I’ve finally finished all my college applications, and pretty soon I’ll have to decide where I’ll actually go. I think my choice will probably come down to the University of Minnesota and UC Berkeley, assuming I’m accepted there (I’ve already been accepted at UMN Twin Cities). The University of Minnesota is close and cheap, but cold. UC Berkeley is a better school with a warmer climate, but it is far away. So, tell me about Berkeley. In particular, I’m interested in the quality and difficulty of classes, housing, and food. I’m planning on studying biology, if that helps.
Also, what are my chances of being admitted? My (unweighted) GPA is about 3.64 out of 4, but I’ve always taken the hardest classes available. I’ve also taken math classes at the University of Minnesota for five years (including this one) through UMTYMP, and the past three years have been equivalent to University Honors courses. My SAT I scores are 780 Math and 790 verbal, and my SAT II scores are 800 Biology M, 800 Math IIC, and 780 Writing. I am not, of course, a resident of California.
I went to Berkeley back in the early 90’s. It’s a great school in a really neat area. To answer your specific questions:
I have no idea what your chances of getting in are. The U.C. system is currently overloaded and Berkeley is the best U.C. school, so it’s very competitive. As an out of state resident, you may have a harder time getting in. (If you do, out of state tuition will of course be very expensive.)
The dorms are pretty decent, although fairly expensive. (You should live in the dorms your first year or two no matter where you go – it’s the easiest way to meet people right off the bat.) Off-campus housing is very expensive. If you’re from Minnesota, you will likely be shocked at just how expensive. I believe current rents for a one-bedroom apartment are between $1500 and $2000 a month. If and when you live off campus you’ll want to share a place with several people. Parking anywhere near campus is virtually impossible, so you’ll likely walk or take buses everywhere.
The classes are very good. The other students are all very good, especially in the science programs. Biology is an especially tough program because of the pre-meds. Anything with pre-meds in it will be very competitive – the lower level classes are usually graded on a curve, and Berkeley pre-meds care about grades a lot. That said, you sound well prepared enough that you’ll be fine – it’s really just about putting in the time.
The Bay Area is great. The weather is awesome. It’s sunny all the time, the winters are mild, and there is good hiking in Tilden Park, just up the hill from the campus. There are tons of restaurants, clubs, theatres, etc. both in Berkeley, and in surrounding areas. San Francisco is a short BART ride away.
For me, the only downside to going to Berkeley instead of a school like University of Minnesota is the social life. It depends on the person of course, but I think Berkeley is a hard place to easily go to parties, meet girls, etc. (I went to grad school at a Big Ten school, and it was like night and day.) YMMV, of course.
I went to grad school in Berkeley in the late 1980s, but I went out with an undergrad who was from Minnesota while I was in school. She and her twin brother seemed to really like the place.
Berkeley is a great school and I think it has made a bigger commitment to undergrads in recent years.
The City of Berkeley is a very expensive place to live. There is a very restrictive rent control law there, so it can be difficult to find off campus housing. I lived in the room of a woman’s home. It wasn’t the greatest living situation, but it was affordable.
Compared to Minnesota, you will find the Bay Area quite balmy, but it is not nearly as warm as Southern California (where I’m from, I was a UCLA undergrad.)
At Berkeley, you can go watch football games in an ancient stadium (ok, 1920s) that sits atop an active earthquake fault (the Hayward Fault). But it’s a beautiful setting and is one of the prettiest places to watch college football in my opinion. And the football team is actually good now.
If you do go there, get ready to make these distinctions:
You will be attending Berkeley, not UC Berkeley. Check the URL. All the other UC schools are UC (insert name here).
The athletic teams are called Cal or California. Just because.
You would not be attending the principal campus of the University of California. All 10 campuses are co-equal. Just don’t tell people in Berkeley that.
I graduated in 2001 from the College of Engineering (EECS).
Giraffe and BobT both made good posts. Especially the bit about housing being expensive–I payed $450 a month to rent a livingroom, which I, well, lived in. Total rent for the 2-bedroom apartment was around $1500 a month–it was about a 20 minute walk from Campus. Slightly longer if I had to step over a greater-then-average number of street people (I was right off of Shattuck).
The best thing about attending Berkeley is that it’s in Berkeley, which is smack in the middle of the Bay Area. Oakland is just south, and San Francisco is a quick ride on the BART (public transportation is superb–you won’t need a car).
One “con” that you may want to look into is class size. The undergraduate classes can be huge. There’s one building (Pimental, IIRC) that is a lecture hall, and nothing else. The entire building is an enormous stadium that seats several hundred students. There are several other large auditoriums. I had previously taken classes at a community college, and was a bit shocked at first (and, IMHO, the community college courses were often better then the Berkeley courses, because of the class size. You don’t need a world-class researcher to teach you the basics.).
Once you get into the more sparsely attended upper-division classes though, it rocks.
Total rent for the 2-bedroom apartment was around $1500 a month–it was about a 20 minute walk from Campus. Slightly longer if I had to step over a greater-then-average number of street people (I was right off of Shattuck).