors ask you not to come to class
Before I got to Cal people joked that I’d have lectures that were teeming with people and I would have to show up early just to get a seat on the ground. Though for a while I believed that was an exaggeration, I soon found out it was very true.
In fact, on my first day of CS61B, the professor actually told us we’d be better off catching webcasts, because Wheeler wasn’t big enough for the number of people enrolled.
I only make one face and it’s one of disappointment
It feels like the administration sees you as a check to cash in
Over the four years I’ve been at Berkeley, I’ve had my share of experiences with various forms of our admin offices.
Examples include being unable to enroll in classes without meeting with an advisor, but then being unable to get an appointment with an advisor because the system doesn’t work; applying to get access to office space on campus and not receiving access until the a week before the semester ends; and having to find your own resources amongst the hundreds of inconsistent berkeley.edu websites.
Why are there SO many?
You have to learn to fight for what you want
As someone very used to taking a backseat, this was hard to get used to. I realized pretty early on that if I wasn’t willing to go to office hours or ask for advice or hit up people I knew to lend me a hand, I wouldn’t end up getting anywhere.
A school with 30,000 students doesn’t have the ability to provide an advisor to every 20 students like our southern rival (cough cough… Stanford), which means finding out helpful information is a lot trickier.
Do you SEE
There’s a lot more to choose from
This applies to literally everything. At Cal we have more than 1100 registered student organizations and more than 190 student run classes, AND these numbers are constantly growing. Plus, if someone isn’t teaching or doing or meeting for what you want, you can simply start it yourself. In my four years I’ve been to salsa lessons and fem-sex classes and almost everything in between.
More variety means more options, which is both liberating and terrifying.
How does one decide
Being successful means working within and around the system
Sometimes this means signing up for a one unit class just to meet the enrollment minimum. Other times this means knowing which courses are an easy A because you know you’ve got some tough requirements to take that semester, even if that means you don’t really learn anything.
I’m the QUEEN of one unit classes
Despite, and because of, all these qualities, the truth is there’s no better school than UC Berkeley. At times you can feel lost and a little in over your head, it’s true! But even if the administration isn’t always supporting you, chances are amongst the 30,000 undergrads, you’ve got some great friends to back you up.
Best of all, you learn to navigate the “real world” before you even get to the real real world, since Berkeley teaches you to go after what you deserve. A lot can be said about Cal, but there’s nowhere else I’d rather be!