If you’re thinking about what university to attend, congratulations! You’ve probably thought all semester long about what college life will be like, how it’ll feel to be far from home, and how the heck you’re going to get through these very important college years.
If you’re thinking of attending UC Berkeley, hello there! This guide is for you. I attended UC Berkeley from August 2015 to May 2019 studying a double major in computer science and economics and boy, was it a wild ride.
In my opinion, the UC Berkeley “experience” is overhyped and unnecessarily difficult. If after reading this review, you’re still gung-ho about attending, then check out my ultimate guide to make the most of your years at UC Berkeley. Without futher ado, here’s my ultimate review on why I don’t think Berkeley is the best fit for everyone.
There’s just too many students.
This is really the root of the problem. UC Berkeley enrolls roughly 31,000 undergraduates at any given time. When you attend UC Berkeley, you’re fighting with 31,000 other students over the same resources, including:
- Financial aid
- On-campus housing
- Limited class space
- Instructors/Tutors
- Club organizations
If you attend Berkeley, you’re guaranteed to face competition around every corner. Everyone is fighting for the same resources and that you’re not going to get a lot of individual attention.
Out-of-state and international student tuition is too high.
If you’re not a resident of California, expect to pay about $43,000 in tuition every year. This isn’t much cheaper than the tuition you would pay at a prestigious private university:
You may as well invest in the best college and get more one-on-one individual attention, which will be helpful for:
- Asking for letters of recommandation or references
- Asking for help during office hours
- Figuring out the best classes to take
- Planning the best class schedule
It becomes increasingly harder to make new friends.
UC Berkeley has a housing shortage, so incoming students are only guaranteed housing on-campus their first year. This first year in the dorms, especially the first few weeks, is the absolute best time to start making friends. If you miss this opportunity, it’s only going to get harder to meet people once you live in an apartment and only see the same few people day after day.
Class registration is incredibly competitive.
Because class space is limited and there’s so many students, there’s a chance you won’t get in. You’ll have to try again next semester. Class enrollment is staggered on a priority system so that the people graduating sooner (upperclassmen) can sign up for classes they need to graduate. Here’s the order of priority:
- Regents Scholars and Athletes.
- Seniors.
- Juniors.
- Sophomores.
- Freshmen.
It will take 1-2 tries to get into some of the more popular classes on campus, which can be disappointing and frustrating.
Organizations are competitive and hit or miss.
The clubs at Berkeley can be very cliquey. Some of the larger clubs/organizations on campus have two, three, or even four rounds of behavioral or technical interviews before inviting you to join. In order to get into these organizations you need to have strong interview skills or an inside connection. The same goes for sororities and fraternities. These organizations also involve hazing, which is frowned upon but continues to happen in secret. The harder the organization is to get into, the more likely it is to involve hazing.
Other organizations are “shells” created for people who want officer positions to pad their resumes with.
Finally, there are some really great organizations on campus that are friendly, passionate, and for a good cause. Consider yourself lucky if you find an organization like this.
More often than not, you’ll find nice people in all types of organizations but you’re not going to get to know them very well.
Many professors are not great teachers.
UC Berkeley professors are not hired on their ability to teach, they’re hired on their ability to do great research. While some professors possess both skills, you will inevitably have to take some classes where the professors are less than stellar.
Not all classes at UC Berkeley are standardized and some professors have harsher grading policies than others. There are also some professors that write unreasonably tough exams or are overall incredibly unenthusiastic about teaching and it shows.
Students often choose to avoid classes with bad professors, but what happens if that class is a graduation requirement? Sometimes you really just have to grin it and bear it.
Your GPA can easily slip.
Unlike teachers in high school, professors in university don’t care if you don’t attend their classes, do the homework, or do well on exams. Your success relies 100% on your own self-discipline and time management skills. This is true for any university, but especially true at large universities like UC Berkeley where none of your professors will even know your name.
If you do end up falling behind in your classes, it can be incredibly hard to catch up. For this reason you rarely see anyone with a 4.0 GPA at Berkeley, no matter what their major.
This is not the place to attend if you’re pursuing higher education past a BA or BS.
I don’t recommend attending here if:
- You are pre-med or pre-law. The course material for these careers is pretty standard, no matter what university you go to. If you graduate from UC Berkeley with a low GPA, it will hurt your chances of getting into a good medical or law school.
- You plan on applying for a Masters, MBA, or PhD program straight out of college. Similarly, if you’re planning to pursue higher education, the competitive classes at Berkeley will make it hard for you to keep a high GPA and obtain personalized references.
In fact, I would really only recommend Berkeley to high schoolers who are planning to study Computer Science or Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at UC Berkeley and find a high-paying job as a software engineer in the industry immediately after graduation.
UC Berkeley isn’t really transfer or international student friendly.
If you’re planning to transfer to UC Berkeley, it’s going to be hard. I’ve seen many transfer students take too many classes their first semester here and become overwhelmed by the difficulty and workload. The support system is also subpar. While there are some programs for transfer students to get used to life at Berkeley, what ends up happening most of the time is that transfer students really only get to know other transfer students. The same goes for international students. There are a lot of international students at UC Berkeley, but they mainly end up forming tight cliques with people from similar backgrounds.
You’d think that at a large school like Berkeley, it would be easier to find people with similar interests and make friends. This isn’t always the case. If you do find someone you want to be friends with, you have to actively find time to meet up with them and maintain that friendship.
Main Takeway
I regularly advise students from my high school on whether UC Berkeley is a good fit for them. Honestly, unless you’re planning to become a software engineer, I would say you could get similar value out of an education elsewhere with minus the stress and crippling existential crisis I and many other students experienced at Berkeley.
That isn’t to say you can’t have a great university experience. Check out my comprehensive guide to get the most out of your university experience. My guide is relevant to any university, but is especially important for anyone trying to get the most out of college life at UC Berkeley.
If there are any fellow Bears here, feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments! No two people’s college experience is the same, and I’m interested to know what your experience at Berkeley was like.
