UC Berkeley has a reputation for having competitive students who have no social life or social skills… and for being home to people of questionable personal hygiene who like to protest things and celebrate recreational drugs. Thankfully, most of these horrid images are only partially true.
The much maligned academic culture you hear about in social circles is very true—and particularly so in the engineering, science, and business departments. I started off as a Molecular & Cell Biology major, and you do need to spend multiple hours studying the lecture material every day or you will fall behind. Once you fall behind, there really is no feasible way to get caught up because of the density and volume of course material, and many students fall into the temptation of their new-found personal freedom and procrastinate. “I can just webcast the 7 lectures I missed,” some say. Or, “I can get caught up on the upcoming 3-day weekend.” Sadly, the class average on the first organic chemistry midterm I took was 45{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c}; the average of the final as 33{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c}. Courses are grueling and competitive, and there are some professors who grew up in the 1800s and still believe in “bell curves.” During my sophomore year, my aspiring engineering and business school roommates frequently pulled all-nighters. You do actually see students studying regular at the library until 2am, wearing business suits to lecture to “impress the professor,” or stressing out about a grade of 92{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} on an exam. There are students who resort to taking Ritalin in order to focus.
But this school has a prestigious academic reputation for a reason. The main problem is that no one teaches you how to study, and it often takes several poor grades in courses before you either figure it out for yourself or are finally motivated enough swallow your pride and go to the university’s academic support services for help. If you actually take advantage of all these services (for example, see the Student Learning Center http://slc.berkeley.edu/general/index.htm), Berkeley can be a very supporting environment. More importantly, however, is to find an academic subject that you find engaging and fulfilling—for which you’re actually excited about the course material. As ideal as it sounds to major in Neurobiology, secure a posh research position with full benefits, and then apply to medical school, it’s not for everybody. It wasn’t for me, which is why I changed my major to English and German and have been comparatively thriving ever since, both personally and academically. Medical School is not for me, but I would never have known that if I hadn’t taken a variety of courses.
The other side of Berkeley is the “protest something” culture, which, like the academic rigor, is only somewhat true. On any given day, there will be half a dozen individuals on Sproul Plaza who will try to convince you that you live under a puppet government run by the prince of darkness, that you are a deviant sinner and are going to go promptly to hell, or that the world will end in 187 days and you will also go promptly to hell. It happens. Some protests, like “Code Pink” and the infamous “Treesitters,” are commonly lampooned by media outlets; however, there are also some very serious demonstrations, such as the recent protests against the raising tuition costs and cutting of departments/faculty, as well as the well-publicized Occupy Movement. On one occasion, I saw people dressed up in zombie make-up, lurching around campus and moaning, “Grains.” It happens. Turns out they were trying to raise awareness for the unethical practices of the meat industry. I took one of their fliers.
However, what’s most neglected about UC Berkeley is the large amount of sane, normal people who also go here. The Liberal Arts and Foreign Language departments are full of motivated, caring professors, and not everyone you meet on campus is socially inept and/or believes him/herself to be the next messiah. In my college career, I have been able to maintain a competitive GPA, have a social life, and develop meaningful friendships; it just took some time to find the right courses for me and to learn how to study effectively and to take advantage of all the academic resources. UC Berkeley is all about finding the balance between the competitive and the crazy, and there is a treasure of thoughtful, inspiring, and motivated instructors and students.